Personal HUGE pet peeve: the mispronounciation of "nuclear." (1 Viewer)

[Mark Murphy]

remember living in Maine, and saying Worchester for the first time. Who the hell would think that that word is pronoucned Woo-ster, instead of War-chest-er. How the hell do you get woo out of Worche? It makes no damn sense

I think the correct pronounciation is Wista not Wooster. There is no "er" sound in our language, along w/"ar". There is a small city named Haverhill (Where Rob Zombie hails from for all you Metal fans) next door to me and it ain't pronounced like its spelled, more like Havril, the "a" being a hard a. Watch Lenny Clarke on "Its all Relative" for a good representation of a Boston accent/pronounciation.

 

[Michelle Schmid]

Oh, and it's Or-I-gun, not Ory-gone (for the State of Oregon)

No, it isn't. It's Or-E-gun.

My current mispronounciation pet peeve (that I have heard from several people recently) is "flustrated." What? That isn't even a word! You can be flustered or frustrated, or even both at the same time, but you cannot be "flustrated!"

 

[Yee-Ming]

remember living in Maine, and saying Worchester for the first time. Who the hell would think that that word is pronoucned Woo-ster, instead of War-chest-er.

Err, blame the Brits? Worchestershire is a county in England, postcode WORCS.

Another similarly pronounced place would be Leicester, pronounced "lester".

 

[Cees Alons]

Cholmondolly, St. John.


Cees

 

[David Von Pein]

Pierre, South Dakota. .... It's not "pee-air"; it's pronounced "peer". Anybody from Pierre here @ HTF? I've heard it drives the locals crazy to hear it said incorrectly (though I wonder if every "peer-ite" pronounces it correctly. )

Another oft-flubbed city is Pawtucket. I believe it's supposed to be "Pa-tucket", and not "Paww-tucket". Confirmation requested.

 

[David Von Pein]

I've had acquaintances butcher "Ronald Reagan" all to heck. It's "Ray-gun" (as in "Astro & Elroy are playing with their Ronald Ray-Gun again, George").

It's not "Ree-gun".

Another common word I've heard incorrectly is: "Known". Some people, for whatever reason, seem to need to make this a two-syllable word -- "Kno-an". Why? Oh God, why??

 

[Brad Porter]

I've heard my mother pronounce Wimbledon as "Wimpleton" multiple times, and she's a tennis fan.

Here's an annoying one - Indianapolis Colts running back Edgerrin James. Mother sortof mumbles out "Ederwin". My friend says "EdGerrin (with a hard 'g'). They've both heard it correctly pronounced multiple times by announcers and I think they're continuing to mangle it out of spite.

I once said "libary", to much derision from my friends.

I've always had an unexplainable difficulty getting the syllabic emphasis sorted out on umbrella. It's either supposed to be umbrella or umbrella, but I can never remember which.

But "nukuler" is the worst. I cringe when I hear it. I want to slap anyone who utters it.

Brad

 

[Bill Cowmeadow]

Wijadija:

As in:

Bring your truck wijadija!

My son said this the other day.

Bill

 

[Jason_Els]

More fun places:

Scituate, MA: They pronounce it Sit-chew-it.

From my state, home of the popular, "Axe imm to warsh fore he eetz."

Skaeneateles, NY: It's pronounced, "skinny-atlas".

NuKe-u-ler drives me bats. And yes I know the President pronounces it that way and, I fear, it makes him look like an idiot (which clearly he's not). I'm amazed his speech writers don't dodge the whole issue and use "atomic" instead.

If 'ain't' makes you cringe then you need to meet it's popular variant, 'hain't' which I've heard in some places.

 

[Yee-Ming]

It's either supposed to be umbrella or um brella

Pretty sure it'd be the latter, I have never heard an emphasis on the first syllable.

 

[Paul_Sjordal]

Pierre, South Dakota. .... It's not "pee-air"; it's pronounced "peer".

Des Plaines, Illinois is properly pronounced "Dess Plains"

 

[Paul_Sjordal]

Oh, and lest I forget, the s in "Illinois" is silent. It really bugs me when people pronounce it "Eye lee noise" *grump*

 

[Garrett Lundy]

"Haint" This is a really old term for a ghost or a goblin. My grandma used it every now and then. Then she passed away and I have to assume her haint haunts her house.

Ain't. I like to mess people up with this one.

Me: "No my speakers ain't Bose"

Them: "Ain't is not a word."

Me: "Yes it is, it has been in the Webster's dictionary since 1991."

Them: "really?"

Me: "Yes, go check if you don't believe me"

Then I run away when they go to look it up.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Des Plaines, Illinois is properly pronounced "Dess Plains"

Yet Des Moines, Iowa, is "De Moyn". Go figure.

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Another oft-flubbed city is Pawtucket. I believe it's supposed to be "Pa-tucket", and not "Paww-tucket". Confirmation requested.

Either is correct as I have heard both. The local vernacular is "Pa-tucket", but who says that is correct? The locals pronounce my hometown of Weymouth as "Way-mit" and there are a few englishmen in the port of Weymouth, England who will tell you that is definitely wrong.

Here's a good one - Throop, PA - the locals pronounce it "ta-ROOP". Pretty sure it is properly pronounced the way it is spelled, but the locals also say "Tirty ta-ree" when they mean "Thirty three".

Also, two Cape Cod towns Eastham and Chatham, pronounced "east-HAM" and "CHAT-um".

 

[David Williams]

And how about "Beauchamp"

That depends on whether you are French (bo-shahm) or British (bee-chum). Sort of like the difference between Avril: French (Av-reel) and British (Av-rhil).

Oklahoma has its own peculiarities... Miami is pronounced 'mi-ahm-uh' (mostly, I figure, to prevent confusion with Florida) and Durant is pronounced 'doo-rant'.

 

[wally]

You can find definitive pronunciations of all these words at the lieberry.

 

[wally]

It's not "Ree-gun".

Unless you are talking about former Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan

 

[David Williams]

Unless you are talking about former Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan

Or you are performing Shakespeare's King Lear or dating Dr. Crane's next door neighbor on Frasier or a child possessed by Satan and are in need of a good Exorcist...

 

[Rex Bachmann]

Dome Vongvises wrote (post #40):

Historically, it's the "proper" contraction of am + not > amn't > annt > ain't. "Ain't I grand?" should be "correct", but somebody---guess who

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htforum/showthread.php?&postid=1178369#post1178369?---told us it isn't, preferring aren't. ("Aren't I grand? I sure are!") (Probably the same goes for (now Southern dialectal) cain't < cannt < can not.)

But, of course, it's also now used also for has/have not. ("Jeb ain't been home in five days.")

Although, I have my own pet peeves, of course, how greatly the many seem to be aggrieved at a few dialect differences. There's a system lying under there, you know. (It's "libary" for the same reason it's "Febuary" in SAE (Standard American English).)