Pet pronunciation hates

[Batalov]

Originally Posted by only_human

Because the first syllable of affect and effect are not stressed (at least here) the words are used almost interchangeably to my dismay. I see official correspondence careless about it.

http://xkcd.com/326/

[only_human]

Originally Posted by Visu

On a totally unrelated note it is amusing how a thread on "pet pronunciation hates" has mutated into one on bad grammar.

Well back on pronunciation peeves then. Google backs me up that it is annoying the way Bobby Flay pronounces chipotle.

How about nucular instead of nuclear? Grrr

[davieddy]

Originally Posted by only_human

How about nucular instead of nuclear? Grrr

I moaned about this in an early post. The worrying
thing is that the chief offender has had his finger on
the button for 8 years.

[only_human]

Originally Posted by davieddy

I moaned about this in an early post. The worrying
thing is that the chief offender has had his finger on
the button for 8 years.

I should have looked. Apropos this:

Originally Posted by only_human

Commentary on "Nucular": Geoffrey Nunberg - Going Nucular

[Uncwilly]

Pulls pin.
Tosses gernade.

somethingawful.com



TIC

[only_human]

(grammar again -- sorry. Why are there so many of these pairs?)
farther/further

[cheesehead]

Originally Posted by roger

Interesting how Webster doesn't have a pronunciation guide...

It depends on which Webster. Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged (to which I often refer as WTNID) has 15 pages (large pages, small font) of pronunciation guide.

This is a presentation of facts adequate, it is hoped, to explain the way we use our symbols in pronunciation indications in the vocabulary and to enable the consultant to infer certain pronunciations not actually shown from pronunciations that we do show.

[cheesehead]

Originally Posted by only_human

farther/further

This originally was a pronunciation matter. It seems (from WTNID) they have the same root in Old English; "further" is the more direct descendant. In Middle English a split in first-syllable pronunciation (and, I gather, initial divergence in meaning) was influenced by a comparative form of what is now "far".

[davieddy]

Originally Posted by Visu

How DO you pedal backwards?

The near futility of pedalling backwards as a means of slowing down
is what makes it such an apt metaphor for attempting to
unsay what has already been said.

[davieddy]

"Due to flooding, the pub was completely decimated."

[davieddy]

"eligibility" .
If you fail to empasize the first syllable, it invariably
comes over as "illegibility".