Lingual lull, or Febberrary foibles.

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antstastegood
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Post by antstastegood »

Some cliches I hear around school are beginning to annoy me.

Engage: Becoming the most versatile non-coarse word there is.

Various forms of "to tie in to": Intellectually-Correct term for "perhaps has something to do with"

Aware(ness): Apparently means something more than simply knowing the existence of something. Has been used to mean everything from "sympathy for" to "agreement with"

For a little fun with that sort of thing, I found an intelligent-sentence generator. http://www.betterworkplacenow.com/bigwords/
Unreasonable person,
ants
|___|)____________O___O___O___o__O___O_____|
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Walden
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Re: OT: Lingual lull, or Febberrary foibles.

Post by Walden »

Darwin wrote:That's what my 37-year-old American Heritage dictionary shows as the only pronunciation, so the version with the accent on the second syllable (which is what I have) is presumably the "mispronunciation". So, are you willing to change your pronunciation to bring it into accord with the standard?
http://merriamwebster.com/cgi-bin/dicti ... harassment
I've had simple "w" all my life, so I'm glad to see the rest of the country catching up. I originally had every case of accented "en" rhyming with "in" (and "or" rhyming with "ar"), but have modified my pronunciation of these as an adult.
The matter of "w" being substituted increasingly for wh has been noted by linguists, in recent years.
I've never rhymed "well" and "whale", however.
Nor should you. Even if the "h" were knocked off, there is generally a distinction between Wales and wells.
It's not a literacy issue at all. The US has never had a nationwide pronunciation standard--although the broadcast industry has actively tried to promote one through schools for announcers. What you're seeing is local standards that you are not personally familiar with.
Familiar with? Yes, I have been for some time familiar with these erroneous local standards. I lost a point on a spelling test, in grade two, when some teacher mispronounced which as witch.
Even pronunciations that seem quite "substandard" to most of us, like "ax" for "ask" often have a very long history.
Indeed, it is thought that "aks" may predate ask. I read an interesting article, written in the 1940's, on some of these dialectical peculiarities.
Your own pronunciation of "harassment" (unlike your spelling of it :P) is not substandard, it's just nonstandard.
You caught me on the spelling. :)
spittin_in_the_wind wrote:So, how does one pronounce "Uranus"?
Either way, it'll make somebody giggle.
By the way, I was talking to my old Okie grandma one time about her wheat, and she couldn't figure out what I was talking about. She asked me, "Weet? What is that, a bird? Oh, you mean 'hweet'..."
Etymology: Middle English whete, from Old English hw[AE]te; akin to Old High German weizzi wheat, hwIz, wIz white -- more at WHITE

--Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, 2003.
I think it's in the water down there.... :wink:

Robin
Watever. :)
Last edited by Walden on Fri Feb 20, 2004 1:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Nanohedron »

Norma wrote:Once heard someone say..."She went in that genital direction". A newscaster could get in a bit of trouble for that one!
One of the local late-night TV public service ads of yore offered an aid association announced as "Women in Trancision".

Ew.

By the way, Bloo, I like to pronounce "dour" as if it's a bride-price in Brooklyn: daowah. :wink:
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Post by nancymae »

I'm still not over the media pronouncing the planet "Uranus" from how I learned it in school!! OR Harassment....like from the Anita Hill hearinings....

STOP THE INSANTY!!

Nancy
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Post by Nanohedron »

Then there was the newscaster who said something about a "renn dez vauss"...but that was North Dakota, and many moons ago. "Rendezvous" was probably a tad snooty in some circles.
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Post by RonKiley »

My wife's family was from Virginia. My family was from Michigan and Pennsylvania. We have lived in Maryland right outside of DC, Northern Idaho, Seattle, And Newport, RI. I am never surprised at the diferent pronunciations my children come up with. When we first went to Newport I went to a Pizza place and the fellow in front of me ordered a large Peetzer with chureeze. Took me a while to figure that one out.

Ron
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