By Paula LaRocque, KERA 90.1 Commentator
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-493517.mp3
Dallas, TX –
One maddening thing about English, especially to those who speak it as a second language, is pronunciation. In many languages, if you know how to spell a word, you also know how to pronounce it. Not so in English.
Some critic of English once suggested that the imaginary word "ghoti," spelled g-h-o-t-i, could be pronounced "fish" in English. That's because GH could be pronounced F, as in tough; O could be I, as in women; and TI could be SH, as in nation. Therefore, "g-h-o-t-i" is pronounced "fish."
Mispronunciation may be common, but it still makes listeners grit their teeth. There's been so much criticism of President Bush's pronunciation of nuclear, for example, that it's amazing he still says "nuke-yoo-ler."
All we have to do to correct some mispronunciation is to look at the word. Like "nuke-yoo-ler," the mispronounced "Realator" and "athalete" voice syllables that aren't there. Those words have just two syllables: "REALtor" and "ATHlete."
The word mischievous often has an extra syllable. Instead of MISchievous, some say "misCHEEVeeous." Heinous, grievous, and intravenous also get extra syllables "HAYneeous," "GREEveeous" and "intraVAYneeous." Similarly, jewelry is jewel with "ree" attached, but it's frequently mispronounced "jul-er-ree."
Irrelevant is mispronounced by transposing letters so that the word becomes not "irrelevant," but "irREVelant." Liaison is three syllables with a long A in the middle: "lee-A-zon." But for some reason, people ignore its spelling and mispronounce it "LAY-uh-zon."
The same sort of myopia exists when we say "EKcetera" instead of etcetera, "asteRIK" instead of asterisk, or "axe" instead of ask.
Also annoying to many are "EYEraq" and "EYEran" for Iraq and Iran. The I is short, not long. Ditto Italian, often mispronounced "EYEtalian."
Many people gnash their teeth over the non-word "irregardless" not because of how it's said, but that it's said at all. Regardless suffices. The syllables "ir" and "less" create a double negative, so "irregardless" doesn't make sense.
Although we don't need dictionaries to discuss those words, we do need them for many mispronounced words. Here are the preferred pronunciations for some commonly mispronounced words. These are the unanimous preferences of four widely used dictionaries of American English. British English may vary.
The preferred pronunciation is "exTRORDinary," not "extra-ordinary." The preferred way to say interesting is "INtristing," not "inneresting." The H on herbs is silent, making it "erbs." Flaccid [FLAKsid] is preferred, not "flassid." It's IMpotent, not imPOtent; height and not heighTH; akSESSry, not UHsessry. "HAIRass" and "HAIRassment" are the preferred pronunciations of the words we often hear as "harASS" and "harASSment." The dictionaries prefer "CariBEEan" to "CaRIBeean" and "ENvelope" to "AHNvelope." One of the most common mispronunciations is "fortAY" for the French word spelled "f-o-r-t-e." That word, which means one's strong point, is pronounced "FORT" and would be pronounced "fortAY" only if there were an accent mark over the E. The word "fortAY" is the Italian f-o-r-t-e, usually a musical direction. In any case, FORT and fortAY are two different words, with different meanings, and are pronounced differently.
A dictionary's preferred pronunciation means the most commonly accepted form. Pronunciation is not so much a matter of black and white as it is of prevailing practice. So most dictionaries list pronunciation options in the order of most to least preferred. But if a particular pronunciation is not listed at all, we must surmise it's neither preferred nor acceptable.
I'm Paula LaRocque
Paula LaRocque is a former writing coach and editor for the Dallas Morning News.
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