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BS: Mangling the English Language
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Lonesome EJ Date: 11 Sep 00 - 03:05 PM Have you ever become familiar with a word through reading it,but are unfamiliar with its actual pronunciation? I was reading a news article to my wife and read "He was the scone of a wealthy family." Lynne laughed,then explained it was "Sye-on"(scion).I also pronounce "sieve" to rhyme with Steve. Humbly,LEJ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: GUEST,Kim Date: 11 Sep 00 - 02:48 PM This list is pretty funny, but one I don't get is "chimbley" - for what??? Chimney, like a fireplace, is the only word I can think of, but I've never heard it said like that. For Banjo Johnny - how about: "It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid, than to open it and remove all doubt" Kim |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: GUEST, Banjo Johnny Date: 11 Sep 00 - 02:31 PM This is a revelation for me: I never realized that other people are just as annoyed by this sort of thing as I am. Now I feel better! A little. During a debate, my worthy opponent called me a sway-do intellectual. He lost -- grin! I would not expect folk-singers to be bothered by regionalisms such as n'other or chimbley. These words add color to our songs and they are not invented by song writers, but by ordinary people. However professional news readers, who are earning more money than I will ever see, are committing grammatical misusages I learned to avoid in the sixth grade. I heard a recent news report about the floundering of the Russian submarine Kursk. A national TV news program uses the expression "more on" such and such a subject. "More on education in a moment." (Education for morons?) I did get a chuckle when they announced, "When we return, we'll have more on George W. Bush." Note to world leaders and diplomats: our country is not called the Unite States. There is a "d". Work on it. Here are a few more for the litany: torturous for tortuous, fermiliar for familiar, preventative for preventive, athalete for athlete, mathmatics for mathematics, loan for lend. === Johnny in Oklahoma City "The best way to expose a fool is to let him speak." |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Penny S. Date: 11 Sep 00 - 02:17 PM acrorst, for across - which accent is this? Penny |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: catspaw49 Date: 11 Sep 00 - 01:54 PM When I first went south to college and heard someone say, "I got my Daddy to carry me over to the game," I had mental images of some 40 year old guy with his kid riding piggyback as he hiked across town to the ballfield. It was then I also realized just how dumb it was to ask, "Can you give me a lift?" Spaw |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Micca Date: 11 Sep 00 - 01:39 PM The one that always confuses and sounds wrong to me is the American use of the word "momentarily" it seems to mean "back IN a moment"there, whereas in British English it means "back FOR a moment". The other that gets up my snotter is Certificate pronounced" serstifficate" and the word "borrow" used instead of lend, as in " Borrow me your pen" as mentioned above, Guaranteed to get a sarcastic response that one, as in " From whom???". |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Micca Date: 11 Sep 00 - 01:39 PM The one that always confuses and sounds wrong to me is the American use of the word "momentarily" it seems to mean "back IN a moment"there, whereas in British English it means "back FOR a moment". The other that gets up my snotter is Certificate pronounced" serstifficate" and the word "borrow" used instead of lend, as in " Borrow me your pen" as mentioned above, Guaranteed to get a sarcastic response that one, as in " From whom???". |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: GUEST Date: 11 Sep 00 - 01:36 PM I was going to take Ebbie's remarks about Ronnie Ray-gun as an opportunity to rag on him a little, but naaah...I'll take the high ground. In the interest of fairness, remember when JFK made clumsy use of the German language - just as I'm about to do now - with that infamous "Ich bin ein Berliner" quote? Pronouncing boldly and confidently, "I am a jelly doughnut!" |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: M.Ted Date: 11 Sep 00 - 01:32 PM "Ne-go-see-ate" for negotiate--the creeping return of the silent "l". first in "Palm", then in "Salmon", and now, and most disturbing, in "walk"(first was "wok", then "Wauk", and now, ever so gradually, people are turning it into "waulk"), and "ignorant", as in, "I hadda get ignorant with him." |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: catspaw49 Date: 11 Sep 00 - 12:46 PM Yeah Leej......you be right dere! So like uh, what's the deal with Lefftenant anyway there Grab?(:<)) Spaw |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Lonesome EJ Date: 11 Sep 00 - 12:25 PM Grab...at least in America,it's spelled aluminum,not aluminium.Maybe you guys are pronouncing it wrong(God forbid!). |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Ebbie Date: 11 Sep 00 - 12:02 PM Grab, maybe someone else can tell you why we lost the i but we pronounce it aluminum because of it. To Guest Who Bemoaned Presidential Gaffes: I remember not believing my ears when Reagan told the President of Mexico, Mi 'cazza' est su 'cazza'. I couldn't believe that a person from southern California didn't know the Spanish pronunciation of casa. Still can't believe it. Crazy Eddie, 'pacific' was a deft touch! When I was a young 'un, reading voraciously and already loving words, I tried out many pronunciations on my laughing-uproariously family, i.e. pictureskew, fatigoo, astonn y shed, calfy, a rogant, and on and on... Ebbie |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Branwen23 Date: 11 Sep 00 - 11:52 AM dammit.... that never works for me... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: SINSULL Date: 11 Sep 00 - 11:47 AM Or I gave 110%! Sends me screaming into the night. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Branwen23 Date: 11 Sep 00 - 11:45 AM maybe it's just because i work in a computer field, but it drives me up the wall when clients come in to the service department at my store after having left their computers for repair and say, "i'm here to pick up my modem." or "i left my hard drive here for repair", meaning of course, the computer..... Call it obsessive, but I'm of the opinion taht if you're going to spend a couple thousand dollars on a machine, at least know what it's called..... -Branwen- |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Steve Latimer Date: 11 Sep 00 - 11:41 AM Ornch instead of orange. irregardless I seen that movie. Youse guys. I am an avid golfer and watch a lot of televised tournaments. It drives me crazy to hear these college educated ahtletes say "I hit it good today."
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: SINSULL Date: 11 Sep 00 - 10:56 AM Two favorites - posted elsewhere, I think: public hair for pubic digitalis clock menestration for menstruation annoys the hell out of me. Come to think of it they both do. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Grab Date: 11 Sep 00 - 10:25 AM Americanisms get me. OK, they have different names for some things, but that's just a dialect thing - you'll find that between different parts of Britain. But what gets me is the common mispronunciation of things where English says it normally, and the Americans have somehow gone off in a direction which not only doesn't match English, but also doesn't match the spelling of the word! For instance, "aloominum" instead of "aluminium" - why the long "u", and is the "i" thief at work over in the States? Grab. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: LR Mole Date: 11 Sep 00 - 09:25 AM "My-brain headache"?That was a definite "no-one really-says-that" for me until I heard someone call the senior-citizen disorientated condition "Old-Timer's". Makes as much sense as any other term, I guess. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Mrrzy Date: 11 Sep 00 - 09:17 AM Argh, yes, cohesiveness - what happened to cohesion? And one I forgot about from my childhood, when I thought my aunt had "very close veins" - made sense at the time, again! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: rabbitrunning Date: 11 Sep 00 - 09:01 AM I have to be fairly forgiving of people who learned the word by reading. When I was in high school, f'r example, I kept reading about this author named "go-eathee" who wrote Faust. Imagine my embarrassment in my last year of college when my Norwegian teacher was working a crossword puzzle (at lunchtime) and I contributed my knowledge to fill in one of the answers. She looked at me with appalled eyes and told me "It's pronounced "Gair-ta". ???? *shrug* At least she knew who I meant. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: GUEST,James Date: 11 Sep 00 - 08:58 AM I am a great fan of crosswords..if you really want to see mangled English, poor spelling and non words galore...do the New York Times Crosswords...they are dreadful.. I often wonder how they do them....is the illiterate person on the clue end or the answer end... ? Also, I once had a teacher tell the class not to conjugate near the water fountain. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 11 Sep 00 - 08:56 AM I disagree with Bagpuss that it's correct to say XXX's Auto's. Surely "auto" for "car" is widely understood. The actual principle at work here is that if you are not well-educated and a word frightens you, then you protect yourself by putting an apostrophe in the plural. That's why we see "potato's" at the grocery store, etc. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: GUEST Date: 11 Sep 00 - 08:38 AM A few years ago the plight of Gorazde in Bosnia became the center of brief media attention and Clinton mentioned it often during his addresses. He always mispronounced it "Goradze" and embarrassed me to be an American. That a world leader couldn't pronounce correctly the name of a city under siege seemed to belittle the suffering of its citizens. In the same vein, Jimmy Carter often talked about the "commonists." Maybe he was trying to coin a new word. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Bagpuss Date: 11 Sep 00 - 05:32 AM Actually guest, auto's is correct. You use an apostrophe in a plural if the singular word is an abreviation (automobile). Bagpuss |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: GUEST Date: 11 Sep 00 - 01:47 AM Nobody has yet mentioned the use of "apostrophe S" to create a plural. Usually seen at the market, listing the vegetables - though a fairly sizeable car repair and tyre depot close to me is called "xxxxx AUTO'S". Cheers, Terry |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Lonesome EJ Date: 11 Sep 00 - 01:26 AM Using the suffix "-ness" on the end of any word.This is popular with sports announcers, who either went through Junior College on a Football scholarship,or studied Journalism Light."The offense was cohesive in the first half,but lost their cohesiveness when the Captain was injured.They were aggressive,but lost their aggressiveness." This can also be done with "-ability" as a suffix."The rain reduced the runnability of the playing field.The Quarterback was throwing hard,reducing the catchability of the ball." Actually,I have less of a problem with "catchability" and "runnability" since at least they describe the situation so that you understand,AND I'm not sure there are any other single words that describe these conditions. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Crazy Eddie Date: 11 Sep 00 - 01:05 AM There are a few that annoy me, but I can't think of a pacific example right now.
But I wish we could form a committee, from all English speaking countries, to coin some agreed gender-free pronouns.
"If anyone has a suggestion, he should post it here." Someone, please coin some new pronouns. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: The Beanster Date: 11 Sep 00 - 12:42 AM Seems I'm guilty of misusing "comprise," also...learned a few things from this thread! I don't mind the mangulations (!) (ha) that result from a subpar education as much as I do the ones that are the result of being too lazy to look up the word in the dictionary! Expertise is one of those that gets mispronounced as ex-per-tees with an "s" sound on the end when it's supposed to be ex-per-teez with a "z" sound--like strip tease. A word I won't even use is forte (not the musical one, the other one) which is supposed to be pronounced as fort. But almost everyone insists on fort-ay. If I say it correctly, I'm corrected! lol Speaking of medical ones, it really sets my teeth on edge to hear someone say, "I have a temperature." Duh. And lucky you are, to have one! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: campfire Date: 11 Sep 00 - 12:02 AM Jon, I'm with you on "borrow" instead of "loan". I have a friend who asked if I could borrow her my bicycle. I told her no, but I would loan it to her. She gave me a strange look... A woman I work with insists that the doctors told her that her mother has senile dimensions. campfire |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: GUEST,John Gray / Australia Date: 10 Sep 00 - 10:41 PM Nonkalont for nonchalent, even sounds better. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: GUEST,CLETUS Date: 10 Sep 00 - 10:02 PM Yall dun hit rite on wanna my leest favritist subjecks an thets how sum folks can massacree the Merican langwaj. Now I haint wun ta be a braggin er nuthin but Ise rite proud ta have me a forth grayd edgykashun an I no thet sum haint bin thet luckie an all. But itz a mitey fine thing ya axt heer an I doan holt wif nobuddy mezzin up whut thair sain cuz thay doan uze gud grammarly stuff. Jez doan holt wiffit tall. I allus duz my absulutest bez job when Ima tockin er ritin senz commukatin iz reel impotent. CLETUS (BTW--Cletus isn't a buffoon or a "shitkicker"....just a nice, well meaning, friendly, fellow who fell through the cracks in this country.......Spaw) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Thomas the Rhymer Date: 10 Sep 00 - 09:54 PM Jabberwoky? Walt Whitman? Creativacious Carnivorosity! Stupendocial Schooleries... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Ebbie Date: 10 Sep 00 - 09:44 PM Jon, Me and so and so doesn't bother me as much as, for instance, 'he told my wife and I, etc.' No one would say 'He told I', so why don't they see that my wife and I is also not correct?! (Especially since I'm female.) Ebbie |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: bob jr Date: 10 Sep 00 - 09:31 PM my mancurian cousins say likkle instead of little,booook instead of book ditto for coooook and looook (spoken to rhyme with luke) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Jon Freeman Date: 10 Sep 00 - 08:54 PM How about "can you borrow me £1 [or whatever]?". Does "Me and [whoever] did [whatever]" annoy others? I hate it. Jon |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: guinnesschik Date: 10 Sep 00 - 08:21 PM I once heard Michael Ervin of the Dallas Cowboys say, "It behooves the hell outta me why we lost that game." I laughed 'til I cried. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: guinnesschik Date: 10 Sep 00 - 08:18 PM One word: Conversate. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Banjer Date: 10 Sep 00 - 06:54 PM It is interesting to see how meanings of words have so totaly changed over the years. I had a bad time in elementary school when our music teacher was trying to get us to learn some Christmas carols. I wasn't about to 'don my gay apparel'. In 'My Old Kentucky Home' 'the (insert your own favorite word here) are happy and gay' A word that once meant happy and carefree now means something totaly diferent! Why? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: GUEST,Kit Date: 10 Sep 00 - 06:23 PM One that makes my blood run cold is when people put an apostrophe in its when it shouldn't have one - like "I gave the cat IT'S milk". AAAHHH!!! My English teacher actually pronounced "hyperbole" phonetically, like hyper-bowl. Guess that's like the Superbowl only bigger. Also gets me when people say "I won you" when they mean "I beat you" - that's a really annoying one... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Jon Freeman Date: 10 Sep 00 - 06:22 PM Thinking of hospitals, one that used to tickle my mother was a little old lady with "creptipuss knees" (crepitus). Continuing with things medical, I have met people who have said "I've got blood pressure" not to mention having a cardiac heart or renal kidneys, etc. Jon |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Helen Date: 10 Sep 00 - 06:09 PM * remuneration confused with renumeration (often in the same sentence by one of my previous bosses, who loved buzzwords and used to make me wish there was a blackboard handy for fingernails) * a school friend in primary (elementary) school used to say hos'-dib-le instead of hospital * not pronouncing the 'r' is an Oz thing. A US friend of mine used to comment on it frequently. "It's Pe'terrrr, not Petah". I tried to tell her the name of a local street one day and she kept saying "Chew-dah, what is Chew-dah? Oh, you mean Too-dorrr (Tudor)?" * rabitrunning, as a former "li-berryan" I have to confess I love annoying people by referring to the "liberry" only half the people I say it to don't realise that it is a joke - i.e a quarter of them say it that way too, and the other quarter get disdainful and think I don't know any better. Just my strange sense of humour. * I like using the word burg-u-lar too. * a Polish teacher I had once used to say "com'putent" because she thought it had something to do with computers. * I find that having studied Latin makes it a lot easier to keep track of words and spelling - it's hard to confuse money and numbers in the remuneration/renumeration mix-up? There are heaps more that I could list but this is enough for now - but I'll probably be aware of people's word usage now and pick up a few more. I heard a really funny one the other day but I can't remember it right now. Helen
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Liz the Squeak Date: 10 Sep 00 - 05:56 PM Like my sister who went in for a hysterical rectomy.... and she used to WORK in a hospital!! LTS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Parson Date: 10 Sep 00 - 05:40 PM My Dad had one when I was growing up. It wasn't until I was a teenager that it suddenly dawned on me what he was saying. He would be telling about something funny that happened at work & when the punch line came, he would say, "We come miss laughing." And I couldn't figure how what come miss had to do with it, until I suddenly realized one day that he was saying "commenced." This, BTW is a common Appalachian expression. There are a ton of them. I couldn't begin to list them all. But there is one other word, I will share. It is the plural for the word "Test." As in, I'm going to the hospital tomorrow for tests. As a Pastor, it is all you can do to keep a straight face & look serious and concerned when a lady comes up to you and says, "I'm going to the hospital tomorrow to get some testes." With that, I will say, "Good bye." Randall |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Liz the Squeak Date: 10 Sep 00 - 05:40 PM And draw instead of drawer.... ggggrrrrrrrrrrrrr...... LTS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Liz the Squeak Date: 10 Sep 00 - 05:36 PM AArrrggghh, compared with, instead of compared to..... drives me up the wall...... LTS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: R! Date: 10 Sep 00 - 05:23 PM Earlier this year, this appeared in a memo routed to all employees in our department: "...for all intensive purposes..." rather than the more well-known "intents and purposes." Don't forget tenderhooks for tenterhooks. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: sophocleese Date: 10 Sep 00 - 04:43 PM Hell, I've pismronounced a few worms in my day. In highschool I was in a play about Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. I can still remember the frustrations of trying to get one young woman to say dWarves not dRorves and then I went and said, "Beauty withers with the ears(years)". OOps!
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Jon Freeman Date: 10 Sep 00 - 04:09 PM It appears that I have been getting comprise wrong as I have been using "is comprised of". My dictionary (Chambers) defines it as "v.t. to contain or to include" and saying "the US is contained of... would certainly grate". I checked that little program, Guru Net, that someone recommended in a Mudcat thread. Here is what it had to say on the usage: USAGE NOTE: The traditional rule states that the whole comprises the parts; the parts compose the whole. In strict usage: The Union comprises 50 states. Fifty states compose (or constitute or make up) the Union. While this distinction is still maintained by many writers, comprise is increasingly used, especially in the passive, in place of compose: The Union is comprised of 50 states. In an earlier survey, a majority of the Usage Panel found this use of comprise unacceptable. Jon
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Amos Date: 10 Sep 00 - 04:08 PM Been down that battle before, David, and I am afraid we are losing it. The bureaucratic uglies have infected it to the extent that "comprise" is used to mean either "compose or consitute" or "consist of". Sigh. Some dictionaries are such wusses about holding the line. It is well and good that English is a volatile and evolving language, but I would love to see a standard held that rejected regressive evolution born of stupidity and ignorance, while honoring those changes creatively added tot he language to reflect new thoughts and new situations. I think there's an important distinction to be made. Those who reinvent the language because they are too lazy or ignorant to know it in the first place are wasting a lot of hard cognitive hitory, and of course they will be condemned to repeat it... A |