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May 2020
11:34am, 11 May 2020
19,498 posts
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Carpathius
I saw something the other day questioning why some words ending in 'e' which have that 'e' pronounced look as if it isn't.
From this, I discovered that I have been reading and saying 'epitome' to rhyme with gnome all my life, and that it is wrong
E-pit-om-eh.
What words have you discovered you've been getting wrong?
Years ago I thought 'conspicuous' was pronounced con-spi-shous (like conscious) not con-spick-you-us.
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May 2020
11:36am, 11 May 2020
63,510 posts
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swittle
Only wrong if meaning is impaired imo. Who would ever say air-owe-droe-meh?
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May 2020
11:46am, 11 May 2020
19,690 posts
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Dvorak
Listening to last week's Wittertainment, Mark expressed surprise over a word he had never encountered before, and its meaning. A word, however, which every 70s (at least) Scottish school pupil knew and could probably rhyme off the definition of.
Transhumance.
Except he pronounced it with the stress on the first syllable, whereas I (taking it presumably from my geography teacher) put the stress on the last, and more or less rhymed the first and last syllables.
Now I'm wondering - which is correct?
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May 2020
11:49am, 11 May 2020
63,512 posts
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swittle
I'd go for stress on 1st syllable, c.f. 'transmission'. But I'm from Yorkshire 
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May 2020
11:51am, 11 May 2020
48,441 posts
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Diogenes
The first time I heard Yosemite (Yos-semmity) spoken, it took me a while before I realised it was the same word that I read as Yosser-might. I was still young at the time so never embarrassed myself by saying it wrong out loud.
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May 2020
11:53am, 11 May 2020
45,208 posts
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McGoohan
I thought Superman's girlfriend's name was pronounced "lee-os". Even when I knew the right answer, I found it ridiculously hard to say 'Lois'.
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May 2020
11:55am, 11 May 2020
63,515 posts
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swittle
Quite so! When enrolling, Irish names, such as 'Aoife' or 'Niamh' used to get me asking for them to be spelled out, as I looked apologetic.
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May 2020
11:56am, 11 May 2020
445 posts
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CreatureOfTheHill
Was talking to our daughter the other day about this.
There are a multitude of words we have only ever read, not heard spoken by another, and thus had to wonder how we must inevitably mangle some.
That's compounded by multiple languages and and trying to guess pronunciation based on the etymology of the word, somehow trying to infer vocalisation based on how it has traversed tge world.
We suspect we all do it.
If enough of us do it we change the word
Perhaps a concerted campaign to change the word to *your* form For who is to say what form of language or speech is better.
Does it convey the meaning of the speaker, express the intent or provoke the response intended? If so, carry on
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May 2020
11:59am, 11 May 2020
63,518 posts
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swittle
That's interesting, COTH. ^
As language seems to be largely acquired, so changes in and to language can similarly be accommodated.
btw, I played a little video [youtube] for info on pronunciation of 'transhumance'.
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May 2020
12:00pm, 11 May 2020
6,240 posts
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Sigh
My daughter pronounces "cumulus" as "Come-you-luss" rather than "queue-mm-you-luss", I politely corrected her the first couple of times and then gave up.
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