mispronunciations of the written word

[Chromatix]

It's fairly well-known that several Asian languages have no distinction between R and L (among other things).

So on my recent business trip, the Korean hotel deskman said, very clearly, "blekfast" when giving me the check-in spiel.

[Chromatix]

Yes, before aluminium could be produced efficiently in large quantities, tin was the usual material for a lot of things.

In fact, tin is mildly toxic and tends to leach into food if it's kept in contact for a long time. Not so bad for tinfoil - which is the name I knew for it as well, btw - but tin cans were plated with some other metal for precisely that reason.

Aluminium is also a very reactive metal and, if it leached into your food, is mildly toxic in a similar way to tin. The difference is that because aluminium is so reactive, it self-plates with a layer of oxide in microseconds when exposed to air. Aluminium oxide is... sapphire.

[Sparky]

I remember pronouncing corps and colonel exactly as they're spelled the first time I saw them in print (and getting mocked by the teacher for it, grrr).

You should have heard my teacher (highschool) when I pronounced brazier as brassier. I knew they meant different things, but I honestly thought they were pronounced the same, and ....

[Andara Bledin]

I still mispronounce things intentionally to myself when spelling. Like saying the second C in Connecticut so I don't miss it.

I do that all the time when I'm writing.

I have that problem. I believe the term is "reader's vocabulary".

My family always referred to those as "read words." Generally words that you'd read in books but that nobody ever really used in conversation.

And until this thread, I was unaware of the actual pronunciation of detritus. I've never heard it spoken.

^-.-^

[Imogene]

You should have heard my teacher (highschool) when I pronounced brazier as brassier.

I got to call out one of my english teachers for his mistake when we listened to the poem "The Bells", which I have mostly forgotten by now... I know that there are references to the metals that make the bells, and the teacher got to the line about the 'Brazen bells', and said, "Except this one, apparently..." I grabbed a dictionary before class the next day and showed him the entry for Brazen: 'Made of brass'. Moron. No wonder I never liked English class in school... I knew more than most of the teachers I had...

i used to pronounce fatigue "fat - i - gay"

That's almost the correct pronunciation for French... which would be Fatty-gway, if I remember correctly, and, if I don't, I took German in high school...

My sister in law created a number of running jokes in our family, the most memorable one is when she said "irritited" instead of Irritated. Yup.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

You should have heard my teacher (highschool) when I pronounced brazier as brassier. I knew they meant different things, but I honestly thought they were pronounced the same, and ....

Reminds me of one of my brother's "pronunciations" when he was a kid and a bad speech impediment.

We had a cat named Budweiser . . . don't laugh, we didnt' name this poor kitty. Anyways, the way my brother said it came out "Bud-Brassiere." So this is what we ended up calling this cat - and she'd answer to it.

One of our neighbors would be leaving out early for work and hear my mother on the front porch calling for Bud-Brassiere and holler back "Did you lose your brassiere again?"

Mom would holler back "Yeah, she's been out hussying all night again."

And this is where my sense of humor comes from, ya'll.

[mamawork]

When I worked for KFC, people called the Colonel's strips "colonial strips". There's nothing colonial about them. Nobody was wearing buckle shoes, there were no puritans around, and it wasn't even Thanksgiving!

Now, at my present job, we get a lot of geniuses who try to order a "value meal fry". We have a value MENU, and these folks are trying to order from it. Menu and meal... not the same thing. Of course, they all get pissy if an employee asks if they mean the value menu. How dare we try to get your order right? The nerve!

[Green_Fairy]

When I worked for KFC, people called the Colonel's strips "colonial strips".

the word "colonel" really used to bother me because of its pronunciation. where does the "r" sound come from? where does the first "l" go? it makes no logical sense!

[simplyanother]

the word "colonel" really used to bother me because of its pronunciation. where does the "r" sound come from? where does the first "l" go? it makes no logical sense!

Hell, it still bothers me. Sort of related is Lieutenant...when I realized that the word pronounced "lef tenant" and the one pronounced "loo tenant" were the same word...I don't know, but it was one of those "ooooh" moments. But that's not really the same as seeing a word and pronouncing it all wrong, I guess.

My nine year old has certain words I know he's encountered from reading, because he pronounces them all screwy, and won't be convinced otherwise. He's similar to one of my brothers that way. That's fine, they can both pronounce the word "genre" as "gen-ree" all they want. (To be fair, the brother hasn't pronounced it that way in a good 15 years or so...).

Kiddo also pronounces the s's in aisle and isle (both become eyes-sul). Drives me just a little bit bonkers. Usually in reference to an eye-sul on a video game or in a book.

Danged silent S's!

[Primer]

lapel and filigree

used to be LAY-pull and FILL-grr-ee

[Nashida]

Okay....I'm ashamed to admit this both as a New Englander and a Bay Stater, but...I cannot pronounce "quahog" for the life of me.

[Chromatix]

"Colonel" and "Lieutenant" are remarkably old words, of arguably foreign extraction, and so the fact that they are pronounced oddly is unsurprising.

Personally I compromise on "Lieutenant" and say "le'tenant". It matches the spelling relatively well and is understandable by people who are used to both of the established pronunciations.

"Colonel" is a fun one though. Think about saying "colour", then take away the L and leave the surrounding vowels as the same sound. So it's a simple case of a silent letter, which is remarkably common in English.

[Shalom]

"Lieutenant" = lieu tenant, someone who stands in place of another. (French)

'Colonel" = colonnello, person in charge of a column (of soldiers) (Italian)

The Straight Dope once had an article giving the origins of the various military titles. lessee if I can find it:http://www.straightdope.com/columns/...-outranks-a-lt

Also http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-col1.htm

and http://assistantvillageidiot.blogspo...ary-ranks.html

[Green_Fairy]

'Colonel" = colonnello, person in charge of a column (of soldiers) (Italian)

fine and dandy, but it still doesn't explain where the "r" came from

[Chromatix]

There is no R-sound, and neither is there in "kernel" despite the spelling.