wal-lla! vs Voila!

[SquirrelySquirrel]

Some people genuinely don't have an ear or eye for languages, in the same way that others don't have a basic sense of number or an affinity for art and design. That's different to poor learning & teaching, I think.

Very true. My dad, who is very educated and intelligent, is one of these people. There are a few words I make a conscious effort to say in his presence all.the.time in hopes that he will catch on and start saying them correctly, one being the name of a local Mexican restaurant that he butchers beyond belief. It hasn't worked yet. *sigh*

I grew up saying "chester drawers" and "sherbert" <--I really hate this one! I had to make myself learn the correct ways as a teen when I realized they were wrong. But everyone around me says them the wrong way! Must be a lazy Midwestern thing.

[Guest Anonymous]

What's wrong with Sherbert? Isn't that a misspelling of sherbet (ie the fizzy sweet stuff)?

[keen23]

My Mom (and her sisters for some reason) call frozen alcoholic fruity drinks "dikeries." That's just how she believes daiquiri should be pronounced. Oh, and horses are called "husses" but I have reason to believe that that's a regional pronunciation.

[ladypuglover]

My father's parents were from here in Colorado and my mother's folks came from the Appalachian mountain region but raised my mother for 12 years in Cincinnati then in Arizona, so my mother had quite the mix of speechisms.

Now with that in mind we were raised saying Chest of drawers, warsh cloth for wash cloth, sherbert, y'all, and all words ending in ing had the g dropped off. For example " I'm fixin to beat y'alls behinds if you don't stop droppin y'alls warsh cloths behind the chest of drawers."

My husband being from Rochester, Ny but raised by a mother from the Tri-state area would say to be silly," Youse need to stop throwing youse wersh rags behind that chest of drawers or your mommer will beat the bananer out of youse." He says that the Tri-state folks like to turn words ending in A into er, so banana becomes bananer.

My mean spirited FIL likes to tease me and the kids that we speak with so many accents and drawls that he can't pin point what region we hail from. My husband says that I only speak with a southern drawl when either very angry or in a high tease mood and up to my tricks. And with my speech issues, lordpuglover says the only single word I say properly with zero accent is the word RUIN. He hears that a lot. Why did you ruin my sweater? Why did you let those bad boys ruin my hairbrush on the dog? I'm sorry but I have yet again ruined dinner.

[SquirrelySquirrel]

What's wrong with Sherbert? Isn't that a misspelling of sherbet (ie the fizzy sweet stuff)?

Exactly. It's sherbet, not sherbert. I've never seen it spelled with the second -r, but everyone and their brother adds it in when saying it. I've not researched it in depth, but I'm guessing it is incorrect.

[Coconut Flan]

I think my favorite fundie misspelling was Candy saying that something was true "from the gecko" (from the get-go."

I think that one is cute. I love the Geico gecko so I visual words from the gecko. :lol:

[divadivine]

Stupid Fundie Bethany hasn't published my comment or changed the spelling of the non-word she posted for the correct word. I might have to leave another comment for her. STUPID FUNDIES! We are only trying to educate you since the SOTDRT failed! Ok, I'm done.

[Grace]

My mom says "Foy-yur" and you can't stop her, dammit! :lol: She likes to call things by their wrong names just to annoy me and because people think it's funny when she does. She has always called the movie "The quick and dead" "The dead in the dirt," and she always will.

I think there was some discussion about someone in my family pronouncing "duvet" as "duhvitt" but I don't recall who.

There was an episode filled with people using or pronouncing words wrong on How I Met Your Mother.

[tinuviel]

I remember my mom saying "walla" when I was little. I remember wondering what the hell it meant and why people said it. I don't think I found out it was voila (or French for that matter) until I was in high school, possibly college. My mom is well educated, but she butchers her share of words...She always adds a 'd' to 'genre' (JAHNdruh). I also remember not knowing whether it's "for all intents and purposes" or "for all intensive purposes". I eventually decided that the former made more sense, and decided to go with it. :lol:

I think a lot of fundies (and my fellow Midwesterners haha) hear a lot of lazy pronunciations and don't really correct them unless they read a lot. Reading things written in the last 10 years in normal prose helps too. :facepalm:

[batwing]

My grandmother-in-law gets angry and says "Jesus priest!"instead of Judas priest. We've been trying to explain it to her for years, my in-laws have made fun of her for it since the 70s! It's gotten the point now that we all just say "Jesus priest" to be obnoxious.

I shouldn't expect her to grasp it though. She calls all dogs "he" and all cats "she".

[Conuly]

Exactly. It's sherbet, not sherbert. I've never seen it spelled with the second -r, but everyone and their brother adds it in when saying it. I've not researched it in depth, but I'm guessing it is incorrect.

I grew up saying "chester drawers" and "sherbert" <--I really hate this one! I had to make myself learn the correct ways as a teen when I realized they were wrong. But everyone around me says them the wrong way! Must be a lazy Midwestern thing.

Well, it's a dialectical variation, and it's incorrect to SPELL it that way, but that doesn't mean it's incorrect to SAY it that way. Nonstandard, perhaps, but not incorrect. Merriam-Webster, for example, lists the sherbert pronunciation as an option. One common way for phonological change to occur in a language is for sounds in words to become like sounds closer to them so it's easier to say. I guess you could call this "laziness", but it's a driving force behind linguistic evolution nevertheless.

[Minerva]

I'm the granddaughter of non-English immigrants, and between all the different accents passed down to me, I picked up my share of mispronounced words. To top it off, I received my education in French whilst most of the rest of the family didn't, so I've got a bit of an accent from that and pronounce a bunch of English words the French way. So a lot of teasing goes on in my family since we all talk the "wrong" way according to each other.

Interestingly, instead of mispronouncing words because we heard them wrong and haven't seen them written down, we do the opposite. The elders read words they hadn't heard pronounced, started pronouncing them the way they assumed it's pronounced, and they were then passed down the generations.

[darareaksmey]

My mom says "Foy-yur" and you can't stop her, dammit! :lol: She likes to call things by their wrong names just to annoy me and because people think it's funny when she does. She has always called the movie "The quick and dead" "The dead in the dirt," and she always will.

I think there was some discussion about someone in my family pronouncing "duvet" as "duhvitt" but I don't recall who.

There was an episode filled with people using or pronouncing words wrong on How I Met Your Mother.

My mom is the same. She knows full well how to pronounce "asparagus" but she calls it "as-PAG-a-rus" to annoy me. And my son knows very well that it's "Nu-cle-ar" and not the Dubyah-ism "Nuke-yah-ler" but he says the latter just to get my goat. I guess it's up to me not to get so exercised about it. :x

[RR88]

I hate "nukyular". Clinton, Bush II, and Carter have all used that pronunciation. Can't stand it!

[Minerva]

I hate "nukyular". Clinton, Bush II, and Carter have all used that pronunciation. Can't stand it!

Me too. And when people take it a step further and talk about the "nuculus" of cells or the "nucular" family.

[RR88]

Me too. And when people take it a step further and talk about the "nuculus" of cells or the "nucular" family.

:shock: :shock: :shock:

Really? I've never heard them go that far...

[Conuly]

:shock: :shock: :shock:

Really? I've never heard them go that far...

Well, that's not surprising. Clee-ur is an unusual combination of sounds at the end of a word. I can't really think of ANY common word that has it besides nuclear, and that's not all that common!

Kyu-ler is a fairly common combination of sounds at the ends of words, especially science-y words. There's spectacular, molecular (science!), and... well, there are others, anyway.

It makes sense that speakers faced with an uncommon set of sounds would, using metathesis, switch them to a more common set of sounds. That's why we have "three" but "thirteen" and "third", incidentally - metathesis! (And that's just fun to say. Metathesis! Metathesis! If I had a kid, I wouldn't name her metathesis, but boy would it be a lost opportunity! Metathesis!)

My mom is the same. She knows full well how to pronounce "asparagus" but she calls it "as-PAG-a-rus" to annoy me.

Well, of course, a-spar-a-gus is just a spelling pronunciation, like saying the h in herb that they do in the UK. Up until relatively recently that stuff was more commonly, in English, termed "sperage" and, even after the spelling "asparagus" caught on, even "sparrowgrass"! The OED has a lovely entry on the subject.

[SquirrelySquirrel]

Well, it's a dialectical variation, and it's incorrect to SPELL it that way, but that doesn't mean it's incorrect to SAY it that way. Nonstandard, perhaps, but not incorrect. Merriam-Webster, for example, lists the sherbert pronunciation as an option. One common way for phonological change to occur in a language is for sounds in words to become like sounds closer to them so it's easier to say. I guess you could call this "laziness", but it's a driving force behind linguistic evolution nevertheless.

Like I sad, I haven't done much research. It's like warsh to me. Hearing that added -r is like nails on a chalkboard to my ears for whatever reason. And many Midwesterners are lazy speakers, myself included!

[terranova]

I used to know a girl in high school that would sign her notes with: "Chow" instead of "Ciao". :?

That could work if you were going to dinner :D

[Conuly]

And many Midwesterners are lazy speakers, myself included!

Except that when you say "lazy", that's a value judgment. At least, that's how it sounds. It's okay to not like certain ways of speaking, but it's factually incorrect to say that one way is better than another so long as everybody can understand what is being said, and it's not true that people from one area are more inclined to be "lazy speakers" than from another. We ALL are. That's one major reason language changes.

[RR88]

Except that when you say "lazy", that's a value judgment. At least, that's how it sounds. It's okay to not like certain ways of speaking, but it's factually incorrect to say that one way is better than another so long as everybody can understand what is being said, and it's not true that people from one area are more inclined to be "lazy speakers" than from another. We ALL are. That's one major reason language changes.

Thank you! :) I'm fairly meticulous in speech (and particularly in writing), and my friends call me a grammar Nazi. I've lived in the Midwest my entire life, too. ;)

[Kitchen Princess]

Well, that's not surprising. Clee-ur is an unusual combination of sounds at the end of a word. I can't really think of ANY common word that has it besides nuclear, and that's not all that common!

Kyu-ler is a fairly common combination of sounds at the ends of words, especially science-y words. There's spectacular, molecular (science!), and... well, there are others, anyway.

It makes sense that speakers faced with an uncommon set of sounds would, using metathesis, switch them to a more common set of sounds. That's why we have "three" but "thirteen" and "third", incidentally - metathesis! (And that's just fun to say. Metathesis! Metathesis! If I had a kid, I wouldn't name her metathesis, but boy would it be a lost opportunity! Metathesis!)

Well, of course, a-spar-a-gus is just a spelling pronunciation, like saying the h in herb that they do in the UK. Up until relatively recently that stuff was more commonly, in English, termed "sperage" and, even after the spelling "asparagus" caught on, even "sparrowgrass"! The OED has a lovely entry on the subject.

I love word nerds.

[Wolfie]

My pet peeve is "Lip Singing."

[Glass Cowcatcher]

I nominate "Washateria."

[emilymea]

I've got a dear friend who says groceries "gore sure ees." It drives me crazy, but both she and her mom do it, so I'm sure its just a family pronounciation.