Thanks, Tim. I don't think I'll ever see "misled" without pronouncing it
her way. I love it.
I'll be the first to admit that I mispronounced many words until I was
surprised/embarrassed with the correct way. Garrison Keilor confesses to
the same, saying it's because as a child he was "a reader and not a talker."
He confessed to pronouncing Egyptian "e-gip-te-un" with a hard "g." (Well,
I was a pretty big talker too, but must not have used my mispronounced words
in the company of anyone who knew enough to correct me.) And I seldom
mispell. But heaven knows how many others I still mispronounce...
So here's my list:
OXYMORON (I pronounced it ox-sim'-er-on)
RETINA (re-teen'-a - must have said that until I took biology)
CLITORIS (cli-tor'-is - bet I never heard THAT one pronounced aloud)
POSTHUMOUS (post-hue'-mous - with a long "o")
Poor Don Q. was quick-so'-te
There are a couple more that I only discovered recently while listening in
my car to a Book on Tape. (I meant to look them up when I got home, but
subsequently forgot. I'd pronounced them "my" way for so long, that I
wondered if the reader were wrong. But I doubt it.)
So is a blooper okay if I laugh at myself??
Beth Benoit
University System of New Hampshire
on 12/14/01 1:52 PM, Tim Gaines at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> I suspect that all of us, at one time or another, have discovered
> that we have been pronouncing a word to ourselves incorrectly,
> perhaps for long periods of our lives. That could be a kind of
> blooper when we say it aloud, right? For example, a basketball
> play-by-play announcer last year wanted to say that a player's
> shot had gone "awry" but prounced it as if it rhymed with "story."
>
> So, just to show LS that I am a condescending jerk who gets his
> laughs at the expense of others, let me tell you the blooper my
> wife revealed to me the other day. As a kid, she started reading
> the word "misled" as . . . . . you know I can't think of how to
> describe this pronunciation. The "i" is a long i as in "rifle."
> The accent is on the first syllable, and the "led" is like "eld."
> In fact, the word "misled" was like "rifled" but with an m instead
> of the r and s in place of the f. I have been laughing at that
> one for days now. She says she still says it to herself
> sometimes when she is reading.
>
> I'm going to have to sit down sometime and try to remember all
> the words I have butchered myself.
>
> Tim
>
> P.S. For heaven's sake, don't tell my wife that I am humiliating
> her over the internet. What she doesn't know won't hurt her.
>
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