# Vij-in-etts? Or, Spokespeople should learn to speak. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 6, 2005, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vij-in-etts-or-spokespeople-should-learn-to-speak/293235 "2005-03-06T19:48:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 8:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vij-in-etts-or-spokespeople-should-learn-to-speak/293235/21 "2005-03-07T08:36:07Z")
OK, how does one pronounce _hyperbole_. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vij-in-etts-or-spokespeople-should-learn-to-speak/293235/22 "2005-03-07T13:54:24Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > OK, how does one pronounce _hyperbole_. ex-aj-er-ay-shun. Just kidding. high-PER-buh-lee. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vij-in-etts-or-spokespeople-should-learn-to-speak/293235/23 "2005-03-07T14:50:43Z")
Not hyper-bowl then? Damn. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vij-in-etts-or-spokespeople-should-learn-to-speak/293235/24 "2005-03-07T16:58:22Z")
I just wait for the day _onomatopoeia_ will make it into news stories. I will be ready to laugh. [sub]I love that word.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vij-in-etts-or-spokespeople-should-learn-to-speak/293235/25 "2005-03-07T17:04:18Z")
I’ve heard “Sie-ner-gy” from business-leader-type people before. No better way to show you don’t know what a buzzword even means. ---
**Author:** ![Madd\_Maxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Madd\_Maxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Madd_Maxx)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vij-in-etts-or-spokespeople-should-learn-to-speak/293235/26 "2005-03-07T19:23:35Z")
There is a Havre de Grace, MD which is right up the road from my old place. So **I** (and many other Baltimorians) know how to pronounce it just fine thankyouverymuch. Brett Fah-va-ra de Grace. ---
**Author:** ![catsix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@catsix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catsix)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vij-in-etts-or-spokespeople-should-learn-to-speak/293235/27 "2005-03-07T20:13:53Z")
I heard one tale of a guy who moved to Hawaii and spent ages trying to figure out what the OO-ha-ool did before someone finally said to him, ‘You idiot. That’s U-haul.’ ---
**Author:** ![akira5822](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/53a042/32.png) [@akira5822](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/akira5822)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vij-in-etts-or-spokespeople-should-learn-to-speak/293235/28 "2005-03-07T20:20:21Z")
Thanks Johnny, i needed that !!! ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vij-in-etts-or-spokespeople-should-learn-to-speak/293235/29 "2005-03-07T21:27:08Z")
My roommate’s BF in college said “fa/kade/ey” for facade. Didn’t appreciate being corrected either (GF did the correcting). Also, I have a co-worker who says en-yoo-ey for ennui… :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![RancidYakButterTeaParty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/53a042/32.png) [@RancidYakButterTeaParty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RancidYakButterTeaParty)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vij-in-etts-or-spokespeople-should-learn-to-speak/293235/30 "2005-03-07T22:15:11Z")
A friend of mine, in regular conversation, tried to break out “tangential”, only he pronounced it “tan-gentile”. I started dying laughing while everyone else looked on. Maybe I need some new friends… ---
**Author:** ![Chairman\_Pow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vij-in-etts-or-spokespeople-should-learn-to-speak/293235/31 "2005-03-07T23:39:46Z")
> [@Leroy Brown](#): > > The answer was given in English. Does that answer your question? I suppose I should have asked, “is English the first language of the people asking?” If **Chairman Pow** (native English speaker) says, [whatever you typed] because I thought it was a Hawaiian word and that’s how I thought it should be pronounced, it’s funny. If **Chairman Pavel** , (native Czech speaker in whose language every letter is prononunced (and pronounced only one way) and doesn’t speak English except for a few pre-trip Berlitz phrases) tries to “transliterate” it verbally, then it’s not funny. ---
**Author:** ![Chairman\_Pow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Chairman\_Pow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chairman_Pow)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2005, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vij-in-etts-or-spokespeople-should-learn-to-speak/293235/32 "2005-03-07T23:42:45Z")
I had a boss who was pleased with his ability to “unindate” people with emails, faxes, phone calls, making himself such a nusiance that they’d have to pay attention to him. ---
**Author:** ![Peyton\_Farquhar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Peyton\_Farquhar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peyton_Farquhar)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2005, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vij-in-etts-or-spokespeople-should-learn-to-speak/293235/33 "2005-03-08T00:59:11Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Not hyper-bowl then? > > Damn. There was a _Shoe_ cartoon wherein Skyler (the son or nephew of the perfesser) had to define “hyperbole” in class. He wrote “the annual championship of Madison Avenue”. I heard “aw-ry” recently from some news type on TV. Of course, she never had a chance to play Hamlet. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2005, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vij-in-etts-or-spokespeople-should-learn-to-speak/293235/34 "2005-03-08T01:22:28Z")
> [@eleanorigby](#): > > My roommate’s BF in college said “fa/kade/ey” for facade. Didn’t appreciate being corrected either (GF did the correcting). > > Also, I have a co-worker who says en-yoo-ey for ennui… :rolleyes: Please, Eleanor, save me a trip to my Webster’s- How should I be pronouncing ennui? Or did you fail to indicate a syllabic stress for you cow-orker’s choice? I say EN-you-ee. I once worked with an architect (Tulane) that pronounced “raze” as “razz” and had a structures prof (Northeastern U) that said “col-yoom” for column. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2005, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vij-in-etts-or-spokespeople-should-learn-to-speak/293235/35 "2005-03-08T01:27:49Z")
> [@Ignatz](#): > > Please, Eleanor, save me a trip to my Webster’s- How should I be pronouncing ennui? Mind if I do the honors? It’s pronounced “on-WEE”, with a French pronunciation, where the first syllable isn’t said as “on”, but sort of “auh”. ---
**Author:** ![Leroy\_Brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ad7895/32.png) [@Leroy\_Brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leroy_Brown)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2005, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vij-in-etts-or-spokespeople-should-learn-to-speak/293235/36 "2005-03-08T06:01:34Z")
> [@Chairman Pow](#): > > I suppose I should have asked, “is English the first language of the people asking?” > > If **Chairman Pow** (native English speaker) says, [whatever you typed] because I thought it was a Hawaiian word and that’s how I thought it should be pronounced, it’s funny. If **Chairman Pavel** , (native Czech speaker in whose language every letter is prononunced (and pronounced only one way) and doesn’t speak English except for a few pre-trip Berlitz phrases) tries to “transliterate” it verbally, then it’s not funny. Now that I think about it, I actually read this anecdote in _Czech Surfer Monthly_ April 1982, if memory serves. It was in the article “Berlitz phrases all longboarders should know.” I’m aware now that I took it completely out of context and that indeed, after applying your humor litmus test, it is not funny. Not one bit. I’m sorry if I offended you. I really should know better. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2005, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vij-in-etts-or-spokespeople-should-learn-to-speak/293235/37 "2005-03-08T08:41:06Z")
It’s really awful when you are an English teacher and slip back into childhood pronunciations of words. _Deluge_ pronounced as if it rhymed with “sludge” got me laughed out of the house. But the worst was a mispronunciation of a common word that I did not get straight until I was in my mid-twenties! Do you know what _trilldrun_ are? They are people under the age of twelve. What do you expect from someone whose mother plays the _pie-anna_? ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2005, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vij-in-etts-or-spokespeople-should-learn-to-speak/293235/38 "2005-03-08T09:14:11Z")
I got quite a chuckle out of my family too, when I was 11 or 12 years old and asked the meaning of a word I hadn’t encountered before. My question sounded like, “What does ‘a dole cent’ mean?” My father: “I don’t know, how do you spell it?” Me: “A-d-o-l-e-s-c-e-n-t.” I had a friend about the same time who, upon encountering the word ‘Egypt’ for the first time, thought it was pronounced “Edge wipe it.” 😃😃😃😃😃 Ahh…the good old days. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2005, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vij-in-etts-or-spokespeople-should-learn-to-speak/293235/39 "2005-03-08T10:42:11Z")
I mentioned this in a similar thread, but it bears repeating here. My wife’s folks aren’t the most literate people you’d ever meet. When my wife was doing a public school project, she came across the word “melancholy.” She asked them how to pronounce it, and they didn’t know, but they made a guess. So she read her essay out loud in class, saying that word like it’s spelled - me-LAN-chully. She says it was that humiliation that inspired her to become the first member of the family to go beyond high school. She has both a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree now. (Actually, she turned down an invitation to attend Harvard…) ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2005, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vij-in-etts-or-spokespeople-should-learn-to-speak/293235/40 "2005-03-08T19:12:05Z")
I remember a witless english teacher in high school who pronounced Leper as Leaper to the great amusement of the students. Another Maryland thing is that on the Delmarva Peninsula one can find Wicomico and Worcester counties. My Delmarvan friend let me know that I was really showing my DC origins by saying “Wik-koh-MOH-koh” and “Wor-chest-er” instead of “Wye-COM-i-co” and “Wooster.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vij-in-etts-or-spokespeople-should-learn-to-speak/293235.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/vij-in-etts-or-spokespeople-should-learn-to-speak/293235.md?page=3)