Maybe it's just an Oklahoma thing, but I've noticed something recently that just bugs the heck out of me. The word is pronounced so-shul, NOT so-sul. And it's not just one person that says this constantly, it's many people I know over the age of 40. But they only say so-sul when it's combined with security. So, they'll say So-sul Security, but NOT not mess up the pronounciation of Social Darwinism, socialite, or any other reference with the word social in it.
I also seem to find that people over the age of 65 say huh-why-yuh instead of huh-why-e. I know both are technically correct but why do only old people say yuh? Now, I'm not saying that I pronounce words correctly all of the time. In fact, there are certain words that I avoid saying because I'm not sure how to pronounce them (e.g., on the spot I can never remember if it's ventriloquist or venquilotrist. Luckily, this word very rarely, if ever, comes up in conversation.). And a lot of the time I say words incorrectly because it's just something I do. But for gosh sake, if I ever make a huge mistake like saying "pacifcally" in place of "specifically", or (my favorite) "suh-men-ster" for "semester", TELL ME!!! Please! You'll save me a lot of embarrassment down the road.
I was caught mispronouncing carbonara as car-bone-uh. But as I look at the Meriam-Webster Dictionary pronounciation, D. didn't say it right, either. Infinitely closer than my interpretation, though. The sad thing is that this is my favorite Lean Cuisine dish and no one at work has ever mentioned me leaving out a syllable when I say it. Or maybe they just don't know, either.
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8 comments:
Geographically speaking, why is it that Oklahoma has Miam-uh and Florida has Miam-ee? Did the tribe change pronunciation when they migrated west? Well, considering that travel in a westward direction does seem to lower the I.Q. and/or cause people for some reason to lose any grasp of coherent enunciation, this may be the case.
And it is carb-uh-nara or carb-o-nara. I have not yet heard anyone do the "social security" slaughter yet, but other frequent faves seem to include "nucular" instead of "nuclear" and one other (at least) that I cannot think of right now...but I will get back to you!
a pet peeve of mine. i think some of the words like social are just pronounced differently in an accent. it is just unfortunate that an accent leaves out letters. but 'car-ba-nara' and "ha-why-ee' are words from OTHER CULTURES that the whole country (or sometimes just the lazy tongue parts of the country) BUTCHER on a regular basis. hawai'i can only be pronounced the above way OR without the 'y' sound. like 'ha-wa-ee." the second pronunciation is generally used by my students who are from the island. and they also generally spell the name correctly with an apostrophe. hawai'i. it cannot correctly be pronounced "ha-why-uh." that's just the same oklahoma lazy tongue that pronounces miami 'mi-am-uh.' we, as american's, like to forcibly conquer people like the miami indians (who were from the ohio area--not florida as many people assume. and they were pushed into kansas, not oklahoma. which is why they weren't one of the 'five civilized tribes' that we learned about in school. by the way, what a freakin' racist term THAT was.) and the hawai'ians (who we also forcibly made part of the united states) and then change their names or at least pronounce them differently. and i don't always trust dictionaries eiher. the dictionary sometimes only publishes the bastardized american versions of words.
also, as a californian, i would take issue with the idea that a westward move deducts i.q. points. many of us in los angeles, san francisco, seattle, and most parts of denver do a fine job of pronouncing words correctly. i'd say moving inward from the coasts is what causes your problems.
oh by the way, remember how ms. tyree in middle school would announce "wrastling matches" over the intercom?
Yes, I remember that! Wrastling and warshing are comming things that happen here.
Quoting Maggie: "that's just the same oklahoma lazy tongue that pronounces miami 'mi-am-uh.' we, as american's, like to forcibly conquer people like the miami indians (who were from the ohio area--not florida as many people assume. and they were pushed into kansas, not oklahoma."
Sorry, but I have to take issue with this as there IS a Miami Tribe in Oklahoma and they were clients of mine for some time. And THEY pronounced it "Miam-uh" as well.
Yes, some of us ARE able to enunciate properly, but I have seen the Hollywood set and I stand by my previous statement. And am I wrong in thinking that Seattle and Denver are not in California, and that Denver is, even, VERY MUCH inward of the coasts in every direction?
Other annoying teacher accents: I had a teacher for Computer Concepts (back in the day) who used to always talk about being in OLE...which apparently was supposed to be OIL. Yikes. Also, people who say "irregardless"...WHAT???
These tick me off:
"Supposebly"
"irregardless"
"hoe" (as in HOLE)
"roe" (Roll)
And my favorite-- Aaron's mom says "spayed-ed" As in "We took the dog to get spayed-ed" rather than "spayed".
Are you 100% sure she says spayed-ed and doesn't know? I attach "ed" to darn near every word, but I'm aware that it's incorrect. What cracks me up are when really stupid people correct me. Yes, I KNOW I just said better-er, but I know it's not a word.
Speaking of roe for roll, my ex-next door neighbor used to say "roll" for "row" (like in a theatre/theater).
Oh, I'm certain she didn't know until I told her. Now, she tries to say it correctly in front of me and when she does, she draws attention to it. As in: "See, I said it right that time!"
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