Unwoody Words

MattShizzle · Post by **MattShizzle** » Sun Mar 26, 2017 11:44 pm

[quote=""Old Woman in Purple""]

Tubby;667498 wrote:On only two occasions I can think of, I heard "Aristotelian" pronounced-- though I've read it in print numerous times. Both of the speakers made it sound like "uh RISTA tillion." How standard is that?

Not knowing any better, I'd pronounce it "A-ris-toe-TELL-i-yun"... but I've never taken Latin. Am I way off?[/QUOTE]

Greek would be more appropriate than Latin.

Tubby · Post by **Tubby** » Mon Mar 27, 2017 3:14 am

Is it universal in English-speaking places for the pronunciation of "vaginal" to be inconsistent with the pronunciation of "vagina"?

DMB · Post by **DMB** » Mon Mar 27, 2017 5:35 am

[quote=""Tubby""]Is it universal in English-speaking places for the pronunciation of "vaginal" to be inconsistent with the pronunciation of "vagina"?[/quote]

No.

DMB · Post by **DMB** » Mon Mar 27, 2017 5:37 am

I've only heard Aristotelian pronounced as A -risto-TEEL-yan, with stresses on the initial A and the TEEL. Could be another national difference.

Abominable Intelligence · Post by **Abominable Intelligence** » Mon Mar 27, 2017 12:14 pm

Orientate is basically commonwealthish, that being saided, I have learnt [sic] over the years to use the word oriented because I'm presentated with the phrase "Object Oriented Programming" in compsci lit so often.

A guy I know has a tuned skyline GTR (one of those 1000+hp monsters), he has a bumper sticker that reads "If you can't run with the big dogs, stay on the Porsche".

And I fucking hate the word "paradigm".

Koyaanisqatsi · Post by **Koyaanisqatsi** » Mon Mar 27, 2017 1:41 pm

[quote=""DMB""]I don't think anyone other than a Dutch or Flemish person will get "van Gogh" correct. Americans seem to make it "van Go" and British usually say "van Goff" or "van Goχ". I only manage an approximation because of having lived in the Netherlands. Hint: the "a" in "van" isn't much like an English short "a" and the "G" at the beginning is guttural as is the "gh" at the end.[/quote]

I have a last name that is almost always mispronounced. The best/worst was when I went to take my SATs in high school. I approached the sign in and was asked, "Name?" I responded and then the person looked for it on her list, found it and then mispronounced it back to me with a question mark. I had just said the proper pronunciation literally to her face, but in reading it she just ignored how I pronounced it and expected me to confirm her version.

JamesBannon · Post by **JamesBannon** » Mon Mar 27, 2017 6:06 pm

"utilised" instead of "used"
"orientated" instead of "oriented"
"peruse" instead of "read"

DMB · Post by **DMB** » Mon Mar 27, 2017 6:58 pm

But don't "utilised" and "used" have different meanings?

Old Woman in Purple · Post by **Old Woman in Purple** » Mon Mar 27, 2017 7:47 pm

[quote=""MattShizzle""]

Old Woman in Purple;667502 wrote:
Tubby;667498 wrote:On only two occasions I can think of, I heard "Aristotelian" pronounced-- though I've read it in print numerous times. Both of the speakers made it sound like "uh RISTA tillion." How standard is that?
Not knowing any better, I'd pronounce it "A-ris-toe-TELL-i-yun"... but I've never taken Latin. Am I way off?

Greek would be more appropriate than Latin.[/QUOTE]

You're correct, of course. I've never learned Greek, either, tho, so no practical difference for my point.

JamesBannon · Post by **JamesBannon** » Mon Mar 27, 2017 8:02 pm

[quote=""DMB""]But don't "utilised" and "used" have different meanings?[/quote]

Only in the specialised sense of "make profitable use of", but most commonly it is used instead of use. In either case, it's a word I hate, especially when spoken.

MattShizzle · Post by **MattShizzle** » Mon Mar 27, 2017 8:12 pm

I've only heard a few people use it, but "excedra" - a mispronunciation/misspelling of "et cetera." I suppose the are mashing it together with the medication "Excedrin."

Politesse · Post by **Politesse** » Mon Mar 27, 2017 8:36 pm

[quote=""JamesBannon""]

DMB;667568 wrote:But don't "utilised" and "used" have different meanings?

Only in the specialised sense of "make profitable use of", but most commonly it is used instead of use. In either case, it's a word I hate, especially when spoken.[/QUOTE]
We use these terms separately and carefully in archaeology, and I presume other fields that analyze material culture/economies. That said, the use of "utilize" in popular discourse if woefully sloppy, so I take your broader point.

Hermit · Post by **Hermit** » Mon Mar 27, 2017 9:03 pm

People utilise utensils, and during orientation week they orientate.

Commentators never commentate, though.

JamesBannon · Post by **JamesBannon** » Mon Mar 27, 2017 9:44 pm

Sey · Post by **Sey** » Mon Mar 27, 2017 10:27 pm

[quote=""Hermit""]

Koyaanisqatsi;667380 wrote:Onomatopoeia. Considering its definition, it should at least be spelled ahnomahdahpaya.

Considering it's a Greek word I'd be more inclined to comment on the peculiarities of English pronunciation in general and its degenerative North American variants in particular.

[/QUOTE]
Ph is a Greek F, just as Y is a Greek I.
It does seem a bit redundant...

Scheherazade · Post by **Scheherazade** » Tue Mar 28, 2017 9:03 pm

The overused descriptor "awesome" does not even get a twitch from me any more.

It takes far more than the ability to perform perfunctorily at anything to impress me much.

(Shades of Shania Twain) I am not implying that I have 'seen it all' but I have observed sufficient to require significant sensory input to stimulate the response of 'awe'.

MattShizzle · Post by **MattShizzle** » Tue Mar 28, 2017 9:48 pm

I remember some years ago seeing a cartoon set in an advertising meeting. The first guy said "we need a word to describe our product that will leave people with a sense of awe." The 2nd guy said "How about awful?"

Tubby · Post by **Tubby** » Tue Apr 11, 2017 7:58 pm

[quote=""DMB""] I think the latter is probably a back-formation from "orientation".[/quote]

At 13:08 you can hear the man form the plural of "incident" as "incidences," rather than "incidents." I've heard others do the same. A back-formation from "incidence"?

Sey · Post by **Sey** » Wed Apr 12, 2017 3:15 am

[quote=""JamesBannon""]"utilised" instead of "used"
"orientated" instead of "oriented"
"peruse" instead of "read"[/quote]Peruse is a specific type of reading.

Arctish · Post by **Arctish** » Thu Apr 13, 2017 9:57 am

I hate it when hunters use the words "glassing" or "glass" to describe the act of scanning terrain through binoculars.

No, you morons, you didn't glass that mountainside. You looked at it.

Sey · Post by **Sey** » Fri Apr 14, 2017 3:34 am

And I hate it when people say "woof" when they mean wolf, "wala" when they mean voila, "foward" when they mean forward, or "ahnry" when they mean ornery. Isn't English hard enough to spell without deleting letters? Think of the children!

And what's with transposing the vowels in Shenandoah to "Shanendoah," and how did the Gulf of Mexico become the "Golf" of Mexico (I suspect Tiger Woods).
It's no wonder it takes kids years to learn to read and write, when we work so assiduously to mangle the correspondence between spelling and pronunciation.

Hermit · Post by **Hermit** » Fri Apr 14, 2017 3:44 am

[quote=""Sey""]And I hate it when people say "woof" when they mean wolf, "wala" when they mean voila, "foward" when they mean forward, or "ahnry" when they mean ornery. Isn't English hard enough to spell without deleting letters? Think of the children![/quote]
You better stay clear of 'Strayans.

MattShizzle · Post by **MattShizzle** » Sun Apr 23, 2017 6:06 am

When "aunt" is pronounced "ahnt." It's pronounced the same as "ant."

MattShizzle · Post by **MattShizzle** » Sun Apr 23, 2017 6:09 am

[quote=""Hermit""]

MattShizzle;667360 wrote:"Vase" sounds snobbish when it's pronounced like "vahz."

Unamerican. To call it snobbish reveals the breathtakingly (skip over the next word, Sub) horrid combination of ignorance and arrogance.

[/QUOTE]

So why did the British born/Swiss living DMB say that long a, s-pronounced c say that was the only proper pronunciation?

Hermit · Post by **Hermit** » Sun Apr 23, 2017 6:34 am

[quote=""MattShizzle""]When "aunt" is pronounced "ahnt." It's pronounced the same as "ant."[/quote]
Americans

[quote=""MattShizzle""]

Hermit;667364 wrote:
MattShizzle;667360 wrote:"Vase" sounds snobbish when it's pronounced like "vahz."
Unamerican. To call it snobbish reveals the breathtakingly (skip over the next word, Sub) horrid combination of ignorance and arrogance.

So why did the British born/Swiss living DMB say that long a, s-pronounced c say that was the only proper pronunciation?[/QUOTE]
Because, as I said, it's not snobbish. Only Americans pronounce it differently, which makes "vahz" un-American.