"acrossed" for "across"?

Guest   Sun Oct 28, 2007 4:45 pm GMT
furrykef   Sun Oct 28, 2007 6:14 pm GMT
Hmm, I don't think I've heard that one.

Now, regarding the rest of the list...

I notice that some items on that list are really eggcorns rather than mispronunciations. For more about eggcorns, see http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/ Others are usage errors rather than mispronunciations. Seems ironic to me that somebody who cares enough about English to want to enforce a rigid pronunciation standard would misuse the word "mispronunciation"!

One that they mark as incorrect is "card shark". Although it probably did come about as an alteration of "cardsharp", some people use the two terms distinctly, using "card shark" to refer to any tough player, cheater or otherwise, and "cardsharp" to refer to a cheater. Many people are unfamiliar with this distinction, but it does exist.

Also, "duct tape" and "duck tape" are homonyms for me. "Duck" and "duct" by themselves aren't, but I geminate the two t's in "duct tape" together, which I think is perfectly normal and not a mispronunciation.

I also consider pronouncing "February" as "Febyuary" to be a mainstream pronunciation. I think it's hardly any different than pronouncing "Wednesday" as "Wensday", except that some people do still pronounce "February" the way it's spelled. Pronouncing "library" as "libary" is still stigmatized, though.

Regarding the word 'herb', it says, "Initial [h] is always pronounced outside America and should be in all dialects of English." What gives this guy the authority to change the pronounciation of "herb" in US English? Omitting the "h" is definitely the preferred pronunciation of "herb" in the US, and I'd wager that most would actually perceive pronouncing the "h" as a mispronounciation. On that note, I never hear "parliament" with the "i" pronounced either. Nor would I consider "sherbert" a mispronunciation, though "sherbet" still has plenty of use. I always hear "spitting image", never "spit and image". "Stomp" is most definitely a word, if only in the sense of stomping/stamping feet and not postal stamps.

It says this about "whet": "In the Northeastern US the sound [hw], spelled "wh," is vanishing and these two words are pronounced the same. Elsewhere they should be distinguished." I suspect he's got this one backwards... I *think* the northeastern US is the only place where the distinction has been consistently retained, not where it has been lost. (I myself am not from the northeastern US and usually do not pronounce "wh" and "w" differently.) I'm not sure where to look this up, though.

The other ones are correct as far as I know.

- Kef
furrykef   Sun Oct 28, 2007 7:32 pm GMT
By the way, there was actually a running gag on an episode of Family Guy where characters would overpronounce the "h" sound in words like "whip". Clearly, the writers thought pronouncing the "h" was unusual.

- Kef
Lazar   Sun Oct 28, 2007 7:50 pm GMT
I had a primary school teacher who said "acrossed" for "across". (I think she wasn't from New England, though.)

<<No, the Northeast doesn't generally make this distinction.>>

True - with the exception of a couple Southerners and one pedantic high school English teacher, I've never heard anyone make the distinction here in Massachusetts. I related this story a few months ago:

<<I remember I had a high school English teacher who made the /w/-/W/ distinction. The annoying thing was when she was teaching us about alliteration, and she said, "If there's a word with 'w' followed by a word with 'wh', that's not alliteration." Even if the author in question didn't make the distinction, and even though the overwhelming majority of Americans (including everyone in the class) and the almost complete majority of English people don't make the distinction, it still doesn't count because she says so.>>
Milton   Mon Oct 29, 2007 12:15 am GMT
I like the /hw/ pronunciation. I find it ''classy'' LOL so I use it ;)

''Wine-whine merger

The wine-whine merger is a merger by which the voiceless labio-velar approximant (/ʍ/) or sequence /hw/ (spelled wh) becomes voiced to /w/; it occurs in the speech of the great majority of English speakers. The resulting /w/ is generally pronounced like the original /w/, but sometimes like the original /ʍ/ or /hw/; this may be due to hypercorrection.
The wine-whine merger in the United States. The area marked in purple is where preservation of the contrast is strongest. In other areas the merger predominates, though sporadic instances of contrast preservation are found throughout the country. Based on [1] and the map at Labov, Ash, and Boberg (2006: 50).
The wine-whine merger in the United States. The area marked in purple is where preservation of the contrast is strongest. In other areas the merger predominates, though sporadic instances of contrast preservation are found throughout the country. Based on [1] and the map at Labov, Ash, and Boberg (2006: 50).[1]

The merger is essentially complete in England, Wales, the West Indies, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, and is widespread in the United States and Canada. In accents with the merger, pairs like wine/whine, wet/whet, weather/whether, wail/whale, Wales/whales, wear/where, witch/which etc. are homophonous. The merger is not found in Scotland, Ireland (except in the popular speech of Dublin), and parts of the U.S. and Canada. The merger is not usually stigmatized except occasionally by very speech-conscious people.

According to Labov, Ash, and Boberg (2006: 49)[1], while there are regions of the U.S. (particularly in the South and the Midwest) where speakers keeping the distinction are about as numerous as those having the merger, there are no regions where the preservation of the distinction is predominant (see map). Throughout the U.S. and Canada, about 83% of respondents in the survey had the merger completely, while about 17% preserved at least some trace of the distinction.

The wine-whine merger, although apparently present in the south of England as early as the 13th century,[2] did not become acceptable in educated speech until the late 18th century. While some RP speakers still use /ʍ/, most accents of England, Wales, West Indies and the southern hemisphere have only /w/.

Phonologically, the sound of the wh in words like whine in accents without the merger is either analyzed as the consonant cluster /hw/, and it is transcribed so in most dictionaries, or as a single phoneme /ʍ/, since it is realized as the single sound [ʍ].'' (wikipedia)