This is a common phenomenon in linguistics: transposition. You can go into any pharmacy and ask for a “perscription” and they won’t bat an eye. They won’t look down on you, or consider you a slack-jawed yokel. If you expect every person speaking a certain language everywhere in the world to speak the same way you have an unrealistic view of language.
Do you insist that people say [af tən] rather than [af ən]? That’s like expecting everyone in one country to eat the exact same kind of food. Do you expect all Americans to pronounce inter-medial /t/ the same way as though they were announcing on the BBC? What about “water,” versus “bottle,” versus “center”? Even word-final /t/ is typically unreleased when not followed by a vowel sound. It’s language, and just like food, it’s not supposed to be the same everywhere.
And besides, the OP was about phrases, not pronunciation. And about “misuse,” which I take to mean that people say things like “that begs the question” when they really mean, “That raises the question.”
I’ve also run across “persay” in several places lately. It took me several seconds to figure out what the writer was trying to communicate: per se.
:rolleyes:
Yes, people need to read more, and not just text messages! Then they would see the words in written form and not confuse the heck out of the rest of us. Or is this just language in action - changing, evolving, adapting. Heaven help us.
ETA: When my daughter was in middle school many years ago, I came across some of her notes to friends where she used the term “Sike!” I asked her if she knew that wasn’t how it was spelled. She said, yes, but her friends didn’t, so she spelled it the way they would understand it! Apparently it’s now become acceptable as the spelling? Ugh.
Someone on this message board pointed out to me that people often use per se - even when spelt right - to mean something other than “by itself”. I never read it as anything other than that until then, and now everywhere I see it I realize it’s being used wrong about half the time. :mad: