- Joined
- Mar 1, 2010
If I want to annoy people I say "sub-tle" instead of "suttle"
I like to say sub-tile.
If I want to annoy people I say "sub-tle" instead of "suttle"
I like to say sub-tile.
In our cataloguing of the ins and outs of English pronunciation, I've just been reminded that many Americans (can't vouch for anyone else in the English-speaking world) do not pronounce the g in strength. They say "strenth." I just listened to Jennifer Hudson say it that way on an advertisement. If they were told to pronounce the word clearly for a contest, this is how they would pronounce it. There are other people who say "heighth," because they echo the construction of "length" and "width." Cathy Rigby used to pronounce it that way right on international TV, in the Olympics.
I'm working on a lesson on Macbeth currently, and I realized that when I studied it in high school, I, my classmates, and my teacher all pronounced Glamis incorrectly. (Remember "Hail, Macbeth, Thane of Glamis"?) We all said it the way it looks, "Glam-mis," in two syllables. Well, in Scotland and England they pronounce it "Glahms." I'm putting this in our lesson.
In real life, the error I really have to bite my tongue about so as not to correct people (it's so rude to correct other adults) is using the nominative pronoun after a preposition--"with John and I." You wouldn't say "with I," so why say "with John and I"? And yet people do it all the time, even on national television.
About "axe," I am pretty sure that this pronunciation is just what linguists call African American Vernacular English.
I'm fascinated by "axe." I can't for the life of me figure out how it arose.
"Supposibly' and "pacific" one can understand as natural mispronunciations by people who don't do a lot of advanced reading. "Supposibly" parallels the construction of other "able" and "ible" suffixes like "impossibly," and "specific" is just hard to pronounce. But "axe"? Especially since it's typically African-American, not just a mispronunciation that occurs generally or even regionally. Fascinating.
One that used to bother me a lot is "irregardless," which has two negative elements tacked onto it. Do two negatives make a positive? Of course, that's not an error one is likely to find on Wheel of Fortune, because if you're reading the word aloud, you're not going to add an entire prefix that isn't represented by the letters.
In real life, the error I really have to bite my tongue about so as not to correct people (it's so rude to correct other adults) is using the nominative pronoun after a preposition--"with John and I." You wouldn't say "with I," so why say "with John and I"? And yet people do it all the time, even on national television. I listened to Steven Spielberg use that construction last night on TCM, in an otherwise wonderful program on his collaboration with composer John Williams. Dang, I'm presumptuous. I want to correct Steven Spielberg's grammar. I couldn't make five seconds of narrative that would stand comparison with his, and I want to correct him...shame on me. I've been an editor for too long.
Scrufflet, is that a common error in Canada as well, or is it just an American one?
And I always hear "there is" when it should be "there are"
I am jumping up and down shouting, "Oh yes, someone else gets it"! Indeed, this is becoming a Canadian error! The grammar these days on CBC is horrible. It used to be the one place where you could rely on decent grammar and pronunciation! People do say "with John and I" instead of "John and me", whichis correct. One also hears "with myself" a lot. Come shop "with myself". Seriously? My mother used to yell at us if we said "irregardless" so of course we used to do it periodically just to annoy. But we knew it was incorrect! And I always hear "there is" when it should be "there are".
Because I am in Toronto, a very international place, I am so used to many different accents and levels of language skill. I worked at a college with new Canadians and was surprised to find that their English was superior to those born here. Now that really ticked me off.
A humourous aside: one day we were listening to a garden show on CBC and caller complained that squirrels has "desecrated" her flower bed. What could she do? A long silence. The expert suggested that she might have to "reconsecrate" her garden. We presume she meant "decimate".
By the way, Chris and all, how does one pronounce "coyote"? I've always said "keye-oh-tea" because it flows.
How does a southerner say "Four on the Floor"?