Discussions about eggcorns and related topics
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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
The phrase “go ashtray†is used as a punning replacement for “go astray.†On at least a dozen web sites, however, the phrase is used with no evidence of a pun. Many of these web sites are written by people from India and Southeast Asia. Perhaps a regional eggcorn?
The moral of the eggcorn: when you go ashtray you may end up with your life turned to ashes and your butt in a can.
Examples:
A post on a bulletin board: “we cud have beautifullest of dreams or scienctifically oriented minds but those go ashtray without proper manifestations. money helps manifesting and implementing our dreams.†(http://www.mylot.com/w/discussions/377226.aspx)
On a Myanmar bulletin board: “Dr Khomdon Lisham noted that to institute laws and impose social restrictions by the State Government or by social organisations to control the drug menace and HIV infection without analysing the causes and circumstances leading youths to go ashtray and become victims of HIV would be a blunder on the part of the Government and social organisations.†(http://him.civiblog.org/blog/_archives/ … 72497.html)
A Yahoo answer: “if you go ashtray and turn away from Him then He … also will turn away from you….†(http://id.answers.yahoo.com/question/in … 759AAUouOi)
From the blog of a person of East Indian descent: “On watching the movie, the first reaction was incredulity on how a talented director could go ashtray in a short span of time;†(http://once-something.blogspot.com/2005 … chive.html)
Hatching new language, one eggcorn at a time.
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This would be a pretty difficult-to-accept eggcorn in oral (spoken) mode: it’s a good one if it is a written error. The pronunciation difference between [ˈæʃtɹej] and [əˈstɹej] is too big to pass unnoticed. If it’s pronounced [É™’ʃtɹej] I would strongly doubt that the person had the meaning ash-tray in mind.
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2009-02-10 21:49:10)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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I’m thinking these people would not pronounce it as “ash-tray” but as “a-shtray.” Their usages seem sincere enough, and it’s hard to think they would not know the word ashtray pronounced in the standard manner (well, depending, perhaps, on the locale, etc.).
A lot of people, particularly (to my ear, anyway) those from the southern U.S., seem to pronounce their S’s very nonsibilently, as if they are shh. (George W. Bush comes to mind.) And maybe that pronunciation is influencing the users’ spelling in some of the cases above. While I’m not as familiar with Indian or Myanmar accents, I think it’s at least possible that pronunciation has come into play in the 2nd and 4th examples given above.
Last edited by JonW719 (2009-02-11 09:20:16)
Feeling quite combobulated.
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