This morning, while getting ready for work, I heard the guy on the radio say something was expected to happen by the end of the "physical" year (when he meant "fiscal" year). Don't hear that one much anymore.

Paula Deen on Food TV says she is adding eggs "two at the time" (vs. "two at A time") which jumps out at me every time she says it because I have never heard anyone else say it that way. Southerners: Is that a Southern thing?

One of my coworkers says she "marionates" her meat in soy sauce (vs. "marinates") and that her husband had a "prostrate" exam (instead of "prostate").

My mother says "How are things in WARSHington?" which of course is a regional thing. She also says "warshing machine." A more recent thing of my mothers (past few years) is saying "I had some PASS-ta for dinner." (vs. pasta--PAHS-ta).


I have goofy ways of saying some words that came from chatting online or from friends and family and probably drive others crazy. Like "roast beast" instead of "roast beef," "sammich" instead of "sandwich" and "prolly" instead of "probably." I know I'm saying them wrong, but I do it because I find it amusing or it's become habit. That's not always the case with mispronunciations, though.

Can you think of any word pronunciations that stick out to you because they're not the way you pronounce them?

Oh, Sheri,

You mean like nuke-you-lar instead of new-clee-er?

Most of the time neither goverment or enviroment have their "N".

My big one usually was Realtor because I was one. I used to tell people I wasn't a fake-tor, I was a real-tor.

We could go on about the misuse of words suuch as one I ran across in the book I'm reading today - close proximity. I have never seen or heard reference to far proximity.

I thought warsh was southern (even southern Ohio). I did grow up with a girl who has spent her entire life in Toledo and said warsh.

A few years ago, while I was still teaching, I and 2 other teachers in my pod took a survey that was online asking how I said a word where I grew up. I remember aunt (ant) and syrup (sir-up) were on the survey. The survey was from a Harvard grad ass.

I had to learn how to pronounce some city names when I moved to central Ohio. Near me are the towns of Russia (rhymes with goosey), Versailles (ver sales), Bellefontaine (bell fountain), and Houston (how stun).

East of Columbus is a town (with a plant of Owens Corning Fiberglas whose corporate HQ was in Toledo). The town is Newark. The locals pronounce it Nerk.

Linda

I grew up in western Pennsylvania, home of Andrew carNEGGie and carNEGGie Mellon University. Don't know this CARnuhgy guy who built a performance hall in New York.

DH says "that's besides the point" all the time. Drives me nuts.

I'm sure I'll think of more...

quote:

Originally posted by GoingSkiing:
Do you all say cubbard?

I don't think that this is a regional thing... just one of those things that makes English harder to learn.

Yup, I say cubbard too. In fact, I can't think of any other way I have ever heard that word pronounced. Relatively rare in our language!

With a LOT of words in the English language, there are alternate pronunciations. One that I have a particularly gnarly history with is "applicable." There are those who only pronounce this word "ah-PLIK-a-bul" but the dictionary says that my pronunciation is also correct, which is "AP-lik-a-bul". But I have had 2 different colleages correct me on this word (2-3 decades apart), as if their pronunciation was the only possibility. One of them did it repeatedly in a high-level meeting. I wanted to strangle her.

ds asked me last night, How do you spell "cubbard" (like Old Mother Hubbard, went to the cubbard, to get her poor dog a bone)

I said that it is spelled "cup board". (And he said, "oh yeah... that's right")

But does anyone actually pronouce it cup board or even cupboard? We all say cubbard at our house... and thus why the spell checker couldn't find a correct spelling.

Do you all say cubbard?

I don't think that this is a regional thing... just one of those things that makes English harder to learn.

quote:

Originally posted by SheriaVa:

quote:

Originally posted by Tayhudson:
Oh, I thought of another one. My MIL says push "pooosh".

I never thought of it before, but my mother says it that way too!

Must be a regional thing from that generation. I don't really hear it much now though. I have heard other older midwesterners say it that way.

Dawn

quote:

Originally posted by Tayhudson:
Oh, I thought of another one. My MIL says push "pooosh".

I never thought of it before, but my mother says it that way too!

I thought of another one too, also from my mother. I was laying in bed last night thinking about her visit in a month or so and about her food preferences vs. mine in terms of what I can cook while she's here, and I could hear her in my head saying "mush-runes" instead of "mush-rooms".

The things I think about when I'm trying to go to sleep! LOL

Oh, I thought of another one. My MIL says push "pooosh".

Dawn

quote:

Originally posted by jillybean:
Then she says, "Mommy, how do spell Flimits?" And I'm like what?! I said Flimits is not a word. She says "yes it is! When we get in trouble at school the teacher puts our name under Off Flimits, LOL!!!

When my baby brother and I were kids, he could not say "refrigerator"--he said "ridgerfrator" and to this day, at age 55, I still think of it as the "ridgerfrator" even though I usually call it "the fridge". Guess I should really call it "the ridge"?

When I was a teen, I babysat 3 neighbor kids who were 4, 5 and 6 years old at the start. The youngest could not pronounce f's for some reason, so it was a chore to understand her at times. We lived near a fire station and when the sirens would start up, she would point that way and yell "CHIRE! CHIRE!" I could never figure out how she got "CH" mixed up with the "F" sound.

Sorry for the 3rd post this morning in this thread!! : )

This is not so much a mispronunciation but how my dd heard it. When Morgan was in kindergarten, the teacher had a punishment called "Off-limits" and when someone did something wrong their name when under "Off-limits" on the board and for a period of time they were not allowed to play with certain things or be helpers in the classroom. So one day Morgan and I are in the car, and she is only about 5 yrs old, and she says "Mommy, how do spell off?", so I say "O-F-F". Then she says, "Mommy, how do spell Flimits?" And I'm like what?! I said Flimits is not a word. She says "yes it is! When we get in trouble at school the teacher puts our name under Off Flimits, LOL!!! I had to pull the car over because I could not stop laughing!!!!

Jill

quote:

Originally posted by SheriaVa:

quote:

Originally posted by ske:
I might drop eggs or anything else, "two at A time"...I haven't heard Paula say "two at THE time"...Sheri, are you sure she said, "The"? Is it possible she was pronouncing "a" as "ah" and you thought she said "the" but was pronouncing it as "thuh"? LOL!! Did that make sense?!?!?

I'm almost certain she says "the." It struck me the first time I heard her say it because I'd never heard it said that way and now it just leaps out at me every time she says it. It's usually when she talks about adding eggs to a mixing bowl when she's baking something--"You want to add the eggs two at the time."

I think what she may be saying, because of her heavy southern accent is Two at A time but comes out sounding like two at THE time. She kind of runs it all together and I think is saying Two Atta time, which could very easily sound like Two at The time. I think the "atta" could definitely sound like at A or at The because of that southern drawl.

Jill

quote:

Originally posted by GoingSkiing:
I was talking to a teen tonight, and she was talking about going to the prom with a kid I know as Nick... but she refered to him as Nicky. I said, "You call him Nicky... that is so cute!" and she said... "Well, sometimes I call him honky". (ok...???) Took me a minute to figure out that she said hunky...

OMG-that is hysterical!!


As far as the word Often(and I do say it properly now), I am embarrassed to say that until my dd came home from school in 3rd or 4th grade and said Mrs. Schweikart her teacher said it is Of-inn, not off-ten Mom, I did say Off-ten.

Jill

quote:

Originally posted by ske:
I might drop eggs or anything else, "two at A time"...I haven't heard Paula say "two at THE time"...Sheri, are you sure she said, "The"? Is it possible she was pronouncing "a" as "ah" and you thought she said "the" but was pronouncing it as "thuh"? LOL!! Did that make sense?!?!?

I'm almost certain she says "the." It struck me the first time I heard her say it because I'd never heard it said that way and now it just leaps out at me every time she says it. It's usually when she talks about adding eggs to a mixing bowl when she's baking something--"You want to add the eggs two at the time."

This is a good thread. Can I pass it on to all the non-natives and English learners I know who think there's just one "proper" pronounciation for everything? Or is there one that I just don't know about yet?

I was talking to a teen tonight, and she was talking about going to the prom with a kid I know as Nick... but she refered to him as Nicky. I said, "You call him Nicky... that is so cute!" and she said... "Well, sometimes I call him honky". (ok...???) Took me a minute to figure out that she said hunky...

I'm definitely from the south.... "puh-kahn" not "pee-can" here. I agree with the fellow who said a pee-can is something you might have in your bathroom incase something happens to your toilet.

I might drop eggs or anything else, "two at A time"...I haven't heard Paula say "two at THE time"...Sheri, are you sure she said, "The"? Is it possible she was pronouncing "a" as "ah" and you thought she said "the" but was pronouncing it as "thuh"? LOL!! Did that make sense?!?!?

quote:

Originally posted by SheriaVa:
There is a city in Virginia that often creates a ruckus when discussions of how to pronounce it come up. It is spelled N-o-r-f-o-l-k and you would think that it would be pronounced just like it looks--NOR-folk. But to people in the region it is NO-fuck. No kiddin'.

Oh and then there's Baltimore, which is often pronounced BAL-mer.

Oh, that's like Louisville, KY. They pronounce it "louilville" sort of, I'm not even sure I can write it like they say it.

Dawn

quote:

Originally posted by Caine:
OFTEN!

It is pronounced Off-INN, NOT off-TEN. Only Canadians are allowed to say off-TEN, because they don't know no better, eh.

Any time anyone tries to argue with me aboput the true pronounciation, I just tell them "Please, just Lis-TEN to the way I pronounce it!"

Oh yes, that's a good one.

Dawn

My friend called her ex her "wuzband". I thought that was cute.