Words You Used to Pronounce The Way It's Spelled!

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youngishbear

Sun, Nov 12 2017, 10:10 am

I saw a quote meme once that argued mispronounciation is a sign of intelligence because we get our vocabulary from reading.

Regarding French and other unpronouncables, I take heart from Winston Churchill's alleged claim that "everyone has the right to pronounce foreign names however he chooses." Whether he said it or not is debatable. I will, however, claim that right for myself with obscure foreign words.

To add to zaq's suggestion, all dictionaries contain a pronunciation key, but talking dictionaries do the work for you. You can look up any word online or on dictionary apps and hear it said out loud. The problem is with those words that we don't know we are not pronouncing correctly. It doesn't even occur to us to look those up!

Mommyg8

Sun, Nov 12 2017, 10:18 am

genre. I still don't pronounce it right.

thunderstorm

Sun, Nov 12 2017, 10:24 am

Prodigy- when I read I still pronounce it in my head as pro-de-jee even though I know the real pronunciation.

L K

Sun, Nov 12 2017, 10:27 am

Oh my god!!!
I've been wrong about half of these!
But again, English isn't my first language; and that's what happens when you read words and never hear them spoken. Oh well.

Here's my contribution:
annihilate (I thought it was un-knee-he-late), utensil with accent on the "u."

seeker

Sun, Nov 12 2017, 10:27 am

I had a bunch but I can't remember what they were. I also had that tendency to read above my level as a kid, so that tends to happen a lot.

pause

Sun, Nov 12 2017, 10:28 am

Bizzydizzymommy wrote:

Prodigy- when I read I still pronounce it in my head as pro-de-jee even though I know the real pronunciation.

Isn't that the real pronunciation?

naomi2

Sun, Nov 12 2017, 10:31 am

Ravine
I pronounced it RAY-vin

L25

Sun, Nov 12 2017, 10:32 am

honestly I'm scared to use "big" words for this reason, I'm scared I'll mispronounce them and be made fun of. Big meaning more then a third grade level. I seem to usually get them wrong Sad

I also used to read a lot as a child and did very well on my verbal SAT's but I didn't have to pronounce anything.

I once used a more "slang" version of a word not realizing that the wasn't the "real" word and someone I was with burst out laughing, I was so embarrassed.

it doesn't help that my dc is starting to have a different "accent" then I have due to moving, think of how you pronounce water Wink

I never know if I should pronounce the t in often or not- I know both are technically right but never know what the person I'm speaking to will think.

youngishbear

Sun, Nov 12 2017, 10:33 am

I should do a spin-off. How about those times when you do pronounce a word correctly and no one knows what you mean until you spell it?

Genre, for example.

zaq

Sun, Nov 12 2017, 10:37 am

youngishbear wrote:

I

The problem is with those words that we don't know we are not pronouncing correctly. It doesn't even occur to us to look those up!

That is why the scrupulous—we know who we are—recheck the dictionary every so often for words we know we know. Because we know that we don’t always know what we don’t know.

Occasionally we even discover that a misusage or mispronunciation is in fact a secondary, but still for the time being valid, usage or pronunciation. Over time, such secondary uses and pronunciations may disappear if they’re already on the wane, or become primary if they’re on the rise. That’s why old dictionaries should never be discarded but new ones should be acquired every so often.

Case in point, verbified nouns such as “access” or “impact”, which still make some of us head for the Excedrin Extra Strength. To our dismay, many (but not all) of these nouns-masquerading-as-verbs are now considered acceptable English. All it takes for a term to be legitimized is for enough people to be documented using it a certain way often enough and for long enough a time to satisfy the dictionary editors’ criteria.

I would refer you to the fascinating, if uncomfortably profane, book The Secret Life of Dictionaries for more on the topic, but if you are a word nerd, you have probably already read it. And if you are not, you probably wouldn’t want to. Put it this way: if you’re an Anglo-born person who comes to imamother to ask how to pronounce a word in English, you wouldn’t read this book. If you adore William Safire, you would.

thunderstorm

Sun, Nov 12 2017, 10:37 am

pause wrote:

Isn't that the real pronunciation?

As far as I know it's pronounced: pro(long o sound)- de-jay ... and the "j" is pronounced like the "g" from genre not like a "j" from jam.

youngishbear

Sun, Nov 12 2017, 10:44 am

Bizzydizzymommy wrote:

As far as I know it's pronounced: pro(long o sound)- de-jay ... and the "j" is pronounced like the "g" from genre not like a "j" from jam.

I think you mean protege.

InnerMe

Sun, Nov 12 2017, 10:46 am

bigsis144 wrote:

Awry (I pronounced it AWE-ree instead of uh-RYE)

And here I am still pronouncing it AWEree embarrassed

Though, I don't think I ever use this word in speaking, just the way it sounds in my mind.

thunderstorm

Sun, Nov 12 2017, 10:46 am

youngishbear wrote:

I think you mean protege.

Lol!!! You are right! For some reason I thought it was all the same word... embarrassed

iammom

Sun, Nov 12 2017, 10:46 am

Invalid. I pronounced it exactly how it's written out instead of in-vu-lid.

I a pet peeve of mine is when people say "marine corp" and say the "p" instead of saying it "marine core"

thunderstorm

Sun, Nov 12 2017, 10:48 am

iammom wrote:

Invalid. I pronounced it exactly how it's written out instead of in-vu-lid.

I a pet peeve of mine is when people say "marine corp" and say the "p" instead of saying it "marine core"

Or they say the state of Illinois and pronounce the "s". I was taught that it's a silent "s"

BasMelech120

Sun, Nov 12 2017, 10:52 am

Paradigm

InnerMe

Sun, Nov 12 2017, 10:53 am

zaq wrote:

RAHN day voo
A RANG a tan also A RANG a tang. Really O with a mark over it that I don’t have on my keyboard but few of us have such precise diction that it matters.

Seriously,ladies, there’s a marvelous analog program (also available online with audio) with which you should make yourselves familiar. It’s called a DICTIONARY and it tells you not only how to pronounce words (including secondary, but still acceptable pronunciations) but also their origins and roots, definitions, synonyms and antonyms, and if you’re really lucky, examples of their use in a sentence.

I highly recommend acquiring one. And then USING it. You can trust a dictionary. Unlike certain ill-advised spiritual leaders and educators, dictionaries do not lie. (If they did, they’d be called fictionaries.) And unlike you or your bff, dictionaries don’t guess. They are exhaustively researched, and nothing goes in that does not have ample documentation in print.

Bolded... if you can clue me in, me doesn't understand.

And awesome point re: dictionary!
Only trouble is that some of us (gasp!) don't know how to read all those marks that are supposed to show you how to pronounce. Yeah, I've learned it back in elementary school but never got the hang. I guess these days there are SMART dictionaries. That can talk. And say it for you. Unlike the days of old were you had to embarrass yourself and show the world your ignorance until someone mercifully corrected you. Oh, those were the days of the DUMB.

water_bear88

Sun, Nov 12 2017, 10:53 am

zaq wrote:

I would refer you to the fascinating, if uncomfortably profane, book The Secret Life of Dictionaries for more on the topic, but if you are a word nerd, you have probably already read it. And if you are not, you probably wouldn’t want to. Put it this way: if you’re an Anglo-born person who comes to imamother to ask how to pronounce a word in English, you wouldn’t read this book. If you adore William Safire, you would.

Is it worth buying if I can't find a copy to borrow?

InnerMe

Sun, Nov 12 2017, 10:56 am

moonstone wrote:

When I was a kid, I thought epitome was pronounced eh-pih-tome.

Also, I thought the name Phoebe was pronounced Phobe. (Because like "epitome", I'd only read it, not heard it said aloud.) Then I was watching a TV show where one of the characters was named Phoebe. I still didn't put it together until the credits came on and it said (name of actress) as Phoebe. That was an ah-hah moment for my 8 or 9-yr-old self!

Oh, those epeetomes. Walk into a 5th grade classroom. I'll bet half of them pronounce it this way. If they know the word.

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