Word Pronunciations
Mar 3rd, 2008 by Micah Tillman | 22 Comments |
Saw a post today in which “cache” was misspelled “cachet,” and it reminded of how much it annoys me when people pronounce the word “cache” as if it were “cacher” or “cachet.”
“Cache” is pronounced the same way as “cash,” and is a place where you keep stuff.
“Cacher” (pronounced “cash-ay”) is the French infinitive from which “cache” derives, and “cachet” (also pronounced “cash-ay”) is something like a seal or mark of authenticity or coolness.
This annoys me almost as much as when people pronounce “Nietzsche,” “nee-chay.” It’s a German word. Not French. It’s “nee-chuh.” And it’s not “nee-chee” either.
Or when they pronounce “Kant” as “can’t” (using the American pronunciation of “can’t”). Kant was also German. Not American.
But as you all probably know by now, the one that really gets me is the North-East American pronunciation of “lawyer.” Evidently, “lawyers” are people who practice “loi” (rhymes w/ “boy”).
And, in the interest of being well-rounded, I also find it annoying when Southerners pronounce long-i sounds (as in “bike,” “I,” “thy,” etc.) as short-a sounds (as in the American pronunciations of “as,” “bad,” “dad,” etc.). I didn’t really notice this until I heard Kyle Petty on a radio advertisement (AD-ver-TISE-ment, contra the Brits; [do you ad-VER-tiss? No!]) call himself “Cal Petty” (as in Cal Ripken).
[To quote Peter Griffin, "You know what really grinds my gears? . . ."]
I say “loiyer.” So sue me.
:D
What do you say, then? Lah-yer?
Ok, smart guy, how do you get “shuh-SHEF-skee” out of Duke coach, Mike Krzyzewski?
Both pronunciations for lawyer are acceptable. There is even a third that is gaining acceptance, ‘blud-suk-ker.’
How do you pronounce forte; a strong point?
I pronounce Nietzsche, Nitch-skee, after the Green Bay Packer linebacker, Ray Nitschke. After Ray would hit someone on the field they would either say, “God, is ( I) dead?’ or, “Did you get the name of that Übermensch that just hit me?”
Amanda–
Okay, I will ;-)
Christine–
They practice law. No need to change the pronunciation of the “law” part of the word just because you stick a “yer” on the end. “Law” + “yer” = “LAW-yur” (rhymes with “I saw yer mom yesterday”)
Steve-
I love names like Coach K’s. I knew a family named Zglewski (pronounced, “Skluh-SHEFF-ski”).
Some people think smoking crack is acceptable. That doesn’t make it right.
The word forté is pronounced how it’s spelled. The accent aigu makes it different from words like “shoppe” and “cache.”
Speaking of Green Bay, what about Favre? Makes no sense.
My first name is actually Kyle. Most southerners pronounce it KAHL, although I have also been called KAL.
The absolute worst pronunciation “mistake” I have heard is ZOO-ology.
Oh, another one that is really annoying is BOH-kay for bouquet. It should be BOO-kay.
Lawyer: I don’t think that Merriam-Webster editors smoke crack, but they do accept both pronunciations.
Forte: 2 separate words. The one meaning ’strong point’ is pronounced ‘fort’. ‘For-tay’ is a musical direction, but since it has been used by crack smokers so often, it too is acceptable for indicating one’s strong point.
‘Fort’ is definitely the correct pronunciation for the meaning “strong point.” There is no accent on the end. However, most people smoke crack and pronounce it wrong. Some dictionaries have given in and now accept fort-ay.
RG–
Perhaps one of the reasons why the Kyle Petty example stuck with me was that “Kyle” is just such a metal name. It’s got a “k” and a “y” in it. And everybody knows if you’re going to have a metal band, it’s got to have as many k’s and y’s in it as possible.
My favorite zoo-related term is “zoon logikon” (the ancient Greek definition of humanity).
And sometimes I wonder what English would be like without that little Norman invasion. Would we even have the word “bouquet”?
Steve & Andrew–
Ah! Really? Forte has no accent? Last time I referred to “my fort” was when I was a little kid. Hilarious. Thanks for the correction :-D
I grew up using the “forte” version of the word in concert band, and according to http://www.etymonline.com, the “e” was added to the end of the English word to imitate the Italian.
Hmmm . . .
Actually, according to the OED, “forte” as in “The artful designing hypocrite is in his forte” has the -e ending because (as for many other French adjectives now used as English nouns) the feminine form was adapted, rather than the masculine. (As in morale, locale, etc.)
As far as “forte” as in “play the passage forte” or “the pianoforte” is concerned, the -e was not added to the end of the word to imitate the Italian — the -e has always been there, since “forte” is an Italian word. It means “loud,” or “strong.” (Note: “pianoforte” comes from a foreshortening of the Italian phrase “gravecembalo col piano e forte,” which roughly means “harpsichord with soft and loud”).
Lawyer rhymes with the last name of Mark Twain’s character, Tom Soi-yer.
My dear coz, regional accents are a fact of life and it is best to just deal with them — to cherish them, even. And if you will overlook my pronunciation of “lawyer” and “lieutenant,” I will certainly overlook those times when you talk like a hick ;)
I’m sure Mr. Tillman is consistent and pronounces it saw-yer as in Tom Sawyer mom yesterday.
By the way, one thing I love about the English is how many of them will talk about how regional dialects in England should be preserved and treasured and then will complain at length about how Americans speak, without ever noticing the contradiction.
As for forte, if we were really consistent with its French source, we’d both drop the e and make the t silent, pronouncing it “for.” My own sense is that Christine and the OED are correct and the Online Etymological Dictionary is mistaken about the origin of the final e.
Well, just to show how you hate us misprouncing names, on our syllabus, you spelled the names phonetically.
Christine–
There is a deep, ancient wound which I suspect underlies much of my annoyance with mispronounced names. *grin*
Andrew–
You are correct about “Sawyer.”
Seamus–
Indeed! I want to make sure y’all don’t embarrass yourselves in future philosophy classes by mispronouncing some philosopher’s name because I didn’t teach you correctly.
And Seamus can attest to the fact that I try to correct myself whenever I slip into a Floridian accent, Christine. :-)
O Micah–I am so glad you made this post. Keep the sanity coming!
j
As of this writing, I am in Florida, and they’re accent is truly similar to that of people from D.C.. So, that makes me wonder why you think you have one (yours is more of a “surfer dude”-like accent).
Joanna–
Yay! :-D Why thank you.
Seamus–
*laugh* Well, I have had a lot of influences over my time.
Ironically, I completely ignored this post until today when, after finally reading it all the way through, I proceeded to stumble upona site that uses the word “cachet” correctly, a word I was not aware existed until today.
Best laugh I’ve had all day.
Thanks! It’s good that even my being pettily annoyed can produce joy. That’s redemption. I think. :-)
Frankly, I don’t understand why people get so uptight about insignificant pronunciation differences. If you can understand someone when they say “loi-yer” or “law-yer”, even if that’s not how you say it, then there’s no issue. The pronunciations of words were created by humans; if a collective group of humans change a pronunciation then history is taking place. Words are completely subjective things. They will never be objective, no matter how many dictionaries there are.
I know a pretentious older student who insists on pronouncing PRIMER (as in the elementary school texts) as PRIMMER. She was mocked mercilessly but defended her pronunciation as proper (as taught to her by her idolized professor).
I looked it up to prove myself right.
Guess what..
I also say Loy-Yur and Soy-Yur. That’s how we say it on the West Coast..
Linnea–
You’ve never been made fun of for the way you pronounce words. If you had, you’d know why people care. *grin*
Things don’t have to be objective facts/standards for people to care about them.
Mr. Salk–
And everywhere else, evidently :-)