A list of 21 words by pedalinfaith.
- espresso appears on 36 other lists
- species appears on 24 other lists
- nuclear appears on 29 other lists
- ask appears on 29 other lists
- wednesday appears on 25 other lists
- mischievous appears on 29 other lists
- poinsettia appears on 14 other lists
- february appears on 16 other lists
- walk appears on 33 other lists
- asterisk appears on 25 other lists
- jaguar appears on 23 other lists
- pronunciation appears on 20 other lists
- asphalt appears on 25 other lists
- cement appears on 10 other lists
- supposedly appears on 9 other lists
- probably appears on 11 other lists
- porsche appears on 1 other list
- facsimile appears on 47 other lists
- interesting appears on 37 other lists
- vehement appears on 89 other lists
- glacier appears on 37 other lists
wordwench Mine: "Mechanize" as "Mek-ig-nize". You would not believe how many corporate suits insist on pronouncing it as if it contained a 'G'.
My mom says "Ext-ree" for Extra, but I think that's kinda cute.
Pffffft. Sep 30, 2008
asativum Wait, our kind host on this page says: "I'm talking about adding letters that aren't even in the word or skipping ones that aren't silent (syncope and apocope). I mean, c'mon."
But if you skip saying letters that aren't silent -- is this a koan? Jun 25, 2008
reesetee Grew up in PA, ptero. Jun 24, 2008
pterodactyl I'm American, too, and I always hear buoy pronounced to rhyme with phooey. Reesetee, I think you're right about regional variations, and I have to ask -- did you grow up in Pennsylvania, or are you a transplant? Jun 21, 2008
frogapplause Yes, chained_bear... shudder, shudder, shudder. Egads! I better get back to my cartooning work. I'm losing it. Jun 20, 2008
reesetee Jmp: I say "boy" for "buoy," and I'm American. I wonder whether that's a regional thing? Actually, I wonder whether many of these pronunciation differences are regional rather than national. Jun 20, 2008
bilby My radio announcer was Australian. Conclusion: we mangle with the best of them. And all this on a day where a medical survey showed that Australians have surpassed Americans in levels of obesity.
Doctor interviewed on TV news: "If there was a Fat Olympics, we'd be favourites for the gold medal."
I'm sooooo proud *glowing*. Jun 20, 2008
Prolagus I'm with you c_b! (but maybe this list is about Americans specifically). Jun 20, 2008
chained_bear Can we just say that people mispronounce things all the time, and not make it something that's distinctively American?
P.S. frogapplause, did you mean "shudder," by any chance? Jun 20, 2008
frogapplause Statistics pronounced as "stuh-sti-sticks" (said often by someone I knew who did NOT have a fluency disorder). Jun 20, 2008
frogapplause I've heard "specific" pronounced as "pacific" (wince, shutter). Jun 20, 2008
bilby That's it. I'm burning my Mickey Mouse ears. Jun 20, 2008
johnmperry How about 'buoy'? We Brits rhyme it with boy, whereas Americans rhyme with phooey. Jun 20, 2008
bilby I heard a radio announcer say escalate twice yesterday with a pronunciation that resembled eskewlate. Nasty. Jun 20, 2008
picklechipsluva5 Oh yeah, and the misspelling two below. *Dictionary Nov 2, 2007
picklechipsluva5 Sorry about the misspelling below. *Debateable Nov 2, 2007
picklechipsluva5 Another word would be roof, although it is debateble. It is listed in the dicionary as both "rufe" and "roof (oo as in book)." Which do ya'lls (ha) use? I use roof, not rufe. Nov 2, 2007
chained_bear I hate to say this, but it isn't that Americans butcher these words--it's that lots of people don't pronounce things right, regardless of where they live or grew up. I have a lot of these words on my own "GAH!"-type list. And I would imagine a lot of the people who are posting here and complaining about those who mispronounce things, are American themselves.
I'm not trying to argue or anything--just wanted to point that out. It makes me sad to witness discussions about British and American English that don't compare the two so much as complain that one of them is wrong. To use a phrase I hate (in keeping with the style of this page!), "it's all good." :) Oct 27, 2007
abiohphobia awesome list
how bout caramel Oct 27, 2007
lorilori How about escape? I can't stand when people say "excape." Jan 5, 2007
uselessness Also, hover. It only has one "o," not two. Dec 26, 2006
uselessness To billifer: I could never pronounce it like that. Sounds too much like "dur," which as we all know is a bastardization of "duh." Kinda defeats the purpose of an intellectual word like "dour." :-)
Another word for this list: associate. People insist on turning that "c" into an "sh." Dec 22, 2006
billifer This was one that was recently featured on the KPBS show A Way With Words: dour. The correct pronunciation, which I didn't realize until hearing the show, is not (IPA) /daʊɹ/ ("sour") but actually /dʊɹ/ ("sure"). Dec 22, 2006
colleen there was that great bit on the Simpsons when Lisa flipped on Marge for insisting on saying "foilage" for "foliage." Dec 19, 2006
uselessness Excellent link! There, too, I find myself busted for "salmon." Dang dang dang. Dec 18, 2006
pedalinfaith That list is spun gold! I'm heretofore pimping it in the list description. And, of course, you've just created another hour or two of pleasure reading for me. Hooray for PBS. Dec 18, 2006
inkhorn I've never been able to get my tongue around the word vehement, no matter how many times I hear it. Dec 18, 2006
inkhorn I like this list. I even like the URL. Beastly. Dec 18, 2006
pedalinfaith Or, what's even worse, the egregious 'inner-resting'. Dec 18, 2006
uselessness interesting (intresting)? Dec 16, 2006
inkhorn facsimile
Fak-sim-uh-lee, NOT fax-a-mile. Dec 16, 2006
angharad Seanahan, what I love about jaguar is that there's the correct way, the American way, *and* the UK way (jag-yoo-er). Dec 15, 2006
seanahan I pronounce both Porsche and Jaguar the "American" way, because people look at me so strangely when I say them correctly. Dec 15, 2006
uselessness Okay, we're one-for-one. ;-) Dec 15, 2006
pedalinfaith So, she sheepishly admits, I had to look it up and--gack--I've been pronouncing Porsche incorrectly all these years and thinking it was the "POR-sha" people who were being pretentious! Dec 15, 2006
uselessness I'm never ordering fish for dinner again. And that color -- it's pinkish.
Oh, as long as we're on the car/road theme, how about Porsche?
Also, probably? ('probly') Dec 15, 2006
pedalinfaith I could probably live with jagwire because I'm first generation Yankee and it makes up for all of the Southerners who pronounce "ire" words as "ahr" (for example, squire is pronounced squahr, which of course rhymes with square. :) I could probably go with sment too since it counteracts all of my relatives who pronounce it CEEment. :)
But ashfalt is unforgiveable. And that's definitely going on the list. In fact, maybe we need a list of the words with their mispronunciations spelled phoenetically (e.g., ashfalt, febbuary, reelator, and so on).
But, uselessness, I think you are the odd one out when it comes to salmon, though. Both the pronunciation guides for m-w and dictionary.com have the 'l' as silent.
This reminds me ... pronunciation is often mispronounced as pronounciation.
Thanks for the suggestions! Dec 15, 2006
uselessness Words my dad can't pronounce, and I don't think he's alone:
jaguar -- he says "jagwire"
cement -- he says "sment"
asphalt -- he says "ashfalt"
salmon -- he says "sammin"
Not sure about the last one actually, maybe that's how it's really pronounced, but I try to include an "l" sound when I say it. Maybe I'm the weird one. :-) Dec 15, 2006
asativum I'll second asterisk, which I usually hear as Asterix. (No Obelix, though.) Dec 14, 2006
nkocharh I would like to propose the addition of asterisk, which I often hear pronounced "asterik". Dec 11, 2006
seanahan For the record, the spelling "Aluminum" predates the spelling "Aluminium". Therefore it is the British who are screwing up
butchering the language.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium#Spelling
Dec 10, 2006
john Great list. Though butchering language -- and some of these words -- is an international pastime. This page talks in particular about "ask" being mispronounced through the ages (google "ax"), and this amazon review claims that Chaucer wrote "ask" as "aks". Dec 10, 2006
agreatnotion Great list. Don't forget how "aluminium" was reduced to "aluminum." Dec 10, 2006
pedalinfaith Wonderful! Thanks, kad and angharad, for the additions and the pointer to Kaichi's list.
Dec 9, 2006
kad I often hear "supposably" instead of "supposedly." Then there's Oregon. How most of America can mispronounce the name of one of our own states is beyond me.
I love this list, by the way :) Dec 8, 2006
angharad Some of my peeves: realtor, athlete, library, tsunami.
You might also take a look at
http://wordie.org/people/Kaichi?wl=173 Dec 8, 2006