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Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

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

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Words I mispronounce
Guest
1
2016/01/18 - 9:59pm

Words I mispronounce:
Accidentally:

UNICEF: UNICHIEF
Arrogant: aggorant
Dais: dias
Debris: derbris
HEPA: heapa
Caste: kayst
Nictitate: nictate - turns out both are correct and synomyms
NSAID: Nsayd
Height: heighth
Drowned: drownded
Foment: forment
Tempestuous: testemptuous
Ergodic: ergotic

Deliberately:
Scared: skeered
Resent: resemble that remark
Go Slow: Gos-low, as Curly from The Three Stooges put it, the next town according to the road sign
Necessarily: necessacelery
Educated: edumacated
Automatically: automagically
Sean Bean: Seen Bean
Cigar: seegar
House of ill repute: repuke
Muscles: muskles
Vitality: vitaliky
Infant: infink
Wrestle: wrassle in the castle
Apologies: ap-o-lo-gees
Revenge: re-wen-gay
Ignorant: Ignernt
Confused: Cornfused
Crayloas: Crayellas
Deaf: deef
Diaphragm: dia-frag-m
Paradigm: para-dig-m
Target: Tarzhet
JC Penny: Jacque Pennay
Covers: kivvers
Kmart: Kmarket
Krogers: K-Rogers
Buck Naked: nekkid
Sears & Roebuck: Rareback
Home Depot: Home Dee-Pot
Misconstrued: Misconscrewed
Personally: poisonally
Purpose: porpoise
Probably: prab-ly
Probably: prolly
Incognito: inmagneto
Hilarious: high-larious
I expected: expectorated that...
Montgomery Wards: Monkey Wards
Hardin–Simmons University: Hardened Sinners
ETBC [now East Texas Baptist University]: Itsybitsy

Ron Draney
721 Posts
(Offline)
2
2016/01/18 - 10:54pm

I have a number of those deliberate ones myself. The long street in Phoenix that was once Business Route I-10 is McDowell, which I pronounce "M. C. Do-well"; I tell people it's the name of a Mountie rapper. Also, a certain family restaurant chain, called by its owners "Country Kitchen", will forevermore be known in my family as "Crunchy Kitten".

The other night on the latest episode of "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives", a chef announced that he was adding "washed-your-sister sauce" to a recipe.

Guest
3
2016/01/19 - 6:55am

Whoopi Goldberg always made me chuckle when (on The View) she'd refer to Ahmadinejad as "I'm a dinner jacket."

Myself: I often call Tucson (AZ) "tuck-sun." I think when I first heard of the city it may have helped me remember how to spell it. But I still find myself saying it that way even after living in AZ for 30 years.

EDIT: Just realized I did this with another word (intentionally). When I was teaching science, I'd pronounce "thermometer" as "ther' moh meter" just to reinforce the fact that the device was, like so many other measuring tools, a meter for some physical quantity.

deaconB
744 Posts
(Offline)
4
2016/01/19 - 6:20pm

How did you manage to fergit "cow orker"?  As one of my chums at woik used to say, "Well, back to work everybody.  Those cows won't ork themselves!"

The joint campus of Indiana University in Fort Wayne is called IPFW, but one in Indianapolis is IUPUI, pronounced "Ooey Pooey".

Guest
5
2016/01/19 - 7:21pm

I like cow-orker, just haven't remembered all of my mispronunciations yet. First encountered it in Scott Adams' newsletter.

A favorite is the Two Ronnies sketch:

Ronnie Barker - Mispronunciation Sketch

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