and other observations about pronunciation and the time i bounced a check...
1. people who can't pronounce cities or names of events where weather might occur should not be allowed to be weather girls (or boys). there is no "t" in Wimbledon.
2. people who pronounce Taco Bueno as "Taco Boy-no" should not be allowed to eat there.
3. people who pronounce Miami as "Mia-muh" live in Texas.
4. people who can't pronounce Russian, Finnish or Czech names should not be allowed to call hockey games. say it with me, people: "Let-ih-nin", not "Lay-tinnin".
5. people who bounce checks to the State Board of Public Accountancy should not be allowed to be CPAs. uh, oops.
6. people who pronounce "hurricane" as "hurri-cun" live in Utah.
7. people who call me "Sir Kisser" ... hmm, nevermind, only my classmate Kenric ever called me that, and i thought it was kinda cool. i wonder whatever happened to Kenric.
8. people who pronounce "buttocks" as "butt-tox" are Forrest Gump.
9. people who pronounce "jaguar" as "jag-you-ahhhh" live in England and really should reconsider that pronunciation.
add yer own in the comments, musees.
A southerner writing about pronunciation, hmmmm. What is weird is last night; I decided to start pronouncing Miami - mia- muh. Anyways I decided that everyone pronounces Texas wrong and it should revert to the Mexican way of saying it Tee-haas. Since it is a Spanish word and there is no X sound in the Spanish language.
Posted by: jason of avoca | Tuesday, June 22, 2004 at 02:53 PM
um, that would be teh-haas. not tee. :)
Posted by: sarahk | Tuesday, June 22, 2004 at 03:15 PM
People who pronounce "often" with a "t" should be smacked. It's silent!! Also, it's a "moot" point, not "mute" point!! Whew! I feel better!
Posted by: jonag | Tuesday, June 22, 2004 at 03:56 PM
*smack* - i pronounce the t in often. i didn't always, but for some reason i started. probably because i couldn't stand to see the t ignored like that.
ouch, that hurt, but i'm glad you feel better, jonag. :)
Posted by: sarahk | Tuesday, June 22, 2004 at 04:19 PM
I hate it when people...
...say "utilize" instead of "use," because they think it makes them smarter to use those extra letters.
...use passive voice. Passive voice produces grammatical errors. Get to the point, if you want someone to listen to you without falling asleep.
...confuse "to" and "too," then claim it was a typo. Also see "there," "they're, and "their," or "its" and "it's." If you can't use the language, don't mess with mine.
...write "alot" instead of "a lot." That's illiterate.
...use "since" instead of "because." "Since" indicates the passage of time, "because" establishes causality. Note the difference in the following sentences. "I have been awake since 7:00 this morning." "I woke up because I am a light sleeper." It makes no sense to say "I woke up since I am a light sleeper," or "I have been awake because 7:00 this morning."
...use "may" instead of "might." May implies permission, might implies possibility.
...say "whenever," when they can just as easily say "when." Simplify, simplify, simplify!
Oh, I guess I have a lot of these... So when I utilize alot of big words, since their easy to write, I may get your attention whenever my messages have been posted on your board.
Posted by: Max | Tuesday, June 22, 2004 at 04:36 PM
Okay, that was grammar-cop stuff, not really pronunciation. But I had to get it out, because it was eating my soul.
Posted by: Max | Tuesday, June 22, 2004 at 04:37 PM
My grandparents live to this day in "Mia-muh" Oklahoma, so it's not just a Texas thing.
Posted by: icthus13 | Tuesday, June 22, 2004 at 04:55 PM
ok.... on the pronunciation thing... birFday (along the same lines of thinking, they shouldn't be allowed to have them) LiBARY... oh barry, don't lie... Crick?? don't you get those in your neck? It's not a flowing stream of water..that would be a CREEK.
And just to add to words that annoy... why do people have to throw MOIST into any conversation? Moist. OR.. Ointment. How 'bout you just rub some MOIST OINTMENT on that? anyone else hear nails on a chalk board with that one???
Posted by: Lillian | Tuesday, June 22, 2004 at 06:17 PM
My husband says Happy ValenTIMEs Day. Kind of bugs me but oh well, he's perfect in every other way.
Sarahk, It rhymes with "soften". See, no "t" sound.
Posted by: jonag | Tuesday, June 22, 2004 at 09:02 PM
It drove Pinwheels crazy in Charleston, SC to have people say they were fustrated instead of frustrated.
I, too, am guilty of the "t" in often. I always considered myself grammatically savvy. You learn something new every day.
Posted by: Mrs. Pinwheels | Tuesday, June 22, 2004 at 09:21 PM
Texas has it's share of oft(take that silent T types)butchered words.Sometimes the butchering is done by the natives-but that MAKES it the correct way to say it. Mexia: non- native mex-e-uh,native muh-hay-uh Bexar:non-native bex-ar,native bare.
Speight:non-native spigot,native spate.
I sure am glad I was born in God's country,Texis, not Texus.
Posted by: Colt Springfield | Tuesday, June 22, 2004 at 09:54 PM
One of the songs sang at my church home away from home when I'm at college tries to rhyme the words "Lord" and "Word". It just ain't gonna happen.
Posted by: James P | Tuesday, June 22, 2004 at 11:42 PM
yes, I was going to mention that Mia-muh is the town in Oklahoma and Mia-mee is in Florida. Okies WILL correct you if you don't pronounce it correctly, even in a job interview.(or so I've been told)
Posted by: maggie katzen | Wednesday, June 23, 2004 at 12:42 AM
and how about Feb-you-ary? and my Grama on my mom's side says Hu-wy-ya for Hawaii.
jonag, sometimes i say soften with the "t" too, but only now and then. :)
moist and ointment - yeah, that could make a person uncomfortable.
Posted by: sarahk | Wednesday, June 23, 2004 at 06:38 AM
Pacific instead of specific: "I pacifically asked her to smack the next kid who said fustrated." Argh.
Posted by: Ian | Wednesday, June 23, 2004 at 06:38 AM
The one I HATE the most is the singular "cent" when used with a number value greater than one. "How much is that (coke/soda)?" "Fifty cent."
Aaaaarrrgggghhhhh!
This might be a regional thing, though.
Posted by: Greywolf | Wednesday, June 23, 2004 at 08:47 AM
no, that's not regional, Greywolf. thanks for adding your two cent.
Posted by: sarahk | Wednesday, June 23, 2004 at 09:12 AM
now THAT was funny.... two cent. And I must admit that the ValentiMes Day thing.. that poor, poor man.
On the same BASIC issue.... can we all concur that those who don't know the difference between YOUR and YOU'RE shouldn't be allowed to type??
Posted by: Lillian | Wednesday, June 23, 2004 at 12:11 PM
I don't know about barring people from typing because of their grammar. I have alway excelled at spelling and I've homeschooled my kids for over 7 years now and I still find myself typing "there" instead of "their" when I comment on blogs. I think it's because I hurry and my brain goes on auto-type without editing. Anyway, if we didn't allow bad grammar sometimes, we'd have no Frank J.
Posted by: jonag | Wednesday, June 23, 2004 at 05:13 PM
Let me put in my two cent. alot of you will probly go nuk-a-ler, but I don't think we should make a big deal about it. Sometimes we just say words wrongly.
PS. When did people stop using adverbs and adjectives? "that boy can RUN", "that girl can PLAY". So!? So can everyone else. Are you saying "That boy can run FAST"? "That girl plays well"?
Posted by: rightwingduck | Wednesday, June 23, 2004 at 07:51 PM
fustrated instead of frustrated
axe instead of ask
new-que-ler instead of nuclear (sorry, Rightwingduck, the need to expunge my soul of this irritant was too great to omit it.) ;-)
sim-ewe-lar instead of similar
irregardless instead of regardless (argh!!!)
Wow...that really felt good. My grammar-nazi soul has been cleansed! Thanks, Sarahk!
Posted by: Pam | Thursday, June 24, 2004 at 12:00 AM
Oooooooooo yeah!! The "irregardless" one!! Can't stand that one! Or how about "I could care less". Wrong!! It's "I couldN"T care less". Whew! This HAS been a very cleansing topic! Thanks!!
Posted by: jonag | Thursday, June 24, 2004 at 12:04 AM
the your/you're and other homonyms thing is one of my pet peeves, but for people typing on limited time and without editors, it's understandable. for me, it's so nailed into my skull to subconsciously think about the correct word before typing, but for people not quite so obsessive about grammar, etc., it's just not something they think about. me, i re-read everything i write before i post it, but that's only because i ALWAYS leave sentences hanging open where i've written half the sentence and moved on to something else. if i didn't re-read, everyone would say, "huh?" even more than normal.
i'm not sure i could live in a world where there was no Frank J; i don't know how i made it through the first 3 years of my life. ;)
rightwingduck, don't you mean nuke-a-lur? and what i'm saying is that girl plays that boy who runs fast really well.
Posted by: sarahk | Thursday, June 24, 2004 at 12:05 AM
I have it........... UNTHAW.... "can you grab that hamburger out to unthaw it?"..... aren't we re-freezing?
Posted by: Lillian | Thursday, June 24, 2004 at 02:17 AM
OfTen is just fine. Check out this link, which states:Usage Note: During the 15th century English experienced a widespread loss of certain consonant sounds within consonant clusters, as the (d) in handsome and handkerchief, the (p) in consumption and raspberry, and the (t) in chestnut and often. In this way the consonant clusters were simplified and made easier to articulate. With the rise of public education and literacy and, consequently, people's awareness of spelling in the 19th century, sounds that had become silent sometimes were restored, as is the case with the t in often, which is now frequently pronounced. In other similar words, such as soften and listen, the t generally remains silent."
Posted by: Ian | Thursday, June 24, 2004 at 07:26 AM