Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Chris -- 2025-05-10
Seems like this must be on the site somewhere, but this is the best I found.
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English de-aspirates its stops (p t k) after s, and the pronunciation of mistake (with a non-aspirated t, contrast with the aspirated one in take ) is an example of that pattern. But it depends on the strength or intimacy of the bond between the mis – prefix and the stem; you can pretty easily pronounce it miss take and aspirate the t. There is no comparable way to aspirate the t in steak or stake since the s is not (part of) a prefix.
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I am quite sure I was old and experienced enough to be surprised (secondary or high school? college even?) when I tumbled to the realization that a mistake was a mis-taking of what you were after, and the non-aspirated t was probably a factor in that failure to take it right.
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It occurs to me to wonder if people don’t think of the mis-taker as having a stake in the wrong (misapprehended, misguided, misperceived, misunderstood, misanalyzing/-ed, etc.) side of a potential controversy or contention. It would make more sense than some other things in language, and the pronunciation would be exactly right.
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2021-02-04 06:40:01)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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A stealth eggcorn, possibly.
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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