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A Way with Words, a radio show and podcast about language and linguistics.

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ideological differences
deaconB
744 Posts
(Offline)
1
2015/12/08 - 6:10am

They keep pronouncing ideology on my NPR station as eye-dee-ol-oh-gee, and it's annoying the heck out of me.

i pronounce it as id-e-ol-o-gee, but according to both the merriam webster and dictionary.com websites, that's a variant pronunciation, and the preferred pronunciation is ide-oh-low-gee.  They remove an entire syllable.

I'm not sure I've ever heard it pronounced with the lowered syllable count, but I've heard it enough times with the "NPR pronunciation" (for lack of a better term) to be really annoyed with Steve Inskeep.

 

Show of hands, please.  How do you pronounce ideology?

A. The (correct<g>) way with an ID

B. The missing (dictionary) syllable way with an EYE

C. The illiterate (NPR) way with an EYE

And do any of these pronunciations irk you?  Best response should win a trip to the Carribean, when we all agree whether it's pronounced been or be un (speaking of missing syllable.)

EmmettRedd
859 Posts
(Offline)
2
2015/12/08 - 8:40am

I am agnostic between A and C (although I probably lean toward the illiterate (I have my excuse of being an Ozark Mountain native.) way).

Guest
3
2015/12/08 - 1:05pm

Agree with EmmettRedd. Choice A preferred, choice C second best. I've always pronounced it as choice A. Never heard choice B in spoken English.

Ron Draney
721 Posts
(Offline)
4
2015/12/08 - 2:04pm

Just checked both Google's "define:ideology" and Merriam-Webster's site, and both give the NPR version as first choice, with yours as second. There's a missing dot in the syllabication at the m-w site, but the pronunciation is four syllables. Both also have the long-I version when you click the speaker icon to actually hear the word spoken.

FWIW, it's properly CARE-a-BEE-un, not cah-RIB-EE-un, just like it's HIM-a-LAY-a, not hi-MAHL-ya.

deaconB
744 Posts
(Offline)
5
2015/12/08 - 9:18pm

Ron Draney said
FWIW, it's properly CARE-a-BEE-un, not cah-RIB-EE-un, just like it's HIM-a-LAY-a, not hi-MAHL-ya.

The place where Bob Evans farmed is RYE-oh grand, Ohio not Ree-oh GRAN-day, it's LYE-muh, Ohio, not LEE-muh as Deaer Abby pronounced it, and it's LEW-iss-ville, Ohio, not LEW-ville (where Churchill Downs is, or Lew-wee-ville as people who don't know any better pronounce it).

Every time they get a new newsreader on Fort Wayne television, we all wonder whether he'll report happenings at Lake Wuh-WASS-ee, instead of the proper Wah-wah-SEE.  (Spelled Wawasee.)  We also get newbees reporting on Oh-wuh-bah-che state park, which is spelled Ouabache State Park, but pronounced "Wabash", like the Cannonball.  Locally, we're split about 50/50 over Nissan's old name.  Was it Dot-sun, or DAT-zun?  There are a few who think it's become Niss'n, but most people say Knee-sahn.  And although Steuben County is fairly local, some people say Stew-BEN, and others say STEW-bin.  But everybody agrees on Kosciusko, Wapakoneta and Kekionga.

The very first professional baseball game was between the Fort Wayne Kekiongas, and the Cleveland Green Forest.  Fort Wayne, the hone team, won the game,but didn't last out the first season of the NL; they were sold to a guy who moved them to Brooklyn, where they were the Superbas.  The players, most of them ended up on a team called the Trolley-dodgers, and eventually moved to Los Angeles.  Kikionga was the name of the indian village at the confluence of the St Mary's and St Joe became the Maumee, which is where General Anthony Wayne threw up a fort he named after himself. 

Ron Draney
721 Posts
(Offline)
6
2015/12/09 - 4:46am

deaconB said

Locally, we're split about 50/50 over Nissan's old name.  Was it Dot-sun, or DAT-zun?  There are a few who think it's become Niss'n, but most people say Knee-sahn.

Bear in mind whenever this question comes up that the Japanese name Nissan (short I, long--aka double--S) is a sort of acronym meaning "Japan Motors". The usual American pronunciation (long EE, short--aka single--S) means "big brother".

EmmettRedd
859 Posts
(Offline)
7
2015/12/09 - 4:53am

Just to add to the string of disputed pronunciations: Mizz-ur-ah vs. Mizz-ur-ee; HAY-tye, Missouri vs. hay-TEE (half of an island nation in the Caribbean); KAY-ro, Illinois vs. KYE-ro, Egypt; Ar-kan-saw vs. Ar-kan-sas. I am sure there are many more.

Robert
553 Posts
(Offline)
8
2015/12/09 - 10:35am

If you look up 'how to pronounce ideology' on YouTube,  people pretty much offer just 1 pronunciation.

Guest
9
2015/12/09 - 11:50am

EmmettRedd said: I am sure there are many more.

Here's one almost all newcomers to Arizona get wrong. Got it wrong myself until I heard it pronounced correctly. The northern half of Arizona is separated from the southern half by an escarpment known as the "Mogollon Rim." The pronunciation might seem obvious, but it's actually the name of an early Spanish governor of New Mexico and takes its name from the mountains named after Mogollon. The unintuitive pronunciation is: MOO-gee-on (with a hard "g").

deaconB
744 Posts
(Offline)
10
2015/12/09 - 12:28pm

EmmettRedd said
Just to add to the string of disputed pronunciations: Mizz-ur-ah vs. Mizz-ur-ee; HAY-tye, Missouri vs. hay-TEE (half of an island nation in the Caribbean); KAY-ro, Illinois vs. KYE-ro, Egypt; Ar-kan-saw vs. Ar-kan-sas. I am sure there are many more.

I'm told that the river is pronounced Ar-Kansas but the state is Ark-an-saw.  

I knew of a lady who always told her husband to buy a jug of Bob White corn syrup.  They didn't sell that brand up north, but she got tired of arguing over the pronunciation of Karo.  She didn't care; she just wanted some corn syrup for making popcorn balls.

Is "Mexican Wedding Cakes" considered an ethnic slur?  They seem to be far more popular in Southern Indiana than NW Ohio.  I think Brazil Nuts are less popular now than in the 1950s, because people know them as niggertoes, and don't want to call them that, so they buy something else.  Someone could make a small bundle by ought to creating an inoffensive substitute name, maybe snickertoes or whimsytoes, trademarking it, and selling the nuts in cellophane bags with the trade name printed large on the package.

Ron Draney
721 Posts
(Offline)
11
2015/12/09 - 12:53pm

You can get "Mogollon" more than just wrong. I remember once during the '70s hearing Walter Cronkite (of all people!) refer to "Arizona's Mongolian Rim".

When they get that one figured out, they've usually already learned the right way to say "Gila" and "saguaro", and it's time to move on to "Canyon de Chelly" (it's "de SHAY" for those not inclined to take the time looking it up).

deaconB
744 Posts
(Offline)
12
2015/12/10 - 1:29pm

Ron Draney said
FWIW, it's properly CARE-a-BEE-un, not cah-RIB-EE-un, just like it's HIM-a-LAY-a, not hi-MAHL-ya.

Just heard a guy on NPR saying Him-all-yen, and it took a while for me to figure out what he meant.

How do you pronounce caribe, Ron?  CARE-a-BEE?  I've always heard it as Cah-reeb (although Ibe not heard it often.)

EmmettRedd
859 Posts
(Offline)
13
2015/12/10 - 2:01pm

At a high school History Bowl, the young teacher/reader asked for the South American country which has the capital of bah-GAH-tah. My daughter's team coach and I looked at each other and, finally, simultaneously realized the real pronunciation. Neither team buzzed in (for good reason) so the question was a wash. I never heard it before or since.

Guest
14
2015/12/16 - 2:48pm

Some Alaskan pronunciations that fool people:

Valdez = val-DEEZ, not val-DEZZ
Kenai = KEE-nye (or KEEN-eye), not kuh-NYE
Unalakleet = YOU-nuh-luh-KLEET, not YOU-nuh-LACK-leet

Snowmobile is pronounced "snow machine".

Guest
15
2015/12/16 - 5:13pm

And Denali is pronounced den-ALL-lee, right? So glad they reverted to the Inuit (?) name. I heard the original "Mt. McKinley" was chosen because of the guy's girth, and kinda disrespected local traditions ... at least that's what the tour guide told us during our Alaskan adventure.

Guest
16
2015/12/17 - 3:16pm

More like duh-NAH-lee, for most people. I tend more toward deh-. I have rarely heard anyone say Mt. McKinley during most of my 35 years here.

deaconB
744 Posts
(Offline)
17
2015/12/18 - 3:13am

tromboniator said
Snowmobile is pronounced "snow machine".

If a ski resort is using technology instead of weather to build the base people ski on, what do they call the machine that produces snow? 

Guest
18
2015/12/18 - 7:36am

deaconB asked: ... what do they call the machine that produces snow?

I don't know about other resorts, but here in AZ they just call them "snow cannons" since they're basically the same "water cannons" used on rioting crowds, but set to spray a finer mist (aot the the narrow stream that knocks rioters off their feet) and only used when the air temp is below freezing. Some also incorporate fans to facilitate show distribution. I'm sure there are a few specific brands names, but I haven't been skiing for close to 20 years so couldn't tell you what those are.

Once on a lift I was riding with a resort staff member and asked about the process. It's not cheap, since the electricity for pumping that water at high pressure from storage tanks near the lodge all the way to the top of the slope requires a LOT of pressure. In fact, the juice costs them more than the water. Just to put things into scale: If you have a 5000 ft elevation change from the tank to the hose outlet (which is a fixed turret-like assembly that scans back and forth to cover a wider area) you need over 2000 psi. That requires some strong pipes and hoses. Here's an image of one in action:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowmaking#/media/File:CPSnowmaker.JPG

deaconB
744 Posts
(Offline)
19
2015/12/18 - 8:46pm

A still column of water 2000 feet in depth would have 2167 PSI at the bottom.  Moving water ads to the problem. Apartment building supply water to residents from tanks every 10 stories, but that's mostly to keep people on the ground floor from hammering themselves with shower water.

An ordinary 2 inch Schedule 40 iron pipe has a burst strength of 7800 PSI, so pipes bursting shouldn't be a real problem. Generally, engineers try to not exceed 25% of the burst strength as a working pressure. (Gaskets on pumps and valves are weaker.)

It's a lot cheaper to pump water with a centrifugal impeller than a positive-displacement pump.  That's why they use centrifugal water pumps on cars - no close tolerances to be maintained.  They possibly put pumping stations every 1000 to 2000 feet.  That would avoid using more expensive Schedule 80 plumbing, and would save money n electricity. Smaller pumps are cheaper, too, because they are produced in greater quantity, and they'd cost less to wire up.

EmmettRedd
859 Posts
(Offline)
20
2015/12/19 - 7:46am

Sorry, deaconB, but Heimhenge is closer on the ft to psi conversion factor. There are a couple of easy ways to independently determine this:

1) A cubit foot of water weighs 62 lb. So, a foot tall cube of water (62 lb) spread over its 144 sq in base gives a little less than 1/2 psi at a foot deep.

2) A surface well pump can only draw water from a maximum depth of about 30 ft. With atmospheric pressure being about 15 psi, it pushes the water that high if the pump can pull a good vacuum. So, again about 1/2 psi per foot.

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