Lingual lull, or Febberrary foibles.
- Walden
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Lingual lull, or Febberrary foibles.
We have discussed language evolution in the past, but I see an increasing trend, in the mass-media, toward novel pronunciations.
In the past, we have heard two main pronunciations of February. There are those who say "Feb-brew-ary," and those who say, "Feb-you-ary." This year, I observe an increasing number of announcers and such saying "Febberrary." It is distracting.
Just as when certain news readers decided t pronounce harrassment as "harrisment," these mispronunciations are bound to spread, like a viral epidemic.
"Wh" is rapidly being replaced, by television and radio speakers, with a plain "w," so that, with their typical accent, "when" becomes "win," and "whale" becomes "well." Listening to this sort of talk becomes an exercise in decipherment.
It is not entirely a literacy issue, for example, pronouncing a central "e" in the word "aren't," which is, in fact, supposed to be a contraction of a"re not," in which the only "e" is silent. This clearly comes from reading the word, at some point.
Finally, I will mention one more word that is being widely replaced by a variant. The word "strength" is being pronounced as if it were "strenth," though, thankfully, I have not noticed anyone pronouncing "length," as "lenth."
Am I opposed to dialect? No. I am just distracted by these changes, which, increasingly, are being noted by lexicographers, and, in some cases, even included as alternate pronunciations, in modern dictionaries.
In the past, we have heard two main pronunciations of February. There are those who say "Feb-brew-ary," and those who say, "Feb-you-ary." This year, I observe an increasing number of announcers and such saying "Febberrary." It is distracting.
Just as when certain news readers decided t pronounce harrassment as "harrisment," these mispronunciations are bound to spread, like a viral epidemic.
"Wh" is rapidly being replaced, by television and radio speakers, with a plain "w," so that, with their typical accent, "when" becomes "win," and "whale" becomes "well." Listening to this sort of talk becomes an exercise in decipherment.
It is not entirely a literacy issue, for example, pronouncing a central "e" in the word "aren't," which is, in fact, supposed to be a contraction of a"re not," in which the only "e" is silent. This clearly comes from reading the word, at some point.
Finally, I will mention one more word that is being widely replaced by a variant. The word "strength" is being pronounced as if it were "strenth," though, thankfully, I have not noticed anyone pronouncing "length," as "lenth."
Am I opposed to dialect? No. I am just distracted by these changes, which, increasingly, are being noted by lexicographers, and, in some cases, even included as alternate pronunciations, in modern dictionaries.
Reasonable person
Walden
Walden
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Re: OT: Lingual lull, or Febberrary foibles.
But not as distracting as "nukeler" for "nuclear'.Walden wrote:We have discussed language evolution in the past, but I see an increasing trend, in the mass-media, toward novel pronunciations.
In the past, we have heard two main pronunciations of February. There are those who say "Feb-brew-ary," and those who say, "Feb-you-ary." This year, I observe an increasing number of announcers and such saying "Febberrary." It is distracting.
Are you referring to the placing of the main accent on the first syllable? 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?Just as when certain news readers decided t pronounce harrassment as "harrisment," these mispronunciations are bound to spread, like a viral epidemic.
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. I've never rhymed "well" and "whale", however."Wh" is rapidly being replaced, by television and radio speakers, with a plain "w," so that, with their typical accent, "when" becomes "win," and "whale" becomes "well." Listening to this sort of talk becomes an exercise in decipherment.
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. Even pronunciations that seem quite "substandard" to most of us, like "ax" for "ask" often have a very long history. Your own pronunciation of "harassment" (unlike your spelling of it ) is not substandard, it's just nonstandard.It is not entirely a literacy issue, for example, pronouncing a central "e" in the word "aren't," which is, in fact, supposed to be a contraction of a"re not," in which the only "e" is silent. This clearly comes from reading the word, at some point.
I can't do that one, because I pronounce them as "stringth" and "lingth".Finally, I will mention one more word that is being widely replaced by a variant. The word "strength" is being pronounced as if it were "strenth," though, thankfully, I have not noticed anyone pronouncing "length," as "lenth."
It's been a long time since lexicographers thought that they could prescribe pronunciaiton. All they do now is note trends. If only the US had a nice Academy to dictate language, as France does, perhaps we'd soon hear everyone speaking the dialect of some small town in Iowa. (You know, I tried and tried, but I couldn't come up with the name of even one city in Iowa--not even the capital. Fortunately, my granddaughter is still in high school and was able to name Des Moines on demand.)Am I opposed to dialect? No. I am just distracted by these changes, which, increasingly, are being noted by lexicographers, and, in some cases, even included as alternate pronunciations, in modern dictionaries.
Of course, that's not how the spoken language works. It's a very complex process, and has little to do with official standards--even when such standards actually exist--which they do not in the US.
There are some very interesting changes going on right now in places like Boston and Philadelphia. There are even changes that are increasing pronunciation differences between central Philly and the suburbs. If you're interested in some of the causal factors, R.L. Trask's Historical Linguistics has some interesting info--especially on William Labov's study of internal linguistic changes in the speech of Martha's Vineyard in the '60s. Lyle Campbell's book of the same title also contains lots of relevant data. If you're brave and own flame-retardent garments, you could even bring this up on the sci.lang newsgroup.
Mike Wright
"When an idea is wanting, a word can always be found to take its place."
--Goethe
"When an idea is wanting, a word can always be found to take its place."
--Goethe
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To add to Walden's observation of "strenth" and "lenth"
I am hearing people often leave out the G following an N in words. Especially when this is the end of the word. Cunning becomes Cunneen, etc.
(A note on the above: is the T in often silent or not?)
I am hearing people often leave out the G following an N in words. Especially when this is the end of the word. Cunning becomes Cunneen, etc.
(A note on the above: is the T in often silent or not?)
Unreasonable person,
ants
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ants
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- Bloomfield
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In American English, the T in often is silent. In fact, it's a case of what is called "hypercorrectness" to pronounce it. Same hypercorrectness occurs in pronouncing "clothes" with a th-sound followed by the s-sound. The accepted pronounciation is "clohz" (in the same vein, there is no th-sound in "months").antstastegood wrote:To add to Walden's observation of "strenth" and "lenth"
I am hearing people often leave out the G following an N in words. Especially when this is the end of the word. Cunning becomes Cunneen, etc.
(A note on the above: is the T in often silent or not?)
Last edited by Bloomfield on Fri Feb 20, 2004 12:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
/Bloomfield
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The one that gets me is people who pronounce "err" as if it were spelled "air", or even "error."jbarter wrote:So who keeps saying 'flaccid' to you and why?Bloomfield wrote:I get a kick out of correctly pronouncing words like dour (rhymes with tour, not with sour) or flaccid (flak-sid, not flassid).
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My top two pronunciation peeves:
Police officers (bless them) on the news saying, "At this point AND time.." rather than "IN time.."
"Ice Tea." I don't mind people saying this so much, but I hate it when it's written on menus this way rather than "Iced Tea."
And why can't people figure out the difference between the contraction "it's" and the possesive "its", for Petes sake?
Police officers (bless them) on the news saying, "At this point AND time.." rather than "IN time.."
"Ice Tea." I don't mind people saying this so much, but I hate it when it's written on menus this way rather than "Iced Tea."
And why can't people figure out the difference between the contraction "it's" and the possesive "its", for Petes sake?
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