# Words You’ve Never Heard Pronounced **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 1, 2022, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774 "2022-05-01T22:23:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/101 "2022-05-03T14:06:12Z")
Okay. I’d argue that someone who doesn’t palatize in “sexual” sounds distinctly British, which someone who doesn’t palatize “tree” is barely noticeable and doesn’t imply any particular region. Neither is “meaningful” in the sense of phonemic value (and thus semantic meaning), but one is “meaningful” in how it is part of a larger suite of regional distinctions, and the other is not. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/102 "2022-05-03T14:07:14Z")
OK - that article makes sense. Especially since there is a cluster of “same” right around where my mother grew up in west Texas. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/103 "2022-05-03T14:07:28Z")
My dad sometimes made fun of people on TV who mispronounced difficult words. I had been guilty of the same crime of mispronunciation and I wondered why it happened. It turns out that if you mispronounce a word then you are reading ahead of the people that you associate with. They never use the words so you never learn how to say it. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/104 "2022-05-03T14:10:43Z")
> [@Bonum\_Legatum](#): > > Thanks for pointing this out though. According to an on-line dictionary, it is supposed to be OO-TRA Really? I’ve never heard it pronounced in any way but the French, “oo-tray.” (Yes, I know the real French “é” isn’t a diphthong…and the real “r” is gargled…but you know what I mean). ETA: Maybe that’s what you meant by “OO-TRA” — the “A” there meant to imply the name of the letter (rather than the “ah” sound, which is how most people would read that, I wager). ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/105 "2022-05-03T14:15:48Z")
(Note the “pen/pin merger” is only happening before “n” and “m” — in other words, nasals). ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/106 "2022-05-03T14:30:40Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > (Yes, I know the real French “é” isn’t a diphthong…and the real “r” is gargled…but you know what I mean). Yes, you mean [utʁe] ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/107 "2022-05-03T15:00:34Z")
“Dilletante”, which [google thinks is pronounced “dill uh tahn tay”](https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=dilettante+pronunciation) but I can’t help but think it’s really “dill uh tahnt”. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/108 "2022-05-03T15:02:53Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Yes, you mean [utʁe] I wonder whether Bonum\_Legatum mistook this IPA transcription of the French pronunciation for “utter.” ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/109 "2022-05-03T15:44:40Z")
General/mineral: I always assumed Gilbert was reflecting a usage of the time, either that “gineral” was the standard pronunciation then, or that he was sending up a tight-lipped military style. There’s another issue I just picked up on, in _HMS Pinafore_: Gilbert rhymes “taunts” and “aunts” - but there were other words where Victorians pronounced “au” as “ah” (“launch”\*\* and “laundry”\*\*\*, for example - and then there’s “Jarndyce and Jarndyce” in Dickens’s _Bleak House_) \*\*There’s a newsreel of the Queen Mother talking about “lahnching” a ship \*\*\*My grandmother, according to my mother ---
**Author:** ![Wolf333](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf333/32/3460_2.png) [@Wolf333](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolf333)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/110 "2022-05-03T15:50:41Z")
I had to read this in Les Nesman’s voice to figure it out. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/111 "2022-05-03T16:35:00Z")
It took me decades before I heard victuals pronounced as vittles and not vik-chyoo-elles ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/112 "2022-05-03T17:37:13Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > It took me decades before I heard victuals pronounced as vittles and not vik-chyoo-elles   I always assumed that “vittles” was simply the colloquial or “hillbilly” way to pronounce victuals. Similarly for “critters” == “creatures”. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/113 "2022-05-03T17:39:36Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > epitome   > [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Yosemite   I’m seeing several words mentioned in this thread, the above among them, that are on my list too. Confused minds are confused alike! ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/114 "2022-05-03T18:10:00Z")
So the cat food is “Tender Victuals”? That doesn’t sound right to me at all. They don’t pronounce it that way on the Canadian commercials either, where it rhymes with spittle. Probably tastes like that too. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/115 "2022-05-03T18:13:52Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > “Dilletante”, which [google thinks is pronounced “dill uh tahn tay”](https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=dilettante+pronunciation) but I can’t help but think it’s really “dill uh tahnt” Nitpick: **Dilettante** ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/116 "2022-05-03T18:19:08Z")
And, I clicked the Google link, and it says “American pronunciation: dil-uh-tahnt” (or some such), no “-ay.” That’s as it should be. I’ve never heard it pronounced with an extra vowel in the end (and obviously that isn’t in the original French, either). ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/117 "2022-05-03T19:06:37Z")
Whaa? The Google link you posted is a voice saying “dill-uh-tahnt” exactly as I have always heard it pronounced. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/118 "2022-05-03T19:10:12Z")
For some reason the default for me was the British pronunciation. See the popup over the picture of the face. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/119 "2022-05-03T19:11:03Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Okay. I’d argue that someone who doesn’t palatize in “sexual” sounds distinctly British, which someone who doesn’t palatize “tree” is barely noticeable and doesn’t imply any particular region. > > Neither is “meaningful” in the sense of phonemic value (and thus semantic meaning), but one is “meaningful” in how it is part of a larger suite of regional distinctions, and the other is not. > > YMMV. It is British, though not the way most people say it. It’s very prissy, which is why it especially makes me shudder when it occurs with the word “sexual.” As if they dislike having to say it. Google says di-luh-TAN-tee for British English too, but it definitely is not the way anyone says it, and the OED agrees with me. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2022, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774/120 "2022-05-03T19:20:54Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > epitome I was in my 20s before I figured out that “epitome” doesn’t rhyme with “home”. I mean, I was familiar with the word and I’d heard it pronounced many times, but I didn’t make the connection that the word I was hearing people pronounce “eh-PIT-uh-me”, and the word spelled “epitome” were one in the same. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-you-ve-never-heard-pronounced/963774.md?page=7)