There was a story this morning about gay marriage on LA’s 89.3 KPCC. I was infinitely more offended by the fact that reporter Kelly Wilkinson pronounced the word “rural” as “rurl” and the word “unfamiliar” as “unfermiliar” than I was about any part of the gay rights argument.
Posts tagged as:
pronunciation
Not That Furmaliar
To the political analyst who discussed Obama’s campaign this morning on NPR: I’m sorry to say that you lost whatever shred of credibility you had the moment you said that something was furmaliar. Nothing is furmaliar. Lots and lots of things are familiar. There is no r in the middle of that word. It’s not an accent. It’s not “the way we say it here”. It’s not anything other than wrong. You disagree. I know you do. So, Mr. Political Analyst, imagine this: If you and I were engaged in a conversation about Obama and I pronounced his name Orbama, would you correct me? I think you would. If I said, “Oh, that’s just the way I say it,” what would you think? Good day, sir.
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How to Pronounce the Word Height
I want you to stop what you’re doing. I want you to look at the word below. I want you to speak it aloud.
height
How did it sound? Say it again. Did it rhyme with “right”? It should have. Say it again. Did it rhyme with “byte”? It should have. Say it again. Aloud, damn you. “Height” rhymes with “might”.
Think for a second. When you say it, does it sound like “hythe”? If it does, do you realize that you sound like an idiot whenever you say it?
It rhymes with “tight”.
No, it’s not “slang”.
No, it’s not “an accent”.
No, it’s not “just the way we say it here”.
No, it’s not “the same thing”.
The word is h-e-i-g-h-t. It rhymes with “tight”. If you say it any other way, it doesn’t mean you are being eloquent, or fashionable, or rebellious, or cool, or anything other than ignorant.
Unless you have a lisp. If you have a lisp, then you are excused and I’m sorry for making you feel dumb. People with lisps aren’t dumb. People who don’t have lisps but pronounce the word “height” as if they had a lisp are dumb. Are we clear on that?
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vocab
Not words:
- acrost, irregardless, nucular, supposably, nother, alot, alright
Not verbs:
- interface, input, impact, itch
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An Invalid
You can imagine how stupid I felt when I called someone an “invalid” in high school. As if they weren’t valid. And don’t even get me started on “epitome”. ehp-ih-tohm. Fark this farking language! Drives me nutty sometimes, it does.
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Pronunciation of Gagne
My family and I pronounce it Gag-nee. The French, and technically correct, pronunciation is Gahn-yay.
It is not Gayn-je or Gang-ee. It’s not Gag-en or Ganj-ee.
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