Terminalcoffee discussion

I have a ton. I have a larger reading vocabulary than I do speaking vocabulary, and this disconnect is often hilarious.

There are some words, such as: psuedo, specificity, epitome, mortgage, pants, which I say constantly in my mind whilst reading but never, ever aloud. Then in conversations I actually mispronounce habitually.

One of my professors seems mildly amused by this, but is thankfully helpful in providing the correct pronunciation immediately.
Sweeter just chuckles and repeats the shenanaigan. He used to keep a list.

I have the same problem, Sally. And some words are just asking to be mispronounced. Like indict. And mores, in the sense of customs.

I call it my idiolect.

Pants?

I hate when people say "jewl-ER-y" or "real-A-tor". It's "JEW-el-ry" (or even JUL-ry) and "REAL-tor." The latter is only two syllables, people.

My sister can explain it different/better than I can. But somehow I say it with a long a intead of a short one. or something.

Like "paints"?

Paaaahnts vs paynts.

I have this issue, too. I read a lot more than I speak some of the words in context. I may have mentioned this before, but I will avoid the words "grandiose" and "cuisine" in conversation because I'll mess them. Luckily I can usually substitute "arrogant" and "food" or something similar:)

Some of these pronunciation issues are regional and dialectial though, right? Right? RIGHT?

Oh, "Harass" is one that throws me, too. Some people say it more like "harris" except real fast, it seems, and some people seem to say "her-ass". Although I bet the latter never thought of it that way:)

I have noticed over the past few years (and I think it has something to do with my medication) that in journaling (which is where I do the most writing) and in emails or other places online I have begun writing in homophones for words I mean to write. It's quite frustrating and I have to go back and edit anything that's going to actually be read by someone else. I don't bother editing my journal, of course, but if I catch myself I'll scratch something out. You can go back through my journal over the past few years (and I have!) and see the progression of this problem. I also just leave words (and sometimes several words) out. This all bothers me a great deal, so much so that I'm thinking about getting off my medication.

Sally, this reminds me of the time my cousin was laughing about a wedding invitation she'd just gotten in the mail. It was for a guy she knew. He was marrying a woman named Penelope. Jeannie said, "What a stupid name! Who would name their kid Penny-lope?!!" I told her it was "Pen-EL-Oh-Pee," and we both had a good laugh over that.

And then there was the time my sister's friend was making fun of the new restaurant that popped up near our homes... "Why would anyone name their restaurant "SPAHHJ(sounds like "spaz")-UH-tees?!!"

I told her it was called "Spaghetti's" because it was an Italian restaurant.

Mindy's a homophone!

I actually knew someone named Penelope who pronounced it Penny-lope.

One of my neighbors was explaining how her last name was pronounced. (It's Bement.) She said it's BEE-ment. Just like CEE-ment.

I had to laugh, because where I came from the word is pronounced ce-MENT.

But I didn't call the POLE-eese on her.

See, words like "nuclear" and "harass" take on nationwide significance when politicians pronounce them weirdly. I wonder if political figures have to learn the dialect that newscasters do, completely free from regional twangs.

I say who's to say what a correct pronunciation entails? Webster's? How come they get to be the authority? But then I freak out and have to listen to the dictionary.com pronunciation 87 times of "subsequently" and still end up saying sub-SEE-quently in my speech.

i agree with Sally totally. we readers see lots of words in print that we assume we know how to pronounce only to be wrong much of the time. i don't try to be too magniloquent usually unless i am totally sure of what i am saying. best bet it to hang around lots of rednecks so when you say anything other than "ya'll" you sound like a professor. what i HATE is to be corrected mockingly. if i hear someone mispronounce something i never feel the NEED to correct them. if they ask i will try to help usually with an "i think..." type approach. i know what they meant and i am ok with it. my two oldest kids can be grammer/pronunciation cops sometimes.

One of the television news anchors with whom I worked had a weird thing about "detail." She'd always said "You DEE-tail a car, and you get deh-TALES when you want information." She'd correct the reporters every time. I've noticed everyone at that station still pronounces the word as such.

I remember learning something about that in my phonetics class.

And my old drama teacher would correct us when we'd say "HUM-ble"... she said the h was silent and it should be "UM-ble." I still think that when I hear other people say it, but I don't correct them.

What? Really? Was he cockney?

Humble, Texas, is pronounced UM-bul, but I've never known the word to be said that way. Would you therefore say "umility?"

She was full-blooded Texan, Sally, and bitter that her parents wouldn't let her go into acting as a profession. So she became a drama teacher... and a really great one at that.

I went to high school in Houston and don't remember anyone pronouncing Humble, TX that way, Larry... then again, I have selective memory. :) I was never very fond of that region of the Houston suburb - Humble/Atascocita... I had family that lived there (they trained horses for racing), and it always depressed me to visit the area.

I like how mischievous is widely pronounced as miss-CHEEV-ieous when it really should be mischv-ous.

I just have to think of TS Eliot to remember the correct version.

I had cousins who lived there. They all dropped the H. I hate that area, too. People I knew who were born and raised there were all kind of odd (including my uncle's family).

:) That's how I say it. I love that natives of Louisiana pronounce it "LOOZ-ee-ann-a" and people from everywhere else call it "Lou-wee-zee-ann-a."

I have a friend from Connecticut who likes to correct me when I talk about El Dorado, AR (the natives pronounce it "El Door-AY-doh"). I know the traditional Hispanic pronunciation is "El Door-AH-doh." Anyone who pronounces El Dorado (El Door-AY-doh) that way (El Door-AH-doh) is considered uppity, though... around these parts.

It drives me crazy when people in Colorado call New Orleans New OR-Leeanz. I like to say Nawlhins.

That's how the natives say it, Sally... N'awlins. I've heard "New OR-lee-uhns," too. That one always leaves me scratching my head.

Poughkeepsie (pronounced puh-KIP-see) is a city in New York.

The Arkansas city of the same name is pronounced pow-KEEP-see.

A suburb of Pittsburg is spelled Carnegie, pronounced car-NAY-gee. It was named after the famous steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, but even the Carnegie Mellon University (in Pittsburgh) is said as CAR-nuh-gee.

I didn't know Arkansas had a town named Poughkeepsie... and I've lived here for 17 years!

Ahhh... no wonder! It's in Sharp County.

Unincorporated community in Sharp County.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poughkee...

We must've crossposted. Yeah... Sharp County is the BFE of Arkansas.

Good one!

You mean as Arkansas is the BFE of the US?

Sharp County, I'll have you know, is God's Green Acres. :)

About 3/4 of my Family Tree file is tied up in Lawrence and Sharp Counties. Fortunately, my parents moved away before I was born ... praise the lord.

TPD: like the word niche -- is either nitch or neesh depending on whom you want to impress.

It bugs me when people pronounce rapport as ree-POR.

I know, I know... and it's not meant to be a dishonor - I LIKE being in BFE US, Larry. People keep it real around here. Not much posing going on, ya know? I went to camp in Imboden, and we did some rope diving into the river on the last day I was there. I loooove driving through that area, esp. Hardy. I give my buddy, Scott, a hard time because he's from Piggott (he calls it the armpit of Arkansas)/Clark County, but Piggott's actually pretty cool.

The way people say "foyer" bothers me. They think they're saying it the correct "French" way when they say foy-ay, but the French pronounce it fwa-yay. I go for the full Anglicization and say it foy-er.

Not that I can think of any relevant examples at the moment, but it seems a quick Frenchified version of any word can be made with an -ay on the end.

Like bidet being pronounced beed-ay.

As in Washlet?

Valet. The English pronounce it as spelled. People in this country say vahl-ay.

Exactly! Larry, you know me so well.

I have issues pronouncing "psuedo" on the spur of the moment. Especially while drinking. It is one of those words that I'm so hyper-aware of the mispronunciation that it slips out half the time. I've learned to roll it right into a mispronunciation banter. Ever since I discovered an English prof. named Sue Doe at CSU I've been better.

But I still sometimes might say "suedo-intellect"

my only real beef is when people say "pacific" instead of "specific". like in "..that pacific one...". here in indiana we say crick for creek and wheelbarra for wheelbarrow. i love it when people try to sound intellegent by making words foreign language sounding. foy-ay. LOL.

Dave wrote: "Valet. The English pronounce it as spelled. People in this country say vahl-ay."

Isn't that because the English hate the French? So they say "fill-et" instead of "fill-ay" and "buff-et" (like Jummy Buffett) instead of "buff-ay."

One word I read but can't pronounce is indefatigable. Too many syllables to know where the stress goes!

My husband's from WV and he says UM-brella. I say um-BRELL-a. He says "color" (CUH-ler) when he means "collar" (CALL-er) and "collar" when he means "color."

It also bugs me when people say "expecially" or "expresso." Especially when a barrista doesn't know how to pronounce espresso.

I thinks it's partly because the English hate the French, but partly because the English love the English.

They tend to Anglicize foreign words.

Sarah, that expresso one REALLY bothers you! ;) I've heard you mention it many times! My old manager at Coffee's On used to (and still does) call it expresso. Grrr!!!

I was in a little coffee place in Lincoln, CA and they had a chalk menu with some of their more popular drinks and how they were made. Every one of them said they were made with "expresso." I let them know they were wrong.

They do make a hell of an espresso milk shake, though.

IN-surance.

So can anyone tell me how to pronounce indefatigable? Is it in-deh-FAT-i-guh-bull?

I pronounce it TIRE-less, Sarah.