Question of the Day

Is there any word you compulsively mispronounce, because you got it into your head it was pronounced one way, and even though you've found out it's totally not pronounced that way, the mispronunciation refuses to unstick?

Capillary. Which is correctly pronounced KAP-uh-ler-ee, but which I persistently mispronounce ka-PILL-er-ee. I also routinely mispronounce rhetoric as reh-TOR-ic, like rhetorical missing its last syllable.

Iain is famous for these. He has one of the most prodigious vocabularies of any person to whom I've ever spoken—it's genuinely impressive. It was also gleaned almost entirely from a voracious reading habit, so he's often never heard these words actually spoken by anyone but himself, and it turns out he's not the greatest pronunciation-deducer of all time. My favorite ever is you-BICK-tchoo-us, which is how ubiquitous tumbles out of his mouth.

Another favorite is his mispronunciation of lascivious, which he pronounces, as though it is perhaps a desert destination town founded by a punk rocker, Las Vicious.

I should note, in case it isn't obvious, that I find this habit to be one of the most charming, utterly endearing things evah about him.

Shakesville is run as a safe space. First-time commenters: Please read Shakesville's Commenting Policy and Feminism 101 Section before commenting. We also do lots of in-thread moderation, so we ask that everyone read the entirety of any thread before commenting, to ensure compliance with any in-thread moderation. Thank you.

blog comments powered by Disqus