Wednesday, May 04, 2005

On Proper Pronunciation..

WATER~ Woo-ter. I don't want to hear any crap. That is how it is said. Woo-ter.
LIBRARY~ Lie-Brairy. Not lie-berry. This is very important.
WASHINGTON~ You'd think this would be easy. Wash-ing-ton. Note the lack of an R. It is not Warshington. Ever.
CRAYON~ Another "easy" one. Cray-on. Not Crown. Crowns are worn on the head, Crayons are for coloring.
ORANGE~ Arr-ange. I realize that some people may erroneously beleive that it is said oar-ange. This, however, is not correct.
ENVELOPE~ On-vel-ope. Not en-ve-lope.
CAR~ I can't even hyphenate this one. Kuh-arr, Maybe? It's not a Cahh, or a Caww; unlike Washington, this word does in fact have an R.
REGULAR~ Reg-you-lurr. It is never rey-gyoo-ler, or godhelpme, regg-uh-lur.
CARAMEL- I know, these silent letters get tricky, but it's Car-Mel. Silent second A.
NEW ORLEANS~ New-Or-Lins. In a pinch, I will accept Naw'lins. But not New-Or-Leans. And while we're at it, let's talk about:
NEW JERSEY~ New-Jer-Zee. Joisey is never acceptable.
CHRISTIANA~ I suppose this is a regional thing. Chris-tee-ann-uh. Why in God's name do people from DE insist on Chris-tee-na? Why? The A is not silent.

And there you have it. One dozen words. Learn to pronounce them correctly, so you can be my friend.

...and then I wonder why people think I'm a snotty bitch...

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wah-Tur. And it's Orr-ange. As they are from Florida, and I have been counseled upon the proper pronunciation from a native Floridian, I am going to say that it is indeed Orr-range.

Btw, it'd be a silent A in Christiana not a silent I. Not to nitpick or anything though.

Saki said...

It's fixed. I got carried away in the heat of the moment. I apologize. :)

Anonymous said...

You forgot to fix water. Wah-Tur.

:lauren: said...

and my british grandma maureen would be extrememly unhappy to see your thoughts on the word 'caramel'. car-a-mel, just like jag-u-ah.

:lauren: said...

extrememly - HA.

Saki said...

Jag-u-ah is so funny :) it sounds rich and pretentious and fun.

I forgot a word. "Asked." Ass-kd. not axed. I hate people today. All talking people. Hate them.

:lauren: said...

all talking people? as opposed to...grunting people?

Anonymous said...

Accents differ. There are different ways of pronouncing the same word depending on where you come from and whether English was your first or 5th language. Important thing is we communicate at the end of the day but more importantly people should be tolerant of those that speak differently from them. I know not one person whose English is their first language that would ever pronounce a word in Kikuyu or Luo etc without sounding completely ... well let's say ... ridiculous.