this post was submitted on 29 Jan 2024
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Showerthoughts

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Just based on how often I notice someone mispronounce a word without realizing it (or have done so myself and realized it later). Statistically I'm probably still doing it with some word.

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[–] [email protected] 51 points 10 months ago (5 children)

Welcome to the world of Irish names!

We got:

  • Dearbhla (Derv-la, f)
  • caoilfhionn (kee-lin, f)
  • Meadhbh (Maeve, f)
  • Saoirse (seer-shuh, f)
  • Seoirse (shor-shuh, m)
  • Caoimhín (kee-veen, m)
  • Sadhbh (sive, f)

And many more!

[–] [email protected] 13 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Hope do you pronounce Siobhan?

[–] [email protected] 25 points 10 months ago (5 children)
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[–] [email protected] 42 points 10 months ago (13 children)
[–] [email protected] 33 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I believe it's pronounced "wstr"

[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Close, that's Worcester. Worcestershire is "wstrshr"!

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 28 points 10 months ago (2 children)

One of my friends once called me pedantic, and I got to correct his pronunciation of it - he stressed the first syllable. One of the high points of my life.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Someone is peDANTic, but they themselves are a PEdant. Probably why they made that mistake

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 10 months ago (13 children)
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[–] [email protected] 24 points 10 months ago (3 children)

A "niche" is not a "nitch"

[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago (11 children)

You're a bit too late for trying to complain about that one.

The latter has been the dominant American pronunciation of the word for so long that it now appears as the primary pronunciation guide in American dictionaries.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago

Both Oxford English Dictionary and Merriam-Webster agree that "nitch" was the correct pronunciation in both British and American English until very recently. You already linked Merriam-Webster, so here's O.E.D:

N.E.D. (1907) gives only the pronunciation (nitʃ) /nɪtʃ/ and the pronunciation /niːʃ/ is apparently not recorded before this date. H. Michaelis & D. Jones Phonetic Dict. Eng. Lang. (1913), and all editions of D. Jones Eng. Pronouncing Dict. up to and including the fourteenth edition (1977) give /nɪtʃ/ as the typical pronunciation and /niːʃ/ as an alternative pronunciation. The fifteenth edition (1991) gives /niːʃ/ in British English and /nɪtʃ/ in U.S. English.

(N.E.D is the original name of the O.E.D. "/nɪtʃ/" is pronounced "nitch" and /niːʃ/ is pronounced "neesh".)

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 10 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (9 children)

For me it isn't "some" word it is "many, many" words.

charcuterie (shar-KOO-terr-ee) (TIL)

potable (POH-tah-bull)

prerogative (preh-ROG-ah-tiv) -- wait, wat? Damn. I say it (pur-OHG-ah-tiv)

preternatural (pree-ter-NAT-chur-al)

remuneration (reh-myoo-ner-AY-shun) -- I'm not admitting how I say it lol

surprise - let's just say I spelled it suprise for ages. sigh

victual (vittle) - wait, that's how you spell it??

Indefatigable (IN-dih-FA-tih-gə-bl) not in-dee-fa-TEEG-able

Primer: \PRIMM-er\ -- small book / short informative piece of writing. (Brits can use long-i for both the paint undercoat and the book).

Mischievous: \MISS-chuh-vuss\ though mis-CHEE-vee-us is a non standard alternate pronunciation.

Interlocutor: \in tuhr LOCK you tore. I had no idea how to pronounce this so I never said it.

I think some "mispronunciations" are down to regional pronunciation. Like, I say miniature as MIN-ih-chure by habit though I'm well aware of how it's spelled and "should" be pronounced. I swear that's how I heard it growing up.

Maybe it isn't regional and it is just me. That would explain some things lol.

And uh, yeah I have a bunch more, some I know but am forgetting at the moment. Undoubtedly I mispronounce many more while having no idea. What must people think of me? Lol

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago (5 children)

Look, I was on board until you started throwing out made up words like preternatural, victual, and indefatigable, then I knew you were pulling my leg.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 10 months ago (12 children)
[–] [email protected] 25 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'll concede aluminium when the Brits adopt platinium

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

theyll adopt aluminum as soon as you wrap your lips around a fag

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Don't threaten ME with a good time.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 10 months ago

I was like 25 when I found out it was wheelbarrow and not wheelbarrel

[–] [email protected] 19 points 10 months ago (4 children)
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[–] [email protected] 18 points 10 months ago (14 children)
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[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (8 children)
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[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago (3 children)
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[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (6 children)

Worcestershire.

Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiasis.

I must be pronouncing them right enough for voice to text to understand me because I certainly cannot spell those.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago (7 children)

Not exactly related to the question, but as a non-native English speaker, whenever I read something related to weights in imperial, e.g., 150 lbs, my mind reads it as 150 lubes.

I know it's pounds, if I would read it out loud, I would say pounds cause I'm not a weirdo (well...). But still, my internal monologue has lbs = lubes

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I feel you. My inner voice reads this as "libs".

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I hear so many people pronounce "cavalry" as "calvary," which is a different word altogether.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

A coworker of mine always says chipolte it boils my guts

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (6 children)

I pronounce Chipotle with the same emphasis as Aristotle

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago (11 children)

For the C/C++ nerds: Clang. There are still many people pronouncing it "Cee-lang".

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Wait but...but that means I'm supposed to pronounce it like the sound of slamming metal doors? but it's for the C language!

am I seriously getting gif'd again?

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I made the mistake of pronouncing epitome as "ep-i-tome" for a while.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago (5 children)

Mine was "daschund". I always thought that was a separate breed from a "doxen".

Even after being educated on how the word is actually pronounced, I still purposefully pronounce it literally "daschund". Fuck 'em - should've spelled it better.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Hyperbole, not ‘hyper-bowl’ (like superbowl)

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago (1 children)

superbowl like su-perb-owl?

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I had a roommate in college that pronounced "epitome" like "epi-tohm." He also pronounced "tome" like "toom." Drove me nuts.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago

As a non native EN speaker, this website helped a lot. Even has regional variants

https://youglish.com/

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

You could record the times when you find out a new word that you've been pronouncing wrong. You should notice less and less new mispronounced words as your list of known mispronounced words gets longer and longer. If you graph the data out, you can extrapolate the curve out to infinity, and you can estimate how many total words you're mispronouncing.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It took me a long time before I found out how pilates was actually pronounced

[–] [email protected] 20 points 10 months ago (3 children)
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[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago

Arist-ot-le

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (1 children)

So swaive vs suave or deboner vs debonair? Maybe 'fisticated vs sophisticated? You could be a swaive, deboner, 'fisticated urbane 'burban urbanite.

Personally, I blame the French for the short comings of the English language, just because I randomly can.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I once spoke with a Southerner about favorite books. They recommended a series they called "The Will of Time".

Only later I found out they were talking about The Wheel of Time.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (3 children)
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