Tuesday, July 8, 2008

the importance of sounding it out

So I have this thing about words. I hate when common words are mispronounced. I know this doesn't carry the weight of, say, global warming, but seriously, these aren't tough words. They aren't foreign words that Americans have acquired to sound fancy pants but can't say correctly ("Would anyone care for some horse-doovers before dinner?"). These are everyday words. Phonetically easy words. We can handle them. So, I'm officially calling for an end to:
  • relator (as in, "Did you find a good relator to sell your house?")
  • nucular (as in, "There was an explosion at the nucular plant today! I feel funny.")
  • jewlery (as in, "Does this piece of giant fake gold jewlery make me look like a ho?")
  • expecially or eggspecially (as in, "Do you carry the expecially eggspecial on your breakfast menu?")
  • expresso (as in, "I would definitely take an expresso machine with me on Survivor.")
  • muse-em (as in, "This one might get me in trouble with my darling sister-in-law, who pronounces it muse-em even though she is a very intelligent person.")
Don't worry if you're reading this right now and thinking, "Heeeyyyy... I say that!" Many good, intelligent, God-fearing people pronounce words wrongly. Maybe this is my ministry.

So remember, you need a good
re-al-tor if you don't want your new house to be by a nu-cle-ar reactor, but you want to live close to the art mu-seee-um and a good eSSSpresso shop. Also, you prefer not to live in the ghetto, eSSSpecially if you have a lot of expensive jew-el-ry in your house.

Sound it out, friends. Sound it out.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very funny and true! I never thought about it, I guess. I do have to admit I am guilty of committing a few of those speech faux-pas (and maybe didn't even spell that right!) I'll work on sounding them out...

Talk to you soon!
Kelli

Jackson 3 said...

Oh I am so with you on this. One that drives me crazy: suppos-AB-ly. I see no 'b' in the supposedly. E-X-presso is definitely number one though.

Danielle said...

Expresso is my big pet peeve, too. Just pronounce the letters, people.

hgr said...

You forgot ambliance. I think that if you don't know how to pronounce ambulance then you don't deserve to ride in one!

Melissa (5M Creations) said...

Mine is Relator. UGH!!! I hate it when people say that.

February Jill said...

What about "laxadaisical" and even worse, "birfday?"

Danielle said...

My word pet-peeves (because this is just too fun of a game not to jump in on) are two that are most often heard in Idaho--Warshington and crick, as in "I'm going to mosey on up to Warshington and wash my britches in the crick." Got to love it.

Unknown said...

Mine is when people add an apostrophe-s onto the names of stores. For example, "We went to Fred Meyer's for some new shoes".

Heather said...

My husband's pet peeve is "fustrated" and many of our intelligent friends say this. I don't mind it - I think it is fun to hear and then watch my husband cringe! He gets so fustrated!

Anonymous said...

My sweet mother in law loves to shop at the Bond, now known as Macy's. You are on my to-do list this week! I am aching for some good conversation.

Whitney said...

That last comment was mine, don't know why I am anonymous.

Dara Wills said...

Mine is without a doubt Willamette, as in the river, which is always pronounced "Will-ah-mett-ey" and for all you non-Oregonian's out there it's "Will-a-met." And we live in OREGON, not Ore-gone.