What is it that causes people to mis-say or mis-pronounce certain words?
For example, when I was in the wireless industry one of our most popular phones was the Nokia. There were a few people who consistently called it a “Nokiddia,” or some similar variation. They’d throw a ‘d’ or a ‘t’ in at random. They weren’t joking.
I worked with someone who always called “analog” “antilog.” “Analog” was a word she heard, or saw in print, a thousand times a day.
Some people call the internet the “internets,” with an S.
Admittedly, the one thing these people had in common was they weren’t the sharpest tools in the shed. But how do they come up with stuff like that?
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We aren’t pronouncing internet wrong, it’s just a slang term or meme that has spread.
@jca Why wouldn’t it be? Misspeak. Missay. Mispronounce.
Well, all “mis’-were hyphenated to begin with! We just got rid of them over the years. Just like all contractions currently have an apostrophe in them. We may be rid of those too in the next hundred years.
Well some people have accents that causes that, like some people say “warsh” as wash. Also sometimes a word doesn’t sound right in someone’s mind, so they come up with a way that does sound right to them.
You know what really grinds my gears? When people emphasize the “h” in words like “wHat”, and “wHen”. Really annoying!
@erichw1504 I find that really annoying too. I wish people would stop doing that, but most people have gotten into such a habit of it that they can’t stop. People are annoying.
@laineybug: I have heard “warsh” and it makes me laugh!
@jca I know someone that says “warsh”. When we had to do a worksheet on George Washington in my history class he accidentally wrote George Warshington. I found it hilarious.
Add to your list an English teacher who can’t say “excerpt” (it’s always “eppsert”) and another who said “efisode” instead of “episode.”
I can tell you why one former co-worker said “presspiration” because I asked her once when I couldn’t stand it any longer. It was to disguise the word a little bit because “perspiration” isn’t a very nice word. (If she’d have said “sweat” aloud, I think she’d have been struck dead on the spot.) I’d be willing to bet that she also hid the end of the toilet paper roll for the same reason.
“Warsh” is a pronunciation heard in some areas of the U.S. My friend from Pennsylvania used to say it that way. There are many such learned regionalisms and dialects that are standard in entire area populations, and those seem different to me from an individual massacre of a word.
@Jeruba Yes, dialects again. The reason we can’t change everything to fahnicks. I say warsh, as well. My son once asked me “Why do we say warsh instead of wash?” That’s the way my Mom and Dad always said it.
I find myself tripping over caveat, always trying to add an r.
How about ‘nukular’? I’m sure some is automatically said without thinking, but it does speak to laziness maybe. My youngest daughter thought we should get a pint of ice cream one day when she was about 10. She had only read it in books because we’re metric so she didn’t use the long i sound. She still laughs about the quick look she got from me and my mom.
I get irritated with “nucular” and “realator”... my husband’s uncle says “varely” instead of “barely”. Bugs the shit out of me. Read the damn word and say it right. Ugh.
@Dutchess_III It ain’t “the internets”, it’s “da interwebz”, git it right!
Some people are repeating what they’ve heard other people say, and they’re not aware that they’re mispronouncing words at all.
What’s ironic is, I hear a lot of words use incorrectly from people trying to project an image of being articulate. I’m guessing, of course, but it seems that people who read (books) are less likely to develop this habit.
The rule-making process in our brains.
The handling of exceptions requires an additional effort.
Sometimes, it is for emphasis, such as my cousin who always says “That’s your pee rogative”.
Actually, @SABOTEUR I read a LOT and that fact sometimes trips me up. Like, without thinking I’ll say “He was a colonel in the army,” but “colonel” comes out as “Call On All” rather than “Kernel.” I catch it immediately after I say it, and I’m embarrassed. I guess I had the written word and the assumed pronunciation of it firmly implanted in my brain, probably by the age of 8, long before I ever tried to use it in speech.
We seem to keep having these clashes
What I said wasn’t a dig to you, it was another circumstance relating to the mispronunciation of words. I’ve heard numerous people say something like mens (adding “s” to men – meaning more than one man) that has nothing to do with what you describe.
Really, Duchess II, you gotta stop taking what I say so personally. Sometimes people just make an observation or state a personal viewpoint. It doesn’t necessarily mean what they say is right and they don’t always mean something offensive.
Believe me, if I wanted to offend, I could say a lot worse than “you don’t read books”.
I made sure I phrased my viewpoint very carefully, and if I remember correctly I started my perspective off with “some people”. If “some people” doesn’t apply to you, you might choose to simply ignore my statement.
So for the second time…lighten up!
@SABOTEUR No no no nononon no! Lets start over. I didn’t see what you said as a dig to me! I read a LOT. And I agree with you that people who don’t read a lot probably don’t have as wide of a vocabulary as people who do read, or aren’t introduced to the nuances like you mentioned…they might use “mans” instead of “men”. I agree with you. I was just pointing out that sometimes reading a lot (as I do) can trip a person up too. Like…you’re talking to someone, just flowing and you suddenly try to use a word that you’ve read for years, you know exactly what it means, but you’ve never actually said it outloud. And suddenly you stop dead in your tracks because you don’t know how the word is actually pronounced!
Being an avid reader also trips me up when I read billboards. I’ll glance at it, reading the whole thing at a glance, then have to do a double take. Like…Oh! It didn’t say “Take sex minutes out of your life for a blood pressure check.” Like that.
Alright…I stand corrected.
Getting a little testy…it might be time for me to leave Fluther for a spell…
Have a good evening!
On another note, it is so much easier to say Febuary and Wensday.
@Dutchess_III my mom did that once. She told us that when she was little she read voila as viola and said it like that until someone corrected her.
@laineybug LOL! When I was a kid, I read gazebo as “gaze bow”. It’s adorable what kids will mispronounce, or read wrong.
It’s all good @SABOTEUR!
When I read “Uniformed officers,” or “Uniformed anything” it translates into “Uninformed….” in my head. I don’t know if that goes back to my 70’s show when we pretended we didn’t like Da Man. OR maybe it’s profound! IDK. It IS 4:20, btw. In case you were wondering.
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