BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!

Subject: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 31 Jan 13 - 03:15 PM

Okay, people, I've had enough. February is about to begin again, as it does each year, and there appears to be not one living soul in my entire region...apart from myself...who can pronounce the word "February" properly. As it is written. It's incredible. Even highly educated people can't seem to manage it for some reason.

They mostly say "Feb-you-ary", and I bet that's how you say it too. Then there are a few poor souls who say "Feb-oo-ary", which really sounds awful.

What is so flipping hard about saying Feb-roo-ary??? (The way it's supposed to be said.) Why can people not manage it?

I figure that any of you could manage it if you just took a careful look at the word, separated it into its 3 syllables, and pronounced them one at a time.

Let's try it. ;-D

Okay. First just say, "Feb". Feb.

You managed that okay, didn't you?

Now just say "Roo". Like the last part of "kangaroo". Just say "Roo". That's the middle part of "February".

How are we doing?

Okay, now say "ary". It rhymes with "cherry". That part comes last.

Are you still with me?

Now say them slowwwwly, one after the other...

Feb....roo...ary.   Keep saying it. Feb...roo...ary.

PRESTO!!! That's all there is to it. Seriously. Just say Feb...roo..ary a few times. Now speed it up a little bit. Feb-roo-ary. Speed it up just a tad more. You can DO this!

February!!!

Join the absolutely tiny number of people left in the English-speaking world who can manage to pronounce the name of the 2nd month in the year properly.   Who knows, you might even get to meet the Queen someday if you manage this! I'm quite sure she does not say "Feb-you-ary". And if she does....well! I shall simply have to give up what little faith I have left in this decaying culture.

It's Feb-ROO-ary.

Amen.

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: Ebbie
Date: 31 Jan 13 - 03:24 PM

Oh ye of little faith. I have said FebROOary most of my life and I am not alone.

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: pdq
Date: 31 Jan 13 - 03:26 PM

My vote for the "most universally mispronounced word" is dissect.

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: Joybell
Date: 31 Jan 13 - 03:38 PM

I say it correctly too, Little Hawk. Count me in for a visit to the Queen.
AND I always put the "m" in the name of the town near us. Warrnambool. Nobody else does. Mind you it's not the only town that's mispronounced. We were travelling through Missouri, a few years back, and the radio announcer told us we were in Bleville. Blytheville it said on the sign. My Truelove was born in Marivul in the same state. So he says.
Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 31 Jan 13 - 03:40 PM

Good for you, Ebbie! Want to move to my town and improve the situation here?

pdq - The preferred pronunciation of "dissect" appears to be dih-sect with the accent on the final syllable, but most people I've heard using the word say "dy-sect"...with the long "i" sound.

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 31 Jan 13 - 03:41 PM

Good going, Joybell! There is yet hope for the English culture.

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: JennieG
Date: 31 Jan 13 - 03:46 PM

Of course it is Feb-roo-ary.....and library has two r's, it's not libry....says she who worked in libraries for over 30 years, so knows how to pronounce it.

Also, the country in which I live is Aust-ra-lia - not Austraya, or heaven forbid, Straya. Sports people can be among the worst; why should you be allowed to represent your country overseas if you cannot pronounce it correctly?

Cheers
JennieG, Language Pendant and proud of it!

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: Bill D
Date: 31 Jan 13 - 04:02 PM

People who live places are often the worst, Jennie..

You need to visit Balmer or Nawlins or even N'Yawk to get the full impact.

(I have a long list of favorite errors... maybe another thread sometime.)

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 31 Jan 13 - 04:35 PM

I dodge the issue by avoiding saying "February". It's my least favorite month and I figure that by not mentioning it by name, it'll go away more quickly.

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: GUEST,999
Date: 31 Jan 13 - 05:01 PM

Leap years must be hell on you, BWL.

I've always said the roo thing in February. But then I'm from the one in ten English speakers who says hwat, hwen, etc.

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 31 Jan 13 - 05:25 PM

And remember: it's CHOL -MOND - LEE, not "Chumley".

And FEATER - STONE - HAW, not "Fanshaw".

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 31 Jan 13 - 05:26 PM

Oh, and while I'm at it: Jan - ROO - ary.
Most people misspell it and omit the first "r".

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 31 Jan 13 - 05:40 PM

Much ado about nothing. You know which month they mean.
My mother (rest in peace), a reasonably well educated woman, could not properly pronounce "poor"...she always pronounced it as the sound made by a contented cat.
My wife, also well educated, cannot properly pronounce "wolf" (as in the animal or Blitzer); it always comes out "woof".
But my favorite all-time story about mispronunciation goes back to when I was in high school. My buddy's mom could not pronounce "al-loo-mi-num", always asking for, say, "aloonium foil". One time her son corrected her for the umpteenth time and she, in frustration, blurted, "Goddam it, Raymond, you know I can't say al-loo-mi-num!" And to my knowledge she never ever did again.
Bruce, add me to your list of "hw" speakers.

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: Will Fly
Date: 31 Jan 13 - 05:44 PM

And - while we're at it - do so many people in broadcasting say "sikth" when they really mean "sixth"?

And as for "decimated" - don't get me started! So many people use it for almost total wipeout when it means one in ten wiped out...

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: freda underhill
Date: 31 Jan 13 - 05:59 PM

Febree - great! betta get moving!

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: wordfella
Date: 31 Jan 13 - 06:28 PM

Those are all pretty--um--furmiliar.

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 31 Jan 13 - 06:41 PM

Nice dick shun airy ya got there Seamus.

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 31 Jan 13 - 07:15 PM

And next we move on to jewrely ...

(Three separate commercials on my TV recently where they can't pronounce it - repeated 5 or 6 times per day each for the past couple of weeks.)

But maybe not as bad as when the local college announced their new "school of enterperneurship and ran the same commercial for TWELVE YEARS before anyone at the U noticed it was sorta spelt rong.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: kendall
Date: 31 Jan 13 - 07:36 PM

Ok, LH, how about Wed nes day?

Will, you're a man after me own heart. "That storm just decimated the whole forest!

Here are a few commonly mispronounced words.
Particularly
Arctic
Antarctic
Orangutan
Nuclear

What bothers me most is, why do I give a damn?

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: GUEST,ketchdana
Date: 31 Jan 13 - 07:38 PM

It might help some of us pronounce the month as if it were broken up so:

      Feh-brew-ary (or if you prefer, Feh-broo-ary),

though there is now the tendency towards: Fe-brew-(r)ary

li-breh-ry seems to nat'rally break up with the "br" together.

(Shouldn't say "us", I mean "I" do it thus.)

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: Rapparee
Date: 31 Jan 13 - 08:22 PM

I call it the Most Important Month of the Year. That's because I was born on the eleventh day of the Most Important Month of the Year, which is of course the Most Important Day of the Year in the Most Important Year in the History of the Earth.

Send expensive presents.

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: JennieG
Date: 31 Jan 13 - 09:39 PM

Arks instead of ask.....as in:

Arks your mother for sixpence to see the big giraffe,
He puts his head between his legs and whistles up his......
Arks your mother etc......

Just thought I would lower the tone a little.

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: Rapparee
Date: 31 Jan 13 - 09:46 PM

Oh, Jennie, you needn't do that! The tone around here is already about as low as it can get -- subsonic, in fact.

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: Ebbie
Date: 31 Jan 13 - 10:01 PM

"JennieG, Language Pendant and proud of it!" lol I hope you wrote that TIC. I love it- either way.

In a couple of linguistic courses I took, I was told that Americans saying'hwen,hwat, hwere, hwale,' rather than 'wen, wat, wale', etc, meant that their formative years had been spent west of the Rocky Mountains.

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: GUEST,marks(on the road)
Date: 31 Jan 13 - 10:32 PM

Proper pronunciation? You are just axing too much.

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 31 Jan 13 - 10:38 PM

I'm not sure what is the most officially correct version of "Wednesday". Everyone around here pronounces it either "Wens-day" or "Wed'ns-day".

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 31 Jan 13 - 10:43 PM

I'm irked more by people who use extra sallylables.

Definitive, when they mean definite.
Reverential, when they mean reverent.
Differential, when they mean different.
Orientated, when oriented would do.

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: Janie
Date: 31 Jan 13 - 10:53 PM

Ya'll folks need to get lives for yerselves.

Seriously. At least fer any of yas that have a serious gripe about this. For example. I know how Febrooary is supposed to be pronounced. But it still ain't the way I larned it and old habits that got instilled at about the time I learned to talk die hard. I got more important and pressing things to do and to think about than to remind myself for a solid month to pause, think, and overcome the programming that results in Febyouwary passing my lips rather than Febrooary.

Ha! from the Mariam Webster on-line dictionary:

Dissimilation may occur when a word contains two identical or closely related sounds, resulting in the change or loss of one of them. This happens regularly in February, which is more often pronounced \ˈfe-b(y)ə-ˌwer-ē\ than \ˈfe-brə-ˌwer-ē\, though all of these variants are in frequent use and widely accepted. The \y\ heard from many speakers is not an intrusion but rather a common pronunciation of the vowel u after a consonant, as in January and annual.

So relieved to know that in at least some respects, I'm normal.

Now, if ya'll will excuse me, I gotta go tend to my very close veins. If they cause much discomfort I get high blood and my sugar dibes gets a bit cattywhomped.

Ya'll may snicker and call me ignorant, which am true, but you still get my drift, right?

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: JennieG
Date: 01 Feb 13 - 12:04 AM

Well, Ebbie.....sort of TIC! Almost.....nearly.....

Before retirement made my life much happier I spent 25 years working in school libraries, and by heavens if you want mangled language schools are the place to go. Like whoa......

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 01 Feb 13 - 09:56 AM

Yeah, but what's the ruling on "Wednesday"?

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: pdq
Date: 01 Feb 13 - 10:09 AM

Janie's post seem to help explain why "something" becomes "SUMP-thing".

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Feb 13 - 10:12 AM

Little Hawk, I pronounce the month and the day (February and Wednesday) correctly, AND I don't say the name of my home state as "Warshington."

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 01 Feb 13 - 12:28 PM

Ebbie said:

In a couple of linguistic courses I took, I was told that Americans saying'hwen,hwat, hwere, hwale,' rather than 'wen, wat, wale', etc, meant that their formative years had been spent west of the Rocky Mountains.

They tawcha rong, Ebbie. I was never west of the Rocky Mountains until I was 37 years old, and it's always been hwen, hwair, hwat, etc.

I'm from Minnie-soda, y'know.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: Bill D
Date: 01 Feb 13 - 12:43 PM

Fighting "orientated" is hopeless. I've tried for 20 years.

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: Wesley S
Date: 01 Feb 13 - 12:45 PM

Damn Canadians trying to teach us Americans how to talk. They probably don't know how to say "fixin'" or "y'all".Not to mention "Sumbitch".

I think it's about time we started building that fence across our northern border.

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: GUEST,TIA
Date: 01 Feb 13 - 12:54 PM

I am expecially peeved by realators and athaletes who say "nukular". It is the heighth of ignorance, and they should of been punished by cancelling their birfday parties.

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Feb 13 - 01:01 PM

Febry or FEByooerry round here.

I am expecially peeved by realators and athaletes who say "nukular". It is the heighth of ignorance

Yes, I also find this to be a strange phenomena too. How quickly language can deteriate!

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: kendall
Date: 01 Feb 13 - 02:29 PM

TIA, shouldn't that be Height?

I visited Orient beach in St. Maartin. Not Orientated beach. :-)

Even here, spell check says I spelled Maartin wrong!

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Feb 13 - 02:33 PM

OK, I'll blurt it out. Alternate instead of alternative. Sheesh.

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: fat B****rd
Date: 01 Feb 13 - 03:36 PM

On Wensdee Febyuarie da sikth al bash anybody in the libree who sez nucular.
Just thought I'd join in.

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: Bert
Date: 01 Feb 13 - 04:02 PM

Pronunciation is a regional thing. The Febyooary pronunciation is very common in London which is of course the home of the definitive version of the Language. Now I'm going to go and byoo some beer.

Have some Wooster Sauce old chap.

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Feb 13 - 04:45 PM

If I make it through February I'll be good for the year.
Our family typicaly has castastrophic februaries.

So what god is Feb. named after???

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: pdq
Date: 01 Feb 13 - 05:03 PM

"The Roman month Februarius was named after the Latin term februum, which means purification, via the purification ritual Februa held on February 15 (full moon) in the old lunar Roman calendar. January and February were the last two months to be added to the Roman calendar, since the Romans originally considered winter a monthless period."

BTW, Augustus and Julius Caesar were not true gods either.

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Feb 13 - 05:16 PM

Minnie-soda oh jeez. My friend Robbie Generic lives there doncha no.

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 01 Feb 13 - 05:53 PM

I should probably also mention that "Tronna" is not the right way to pronounce Toronto... ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: freda underhill
Date: 01 Feb 13 - 07:18 PM

We all speak a different dialect. Language is a living thing. nothing is correct.

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: JennieG
Date: 01 Feb 13 - 07:24 PM

LH, it's not? Well, well.....you mean those nice Torontonians we met were having a lend of us when they told us how to pronounce the name of their fair city?

Now that I've learnt how to say it does this mean I will have to unlearn it?

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 01 Feb 13 - 07:41 PM

That's true. But "Tronna" is not so much a case of dialect as it is of sheer vocal laziness, in my opinion. Lazy ear and lazy tongue! (It's easier to just mumble two indistinct syllables than it is to clearly pronouce three. Much mangling of language appears to derive from this cause...vocal laziness, combined perhaps with not very attentive listening.)

Thus, in the modern day ghetto, the term "allright" has become merely..."'ite", and "do you know what I'm saying?" has become "know'msayn'?" (often added unnecessarily after every 2nd or third phrase, which causes its original purpose...brevity...to be defeated by repetitive redundancy!)

Likewise, "the neighborhood" is harder to say than "the hood", "Fro" is easier to say than "Afro", and "chair" is easier to say than going to the trouble of saying "chairman"...or the utterly ridiculous "chairperson".

In the latter case, however, we have mangling of language not through laziness, but through a desperate attempt to offend no one.

So we have reached the silly point in our culture where we call a chairman a piece of furniture in order to avoid possible gender-based misinterpretations and complications....and we now call actresses "actors" for some other silly damn reason along the same lines...thus causing the truly lovely word "actress" to vanish from usage. This does not help the cause of gender equality one bit, as far as I'm concerned, it just lessens the beauty and variety of the English language.

No wonder Chongo thinks Chimps are smarter than humans!

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 01 Feb 13 - 07:47 PM

JennieG - Yes, there are quite a few vocally lazy Torontonians too! ;-) And many of them do habitually call the place "Tronna". Still, the rest of us joke about Americans who say "Tronna", anyway. Joking about American tourists has been keeping Canadians amused ever since the late 1700s.

Subject: RE: BS: Feb-ROO-ary!!!!
From: pdq
Date: 01 Feb 13 - 08:05 PM

About Australians and their roos...


A Cajun was enjoying an extended vacation in Australia.

He had rented a nice apartment with full cooking facilities.

He found a young lady and invited her to diner.

He offered to cook what Cajuns are famous for: gumbo.

Everything as going fine until she asked him what he was doing with flour and oil in a frying pan.

He replied: "I'm cooking a ru".

Before grabbing her stuff and stomping out the door, she yelled "how could you do that to an adorable creature!".