Whats your gripe
Whats your gripe
Word misuse gets up goat of sticklers
https://thewest.com.au/opinion/word-mis ... b88329662z
Image: Anartic or Antarctic? It’s a commonon mispronounciation...or mispronunciation.
Bill Stickler told a meeting of the Society of Pedants (WA) that he was surprised at the big number of people who complained about common misuses of words. Indeed, it seemed just about everyone he met wanted to tell him about his or her pet language-mangling hate, the SOP president said.
It was evident to him that slovenly language use seriously annoyed many people. Some of them told him that they grimaced or yelled at their television sets or radios when they heard a solecism. They grumbled about mistakes they saw in print.
Mr Stickler’s talk to members was mainly a summary of the language complaints sent to the SOP this year. He said there had been many complaints about mispronunciations.
He had the impression that people of retirement age or older still put a high value on correct pronunciations — on being “well spoken”, an expression that seemed to have faded from common use over the past few years. Younger people generally seemed to be less bothered about mispronunciation.
Ironically, one of the complaints he read was about the mispronunciation of “mispronunciation”. The complainer wrote that he noticed the apparently increasing currency of “mispronounciation” and “pronounciation”.
He had not counted the number of complaints about the mispronunciation of any particular word. However, he had the impression that the words that drew the most complaints were “ceremony” (mispronounced as
“cere-moany”), “vulnerable” (“vunerable”) and “mischievous” (“mischievious”).
Of course, there were the usual complaints about “Australia” being mispronounced on-air as “Austraya”. Other common mispronunciations that caused annoyance were those of “probably” ( “probly”), “supposedly” (“supposably”), “espresso” (“expresso”) and “Antarctic” (“Antartic”).
Mr Stickler believed that such mispronunciations were mostly the results of carelessness, slips of the tongue, ignorance or indifference.
However, he also had to acknowledge that there were pronunciation traps in English, because many words were not pronounced as their spellings suggested they should be.
He remembered Julia Gillard was caught in one of those traps about five years ago, when she notoriously mispronounced “hyperbole” as “hyper-bowl” in an interview. She was the prime minister at the time and attracted mockery for her mistake. (Australia's most embarrassing prime minister )
A part of the problem was that English had imported many words from other languages. Such words often either kept their original spellings, or elements of them, but were often pronounced differently from how they were spelt. For example, the “b” in “debt” was superfluous and not sounded. It was there only because it was in the Latin word from which “debt” was derived.
Another part of the problem was that pronunciations changed over time. The current edition of Fowler’s Dictionary of Modern English Usage noted that: “In general terms, written English has remained relatively static since the invention of printing in the late 15th century, but spoken English, in its received (standard) form, has changed repeatedly since then.”
Mr Stickler said he pitied people who were learning English as a second or subsequent language. He thought they would struggle constantly to try to make sense of the language’s seemingly capricious spelling system.
It was not surprising that there had been campaigns for many years to simplify English spelling. However, he disagreed with people who preached spelling reform.
They proposed artificial, cold-blooded changes that would deny the history of the language and interfere high-handedly with its natural development. In any case, he and other word-watchers loved and respected the English language for its majestic eccentricities.
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The mispronunciation that gets up my nose the most is the frequent use of "tur-bin" when referring to a "turbine", mostly by our friends form the USA. (without prejudice )
https://thewest.com.au/opinion/word-mis ... b88329662z
Image: Anartic or Antarctic? It’s a commonon mispronounciation...or mispronunciation.
Bill Stickler told a meeting of the Society of Pedants (WA) that he was surprised at the big number of people who complained about common misuses of words. Indeed, it seemed just about everyone he met wanted to tell him about his or her pet language-mangling hate, the SOP president said.
It was evident to him that slovenly language use seriously annoyed many people. Some of them told him that they grimaced or yelled at their television sets or radios when they heard a solecism. They grumbled about mistakes they saw in print.
Mr Stickler’s talk to members was mainly a summary of the language complaints sent to the SOP this year. He said there had been many complaints about mispronunciations.
He had the impression that people of retirement age or older still put a high value on correct pronunciations — on being “well spoken”, an expression that seemed to have faded from common use over the past few years. Younger people generally seemed to be less bothered about mispronunciation.
Ironically, one of the complaints he read was about the mispronunciation of “mispronunciation”. The complainer wrote that he noticed the apparently increasing currency of “mispronounciation” and “pronounciation”.
He had not counted the number of complaints about the mispronunciation of any particular word. However, he had the impression that the words that drew the most complaints were “ceremony” (mispronounced as
“cere-moany”), “vulnerable” (“vunerable”) and “mischievous” (“mischievious”).
Of course, there were the usual complaints about “Australia” being mispronounced on-air as “Austraya”. Other common mispronunciations that caused annoyance were those of “probably” ( “probly”), “supposedly” (“supposably”), “espresso” (“expresso”) and “Antarctic” (“Antartic”).
Mr Stickler believed that such mispronunciations were mostly the results of carelessness, slips of the tongue, ignorance or indifference.
However, he also had to acknowledge that there were pronunciation traps in English, because many words were not pronounced as their spellings suggested they should be.
He remembered Julia Gillard was caught in one of those traps about five years ago, when she notoriously mispronounced “hyperbole” as “hyper-bowl” in an interview. She was the prime minister at the time and attracted mockery for her mistake. (Australia's most embarrassing prime minister )
A part of the problem was that English had imported many words from other languages. Such words often either kept their original spellings, or elements of them, but were often pronounced differently from how they were spelt. For example, the “b” in “debt” was superfluous and not sounded. It was there only because it was in the Latin word from which “debt” was derived.
Another part of the problem was that pronunciations changed over time. The current edition of Fowler’s Dictionary of Modern English Usage noted that: “In general terms, written English has remained relatively static since the invention of printing in the late 15th century, but spoken English, in its received (standard) form, has changed repeatedly since then.”
Mr Stickler said he pitied people who were learning English as a second or subsequent language. He thought they would struggle constantly to try to make sense of the language’s seemingly capricious spelling system.
It was not surprising that there had been campaigns for many years to simplify English spelling. However, he disagreed with people who preached spelling reform.
They proposed artificial, cold-blooded changes that would deny the history of the language and interfere high-handedly with its natural development. In any case, he and other word-watchers loved and respected the English language for its majestic eccentricities.
.............................................................................................................
The mispronunciation that gets up my nose the most is the frequent use of "tur-bin" when referring to a "turbine", mostly by our friends form the USA. (without prejudice )
May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil know`s you`re dead!
- dtaai-maai
- Hero
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Re: Whats your gripe
Hmmm..so many.
Golfers who regularly refer to the Stapleford system of scoring......STABLEFORD!!!
Men who talk about their "prostrate" problems...PROSTATE!!!! ( mine's the size of a watermelon BTW)
Golfers who regularly refer to the Stapleford system of scoring......STABLEFORD!!!
Men who talk about their "prostrate" problems...PROSTATE!!!! ( mine's the size of a watermelon BTW)
“Never argue with an idiot. They will only bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.”
― George Carlin
“The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it.” -George Orwell.
― George Carlin
“The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it.” -George Orwell.
- Vital Spark
- Legend
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Re: Whats your gripe
'Pacifically' instead of SPECIFICALLY - I hear it a lot when I'm in Suffolk.
VS
VS
"Properly trained, man can be a dog's best friend"
Re: Whats your gripe
Somethink rather than something!
- Dannie Boy
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Re: Whats your gripe
Don't you mean somefinkPhil D wrote:Somethink rather than something!
Re: Whats your gripe
Don't you mean summat. While I was out walking summat fell on me 'ed!
Re: Whats your gripe
To all intensive purposes...
"A man who does not think for himself, does not think at all."
Wilde
Wilde
- Ginjaninja
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Re: Whats your gripe
I could care less. Oh, wait a minute. No, I couldn't.
Re: Whats your gripe
At end o' day, if summat dunt 'appen, then nowt will.
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Re: Whats your gripe
You know at the end of every sentence.
Woke up this morning breathing that's a good start to the day.
Re: Whats your gripe
There, their, they're, being used interchangeably.
Re: Whats your gripe
I hate
OF instead of HAVE
OF instead of 'VE
I could of won that game
I should of won that game
People don't just write it wrong, they say it wrong too. Not sure why it annoys me so much, but it does.
OF instead of HAVE
OF instead of 'VE
I could of won that game
I should of won that game
People don't just write it wrong, they say it wrong too. Not sure why it annoys me so much, but it does.