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#76 2008-08-06 02:43:57

Dixon Wragg
Eggcornista
From: Cotati, California
Registered: 2008-07-04
Posts: 1375

Re: Things you read and understood but mispronounced in your mind

Sparky wrote:

“bq. Vagina.
“I pronouced it VA-gih-na, with the same stress as in ‘vaginal.’ ”

Yeah, Sparky, and I’m sure that you too have noticed a million people mispronouncing CLIT-or-is as “cli-TOR-is”. We ought to talk about these things a lot more so we can all learn the proper pronunciations. Prudishness is apparently inimical to proper pronunciation, LOL!

Dixon

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#77 2008-08-14 16:48:52

JonW719
Eggcornista
From: Colorado
Registered: 2007-09-05
Posts: 285

Re: Things you read and understood but mispronounced in your mind

I was just remembering yet another word that I mispronounced in my mind, and that is bedraggled. I pronounced it BED-raggled and believed it meant the tousled (ragged?) way a person looks after sleeping.

Then it occurred to me that we may be on to a subcategory of eggcorn, one not caused by mishearing but by misreading. At least some of the words people have listed carried a distinct imagery that the reader extrapolated from the mispronunication, such as “bed-raggled.”

Last edited by JonW719 (2008-08-14 16:57:56)


Feeling quite combobulated.

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#78 2008-08-14 18:04:34

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2712
Website

Re: Things you read and understood but mispronounced in your mind

Definitely eggcornish.

Which modality of signage is similar is of course the issue: here the written sign is the same for either construal, but the spoken sign is strikingly different. In more typical eggcorns the spoken sign is (nearly) the same for either construal, and the written may or may not be.

I expect for sign languages something similar might well hold. But it would depend on the language having signs that were extremely similar if not identical. Be an interesting question.

Bed-raggled is just a beautiful example in any case.

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2008-08-14 18:07:03)


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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#79 2008-08-15 23:45:22

patschwieterman
Administrator
From: California
Registered: 2005-10-25
Posts: 1680

Re: Things you read and understood but mispronounced in your mind

Well, what about things you misunderstood and mispronounced? I was reading the preface to The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton this morning, and was momentarily puzzled by a note on the dedication that appeared in an earlier version of the book: “These ghostly straphangers to Walter de la Mare.”

I thought, “What’s a ‘stra-fin-jur’? Must be Greek—the str of ‘astro,’ the ph of ‘pharmacy’....” Then finally the brain of this native Westerner inserted a hyphen between “strap” and “hanger.”

I’ve rarely seen the word “straphanger,” but in my few encounters I always thought it was a jocular name for commuters on the New York subway. But Wharton seems to be using it to refer to someone/-thing that rides on someone else’s coattails.

[Edit. The OED only has the commuter sense listed, but Wikipedia offers support for my reading of the Wharton. Under the “Other Definitions” section of the “Straphanger” article, Wikipedia says, “”Straphanger” is sometimes used to mean a person who benefits from the actions and exertions of someone else, with no efforts of their own; someone who is “just along for the ride”.” Hey, OED, time to revise this one.]

Last edited by patschwieterman (2008-08-16 00:31:02)

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#80 2008-08-16 21:19:27

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2712
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Re: Things you read and understood but mispronounced in your mind

I love those.

I have about three of those buzzing around the edge of my consciousness that I’ve done, and I can’t bring them to mind. Rats.

Well, cooperation still sometimes makes we want to pronounce it like cooper.


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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#81 2008-08-17 13:40:55

rogerthat
Eggcornista
From: Denver, Colorado, USA
Registered: 2008-05-19
Posts: 64

Re: Things you read and understood but mispronounced in your mind

Thanks, David. With your cooper-ation, I recall a problem I once had with reen-forced pronunciation.

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#82 2008-08-18 21:09:56

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2712
Website

Re: Things you read and understood but mispronounced in your mind

Goatherd was occasionally one for me: shepherd ought to have been, but I guess I learned to read that one too well too early.

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2008-08-18 21:14:34)


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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#83 2008-08-19 09:33:14

JonW719
Eggcornista
From: Colorado
Registered: 2007-09-05
Posts: 285

Re: Things you read and understood but mispronounced in your mind

In the same vein: “potsherd.” Pots-heard? Pot-sured?


Feeling quite combobulated.

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#84 2008-08-19 09:49:19

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2712
Website

Re: Things you read and understood but mispronounced in your mind

Yes! (That was probably the main one I was scraping around for in my brain.)


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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#85 2008-08-30 08:23:47

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2712
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Re: Things you read and understood but mispronounced in your mind

From today’s version of World Wide Words:

By the way, people sometimes think indices is an English plural and so make a singular noun indice from it (apice and vertice are also very occasionally seen). Examples of indice can be found going back a century or more, not always in uneducated writing. A note by Charles Doyle appeared in the Winter 1979 issue of American Speech: “At a recent academic gathering, a literary savant began his speech with a quotation that spoke of certain indices. Thereafter, at least a dozen times, the speaker referred to this or that indice (ending like jaundice).” It most recently appeared in the Washington Post on 22 August 2008: “Yet as an indice of some of the lines of attack that the McCain camp is employing it is of great interest.” Thus does language change …

Presumably these people pronounced the plural to rhyme with jaundices or premis(s)es or promises?

In any case, this is a backformation, but related to what we’ve been talking about. I can easily see people pronouncing it to rhyme with “dice” rather than “jaundice”. Or “ín-de-see”, in another back-formation.

I have recorded several people using “crisee” as the singular of “crises”.

I’m not sure the pronunciation “premisees” was ever standard for me, but I’m sure I have used it.

Times I’ve thought people were using a singular “parenthesis” meaning a set of parentheses, they may have been using a spelling pronunciation of “parentheses” itself, with schwa instead of ee for that last vowel.

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2008-08-30 10:31:51)


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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#86 2008-08-30 23:12:27

Dixon Wragg
Eggcornista
From: Cotati, California
Registered: 2008-07-04
Posts: 1375

Re: Things you read and understood but mispronounced in your mind

DavidTuggy wrote:

Well, cooperation still sometimes makes we want to pronounce it like cooper.

If you’re cooperating on making barrels, perhaps you could!

Sorry;

Dixon

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#87 2008-08-30 23:16:30

Dixon Wragg
Eggcornista
From: Cotati, California
Registered: 2008-07-04
Posts: 1375

Re: Things you read and understood but mispronounced in your mind

When, as a child, my mother read the Bible verse that mentioned “divers” (diverse) places, she thought it was referring to underwater (places where divers dive to).

Dixon

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#88 2008-08-31 00:38:03

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2712
Website

Re: Things you read and understood but mispronounced in your mind

Dixon Wragg wrote:

DavidTuggy wrote:

If you’re cooperating on making barrels, perhaps you could ¶ Sorry; ¶ Dixon

Just don’t do it again. Hate to have to re-cooperate.


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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#89 2008-09-10 15:36:18

JonW719
Eggcornista
From: Colorado
Registered: 2007-09-05
Posts: 285

Re: Things you read and understood but mispronounced in your mind

I just thought of one more: Poignant. I alway thought it was similar to “pregnant” and so I pronounced it as “poig-nant.” ;-)


Feeling quite combobulated.

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#90 2008-10-15 19:36:53

Sandi
Member
From: New Zealand
Registered: 2005-11-09
Posts: 30

Re: Things you read and understood but mispronounced in your mind

Long time, no post, great to be back

I too, was a voracious reader as a child. Not just books but anything with words eg packaging, shop signs. The first word I remember mispronouncing is antique. I asked my father “What does an ant-ee-cue shop sell?”. Also thanks to my mother’s mispronunciation, I used to say “mis-pro-NOUN-see-ay-shun”. I never noticed the missing ‘O’ when reading it. I’m not sure now at what point I changed to “mis-pro-NUN-se-ay-shun” but am now hyper-aware of anyone else saying it incorrectly.
Hm, my mother was schooled by nuns and was terrified of them for much of her young life, I wonder if that’s why she replaced the nun with a noun?

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#91 2008-11-16 02:18:05

edcrater
Member
Registered: 2008-11-09
Posts: 7

Re: Things you read and understood but mispronounced in your mind

As a child I used to think MISLED was pronounced MYZE-ULD. I was about 18 before I learnt it was MISS-LED.

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#92 2008-11-18 17:30:03

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2712
Website

Re: Things you read and understood but mispronounced in your mind

Yeah, that one’s a classic. (Though why you guys insist it is pronounced MIZZLE-D o MYZLE-D, I’ll never understand. The true mispronounciation is definitely MICE-LE-D.)

And welcome to the forum, Ed.

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2009-03-21 15:01:17)


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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#93 2008-12-06 21:26:40

edcrater
Member
Registered: 2008-11-09
Posts: 7

Re: Things you read and understood but mispronounced in your mind

DavidTuggy wrote:

Yeah, that one’s a classic. (Though why you guys insist it is pronounced MIZZLE-D o MYZLE-D, I’ll never understand. The true mispronounciation is definitely MYSLE-D.)And welcome to the forum, Ed.

David: Thanks. But please tell me why you use “mispronounciation”? Is it dialect? I have only ever seen/heard this once before, and that was from a Londoner who also happened to be a TEFL teacher!

Ref: “Pronounce” is the verb, but the O is omitted for the noun: “pronunciation.” This mistake ranks right up there in incongruity with “writting.”
[[From http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/pronounciation.html]]

Regards, Ed.

Last edited by edcrater (2008-12-06 21:28:03)

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#94 2008-12-06 23:30:59

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2712
Website

Re: Things you read and understood but mispronounced in your mind

Just playing around—embracing the incongruity, if you like. Also a kind of reference to Sandi’s post (#90 above).
.
I have always loved iconic (self-referential) and counter-iconic (self-contradictory) words, such as multisyllabic and monosyllabic. Words like “snargled”, “intertwingled”, and “entwangled” are much better words than “mixed” or “entangled” and so forth, because they embody their meaning. Similarly, then, it just seems like mispronunciation ought to be mis-pronounciated since that is its meaning. There’s also a kind of fun in purposefully pronouncing a sort of “prissy” word in an obviously crude way: I have a brother who takes great pleasure in disclosing to people that he is not a “k’nowser” of fine wines.
.
There’s actually a classic paradox tied to this situation (a version of the liar paradox). You divide all words into two classes, those which are self-descriptive and those which are not. Then you ask which class the word non-self-descriptive fits in. (If it is, it isn’t, and if it isn’t it is …)
.
I mentioned in another post, but might as well repeat as iconic of the fact, that I am inordinately proud of having gotten into print the sentence: “English exhibits a definite propensity for diminutivity, even monosyllabicity, in its lexical formulations; on the other hand, it likes long words too.”

Last edited by DavidTuggy (2008-12-06 23:42:10)


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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#95 2009-01-21 15:26:47

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2712
Website

Re: Things you read and understood but mispronounced in your mind

Just ran across one of these from years ago. C.S. Lewis, in the preface to the Screwtape Letters , refers to

the soft, slim, girlish, and consolatory angels of nineteenth century art, shapes so feminine that they avoid being voluptuous only by their total insipidity—the frigid houris of a teatable paradise. They are a pernicious symbol. In Scripture the visitation of an angel is always alarming; it has to begin by saying ‘Fear not.’ The Victorian angel looks as if it were going to say, ‘There, there’.

I remember various attempts (mostly tending to the salacious) on my part to figure out what in heaven a “teatable paradise” might be. It wasn’t till years later that it dawned on me that it might well be a tea-table paradise.


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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#96 2009-01-23 00:16:32

patschwieterman
Administrator
From: California
Registered: 2005-10-25
Posts: 1680

Re: Things you read and understood but mispronounced in your mind

Wow—I wonder if Lewis had been thinking about Donne’s poem “Elegy 19: To His Mistress Going to Bed.” Donne’s narrator is watching his girlfriend get undressed for bed, and one section of the poem at the end of the first strophe highlights a number of the same things as Lewis’s remark—the female figure, the difficulty of differentiating angels from demons, Islamic conceptions of paradise and (you rather than Lewis) more than a suggestion of salaciousness:

In such white robes, heaven’s angels used to be
Received by men; thou, angel, bring’st with thee
A heaven like Mahomet’s paradise; and though
Ill spirits walk in white, we easily know
By this these angels from an evil sprite,
Those set our hairs, but these our flesh upright.

Donne’s paradise is clearly teatable.

Last edited by patschwieterman (2009-01-23 00:18:12)

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#97 2009-01-23 08:45:09

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2712
Website

Re: Things you read and understood but mispronounced in your mind

I’d never thought of the Elegy together with that passage, but, as you say, it certainly does have a lot of parallels. Lewis may well have had it in mind. (I agree, though, that he probably didn’t intend “teatable” to have salacious overtones.)
.
Speaking of that last line, a friend once related the effect on him of an eerie experience, saying “It made all the hair stand up on the back of my end.”


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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#98 2009-01-23 10:31:39

JonW719
Eggcornista
From: Colorado
Registered: 2007-09-05
Posts: 285

Re: Things you read and understood but mispronounced in your mind

Hi, all: Nice to see this topic still has some life in it! :-) David, “teatable” was hilarious! Good addition to the thread.


Feeling quite combobulated.

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#99 2009-01-23 10:37:55

kem
Eggcornista
From: Victoria, BC
Registered: 2007-08-28
Posts: 2850

Re: Things you read and understood but mispronounced in your mind

Speaking of that last line, a friend once related the effect on him of an eerie experience, saying “It made all the hair stand up on the back of my end.”

My wife and I have been catching up on some of the old Poirot videos. Peter Ustinov did six Poirot movies, I think, and David Suchet continues his almost twenty-year run on ITV and PBS as Agatha’s Belgian detective.

Each Poirot video production features at least one good idiom blend. Blends are Poirot’s verbal trademark. Perhaps we should call idiom blends “Poirots.”


Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.

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#100 2009-01-23 10:58:09

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2712
Website

Re: Things you read and understood but mispronounced in your mind

You always wonder, in a literary work of that sort, if the author is embedding blends she heard/read, or inventing them.


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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