Did anyone else hear about that woman who got screwed over on Wheel of Fortune over her accent?

That sucks. Maybe the contestants are told they need to enunciate the word well? Still, it seems she should have been given a little latitude.

She chose the g. She knew it ended with a g. I think she was screwed. We all have different pronunciations.

@JLeslie I agree. She was from florida and the judges knew what she meant. Even the contestant who did get the puzzle right agreed that the woman got screwed over.

@chyna I know. It would be different if they asked her to spell it out and it ended with a “g”, but that wasn’t the case. People from all over have different accents.

I think it is odd she said Florida is the reason. I lived there for about 14 years and I don’t remember people dropping the G. I wonder what part of Florida? I guess her family and community might be old Florida.

@JLeslie Perhaps so.

Nope. Never heard of her. Any reason I should have?

I was prepared to be outraged by this, but then watched it on video. It doesn’t sound like she has an accent at all – and once she said it, she corrected herself, as if she realized she screwed it up.

@wundayatta I just noticed it on yahoo and I thought that it was a pretty crappy way to treat a contestant.

At first I thought so as well, but then I realised that I would do the same to anyone who pronounced a ‘t’ as a ‘d’. Like in ‘wader’.

For the record – it’s not about her accent.

This doesn’t have anything to do with an accent. It has to do with the fact that instead of saying “swimming”, she quoted the song lyrics and said “swimmin’”. She doesn’t have an accent. She messed up and dropped the g. Past contestants have lost the round for mispronouncing words also, so I really don’t understand why people would be so upset and bash the WOF judges for their decision. You have to pronounce the puzzle correctly, or you don’t win, period.

@WillWorkForChocolate Exactly. I think a lot of people are making a judgment on this under the assumption that the woman actually has an accent, i.e. without actually watching the tape.

It would be a dialect I guess, but no matter what poor pronunciation. If she can spell it she should be able to say it. But, then again my mom would say idear instead of idea, and a friend of mine would say warsh instead of wash.

@zensky Then what is it about?

It’s been explained every which a way. It’s not that you are miles off – it’s a question of terminology.

Accent: In linguistics, an accent is a manner of pronunciation peculiar to a particular individual, location, or nation.

Pronunciation: Pronunciation refers to the ability to use the correct stress, rhythm and intonation of a word in a spoken language. A word can be spoken in different ways by various individuals or groups, depending on many factors, such as: the area in which they grew up, the area in which they now live, if they have a speech or voice disorder,their ethnic group, their social class or their education.

Had she pronounced the word correctly, she would’ve won.

And those were 60 seconds on the difference between pronunciation and accent. Glad to be of service.