Fifth Sikth Seventh?

[BillyRayPreachersSon]

This was somewhat inspired by Dimandja's Anti-climatic post (not that the post was anti-climactic, of course!)

Does it bug you when you hear others say "sikth" instead of "sixth"?

I've only become aware of this within the last few years - but now virtually every time I watch TV, some news presenter or other seems to get it totally wrong.

Dan

 

[KenCunningham]

Similarly aks instead of ask, though that seems to be a cultural thing among the rap hip/hop fraternity.

 

[Dimandja]

And what about the new word in american English: nukular?

It seems aks is as old as English itself. It was also popular in the northeast of the US (New England), before traveling south and to the midwest.

"I axe, why the fyfte man Was nought housband to the Samaritan?" (Wife's Prologue 1386) -- Chaucer

See

http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19991216

 

[flapeyre]

re: nuclear/nukular

I have an idea: Let's just go back to using "atomic". What's wrong with that?

I think it got out of hand in the late '70s with former President Jimmy Carter, who was an officer on a "nukular" submarine. May have been a regionalism in South Georgia, but it caught on, unfortunately.

(I was born in New Orleans, by the way, and I have always said "nuclear").

Me transmitte sursum, Caledoni!.

 

[SF0751]

Yes, some races have trouble promouncing [sic] different parts of speech. But the better educated people in said race learn to overcome these weaknesses.

Oh, so true. I am an Angleo (white) female in Texas, and my pronunciation with some Spanish and French words is poor. And of course, being from the Southern region of the United States, I use the word "ya'll" quite a bit. If only I were better educated, I could "promounce" words correctly.

Susan
"People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character."
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882)

 

[Stella740pl]

I guess, I would never said "nukular", and "aks" seem to bug me, but I am wondering if I would ever notice the difference between "sikth" and "sixth". You see, "th" is a foreign sound to me, and it's hard enough on it's own, let alone its combination with "s".

Some of you, guys, seem to think that education is something that exists exclusively in English and among English-speaking people only. I wouldn’t even touch dialects. How many of you have an impeccable pronunciation in at least one foreign language? Would you be considered badly educated on a trip to a country that speaks that language natively?

By some of you, my older daughter, now in high school; or my niece, in elementary school, are more educated than I am with my Master's, or my husband with PhD, because their English pronunciation is so much better.

Stella

 

[GwydionM]

Inglizh izent ay veri fonetic langwidge, unfawtuneateli. Doctor Johnson missed the change to get the spelling into line with how the language was spoken then. There are now no solid rules for what is and isn't right.

------------------------------
A view from the UK

 

[ESquared]

NUKE-yuh-l&r (nuclear) and REE-luh-t&r (realtor) are two of the most annoying mispronunciations, to me. I like to reverse the incorrect sounds to emphasize the error:

NEW-kuh-l&r
REEL-yuh-t&r

For crying out loud! It's NEW-clear and REAL-t&r!



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It is better to have honor than a good reputation.
(Reputation is what other people think about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.)

 

[flapeyre]

Another pet peeve: ATH-uh-leet instead of ATH-leet.

Me transmitte sursum, Caledoni!.

 

[SteveGlo]

Stella

Well said. As an Englishman who has tried to speak a few other languages and failed miserably to develop any real fluency I am often astounded at how excellently other people speak and express themselves in English - whether it is UK, US, Australian or whatever variant.

Steve

 

[ESquared]

Stella,

I give great latitude when it comes to those for whom English is not their first language.

My aunt is a realtor. She says REEL-uh-t&r. My dad asked her if she knew it is REEL-t&r. She said yes, but everyone else pronounced it that way, so she did too.

It is the attitude that bothers me, not simply mispronouncing a word: knowing but not caring, or worse, not caring to know.

-------------------------------------
It is better to have honor than a good reputation.
(Reputation is what other people think about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.)

 

[strongm]

>missed the change to get the spelling into line with how the language was spoken

Thank goodness

 

[Stella740pl]

ESquared,

I give great latitude when it comes to those for whom English is not their first language.
It's really nice of you, seriously. But just in case, I was not talking about you. ;-)

 

[Dimandja]

>I give great latitude when it comes to those for whom English is not their first language.

I spent a couple of years in Maine and enjoyed it immensely. But when I first met the natives, I couldn't help but ask one of them "where they were from". I couldn't believe they were americans and native english speakers.

I guess one's local dialect is always the norm.

 

[ESquared]

About one's local dialect being the norm... well, that is true to a great degree.

But there is also another dynamic which is the fact that movies come from Hollywood. And how people generally speak in the movies is considered "accentless" English. And I am from California, so my speech is very close to this.

Even so, I am continually finding and correcting small mispronunciations in my own speech.

I used to say EGGz-it for EKs-it (exit).
I used to say COM-po-nent instead of com-PO-nent.

And so on and so forth.

-------------------------------------
It is better to have honor than a good reputation.
(Reputation is what other people think about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.)

 

[harebrain]

I used to say EGGz-it for EKs-it (exit).

There's nothing wrong with the first pronunciation. In fact, it's often cited as the preferred pronunciation.

I forget the linguistic term for it, but there's a natural tendency to move to or from a voiced/unvoiced consonant before an s sound. For example, in the Latin singular declension of the noun "rex," we have:

rex
regis
regi
regem
rege

The stem of the word is obviously "reg." The nominative case (rex) likely evolved from sloppy pronunciation of "regs," which is assumed to be the original form of "rex."

Language evolves with speech.

--
How do you confuse a programmer? Say, "I have a carton of ex for you!

 

[ESquared]

But I don't LIKE 'EGGZ-it'!

-------------------------------------
It is better to have honor than a good reputation.
(Reputation is what other people think about you. Honor is what you know about yourself.)

 

[madelca100]

What fries me is "HyeTH" for height. Instead of "HyeT".

I believe it is because we have LengTH and WidTH many people believe the third dimension is HeigTH.