Incorrect pronunciations you have (or have had) to unlearn

[StrangerCoug]

Interestingly, that link suggests long o in 'bolt' and 'polka', but that's wrong, as the wiktionary entries for those words shows (although it does give both options for 'bolt'). I might sometimes have a long O in 'bolt', but I think that's just non-SSBE parental influence showing through.

I have it in all three.

@StrangerCoug: I think you're a North American English speaker, though, right? That's what would be expected for you.

Yes. I seem to have been confused about the matter at debate; sorry about that.

[linguoboy]

"Boutique" and "bouquet". In my native dialect, these both have /oː/. (I even once saw a bucket at a local discount florist with the label "BOKAYS".) Hard to say when I switched to a pronunciation with /uː/, but it would probably have to be at least twenty years ago.

It's hard to say how this originated. I wonder if it could've been influenced by beau (and its compounds, e.g. beaucoup) or bourgeois (/or/ and /ur/ merge IMD).

[Soap]

"Boutique" and "bouquet". In my native dialect, these both have /oː/. (I even once saw a bucket at a local discount florist with the label "BOKAYS".) Hard to say when I switched to a pronunciation with /uː/, but it would probably have to be at least twenty years ago.

It's hard to say how this originated. I wonder if it could've been influenced by beau (and its compounds, e.g. beaucoup) or bourgeois (/or/ and /ur/ merge IMD).

Heh, I never knew bucket and bouquet were cognates. Maybe Hyacinth had a point after all, just was born on the wrong side of the Channel.

I've heard boutique and bouquet with /o/ too, and never really thought about it. I myself have always pronounced both words canonically with /u/.

I've never heard bourgeois with an /r/; I've only ever heard /'bu.ʒwa/. I grew up with a classmate whose last name was Bourgeois, and I bet that if not for that, I would have gone a long time mispronouncing bourgeoisie, which I originally thought was roughly "burgessy" but learned the proper pronunciation of at a much younger age then I think I normally would have otherwise, since I didnt really encounter the word in print until high school.

[Travis B.]

I have /oʊ/ in bouquet as well, but /uː/ in boutique.

As for bourgeois and bourgeoisie I has /bʊˈʒwɑː/ and /bʊʒwɑːˈziː/.

[Ryusenshi]

I wonder if it could've been influenced by beau (and its compounds, e.g. beaucoup)

Huh, I didn't know that beaucoup derived from beau. It's obvious in retrospect, but I had never considered the etymology of beaucoup.

Incidentally, I had to learn (a few years ago) that in French, moult was supposed to be pronounced /mu/ instead of /mult/. It's the reflex of Latin multus, and cognate of Spanish mucho (unrelated to English much). The orthography moult is purely etymological, but as the word fell out of common use, a spelling pronunciation took over.

[linguoboy]

Incidentally, I had to learn (a few years ago) that in French, moult was supposed to be pronounced /mu/ instead of /mult/. It's the reflex of Latin multus, and cognate of Spanish mucho (unrelated to English much). The orthography moult is purely etymological, but as the word fell out of common use, a spelling pronunciation took over.

If anything, I make the mistake of pronouncing too few consonants in French rather than too many, e.g. cassis, pastis, coup de grâce, grand mal, noir, Berlioz, Gigondas, Marseillaise.

[Ser]

I used to pronounce "comrade" with /-eId/ until this week.

[GamerGeek]

Similar to an earlier post, I pronounce linguist terms wrong.
I say velar as /velr/ and I misread alveolar, so I metathesise it as /əlevl.r/. I'm still not sure how to say it: /ælvelr/? Rhotic is /ratɪk/, and has no element of "rho" in there.
Edit: also bilabial /bɪlæbi.l/ and I still misread sibilant as silibant...

[GamerGeek]

I have /oʊ/ in bouquet as well, but /uː/ in boutique.

I pronounce it the other way around.

[Ryusenshi]

I realized alarmingly late that the P is actually pronounced in baptist and baptism. I assumed that it was silent, an etymological letter that nobody pronounces, because it's silent in the French cognates baptême and baptiste. I should have know better because, you know, French.

[GamerGeek]

I realized alarmingly late that the P is actually pronounced in baptist and baptism. I assumed that it was silent, an etymological letter that nobody pronounces, because it's silent in the French cognates baptême and baptiste. I should have know better because, you know, French.

battist!

[Bristel]

I've never heard bourgeois with an /r/; I've only ever heard /'bu.ʒwa/. I grew up with a classmate whose last name was Bourgeois, and I bet that if not for that, I would have gone a long time mispronouncing bourgeoisie, which I originally thought was roughly "burgessy" but learned the proper pronunciation of at a much younger age then I think I normally would have otherwise, since I didnt really encounter the word in print until high school.

Burgess and bourgeois are cognates aren't they?

[DesEsseintes]

I used to pronounce "comrade" with /-eId/ until this week.

That's how I pronounce it, and I believe that's how it's most often pronounced in the UK.

[Soap]

diaspora. Apparently /di'æ.spə.rə/, not the /daɪə'spo.rə/ I've been thinking, and probably pronouncing, for all of my life.

thelema. Apparently /θəˈli.mə/, according to Wikipedia, not the /'θɛl.ə.mə/ I had been using.

Found some of the words in this thread at https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-a ... troduction while looking up diaspora to see if my pronunc was listed at least as an alternate.

Burgess and bourgeois are cognates aren't they?

Apparently yes.

[linguoboy]

diaspora. Apparently /di'æ.spə.rə/, not the /daɪə'spo.rə/ I've been thinking, and probably pronouncing, for all of my life.

Hari Kondabolu on "Diaspora": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mtng_zRjSQY

[Sumelic]

diaspora. Apparently /di'æ.spə.rə/, not the /daɪə'spo.rə/ I've been thinking, and probably pronouncing, for all of my life.

Hari Kondabolu on "Diaspora": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mtng_zRjSQY

Antepenultimate stress is more regular, since the Greek is διασπορά, with a short vowel in the penult that wouldn't be assigned stress by the Latin stress rule (a similar case is the word "diastole"), but of course no one is obligated to care about this sort of thing. It's enough to make me prefer it, though, since I don't strongly associate the more irregular pronunciation with my mother. I've always used /aɪ/ in the first syllable though, which is certainly recorded in various dictionaries including the OED (as far as I know, neither /aɪ/ nor /i/ is particularly more regular as a pronunciation of "i" in this context; if there is a rule for this, it's not as straightforward as the Latin stress one).

[GamerGeek]

diaspora. Apparently /di'æ.spə.rə/, not the /daɪə'spo.rə/ I've been thinking, and probably pronouncing, for all of my life.

I thought it was /daiəsporə/... Apparently there's no h in "diasphora"

[StrangerCoug]

This was on my homepage, and according to it, I'm guilty of mispronouncing almond, cache (which I swear I've posted in here about before), picture, and quinoa (in my head), all with the mispronunciations given. (I wasn't familiar enough with the word turmeric to judge myself on how I pronounce it.)

[Sumelic]

Lol. "there is a correct way to say every word in the English language"... the most generous interpretation I can make for this is to read "a" as "at least one" rather than the more likely "only one", and even then it seems somewhat debateable... it seems to me that there are very likely some words for which a prescriptivist might consider all possible pronunciations "skunked", to use Bryan Garner's term (adjusted to a slightly different context), and therefore the only way to be indisputably correct is to not pronounce them at all. (For example, certain Latinate plural forms such as "status", "antipodes", "matrices", "fomites", and "cicatrices"; also the singular "rationale".)

[Zaarin]

Uh...I have never heard almond pronounced with a silent l, not even on snobby cooking shows. I'm pretty certain they're wrong about that one.

[Sumelic]

Uh...I have never heard almond pronounced with a silent l, not even on snobby cooking shows. I'm pretty certain they're wrong about that one.

You think this pronunciation doesn't exist, or that it should be considered non-standard? I pronounce it without an /l/. It's like "palm", "alms", "psalm", "calm", "balm". The OED says "The pronunciation (Brit.) /ˈɑːmənd/, (U.S.) /ˈɑmənd/ probably results from the same historical process as described at psalm n. Pronunciations with /l/ are probably all ultimately spelling pronunciations." You could call the linked source overly fussy or old-fashioned, but I don't think there's a very strong case to make that it is definitely "wrong" in its prescription for this word. (Some other words, on the other hand...)

[Zaarin]

Uh...I have never heard almond pronounced with a silent l, not even on snobby cooking shows. I'm pretty certain they're wrong about that one.

You think this pronunciation doesn't exist, or that it should be considered non-standard? I pronounce it without an /l/. It's like "palm", "alms", "psalm", "calm", "balm". The OED says "The pronunciation (Brit.) /ˈɑːmənd/, (U.S.) /ˈɑmənd/ probably results from the same historical process as described at psalm n. Pronunciations with /l/ are probably all ultimately spelling pronunciations." You could call the linked source overly fussy or old-fashioned, but I don't think there's a very strong case to make that it is definitely "wrong" in its prescription for this word. (Some other words, on the other hand...)

...I have an /l/ in all of those words (well, I'd say palm is in free variation of /pɑɫm~pɑm/), though I've at least heard palm, calm, and balm without the /l/; I've never heard alms, psalm, or almond without the /l/. NB: I'm not saying that because I haven't encountered it it doesn't exist. I'm just saying that I personally was unaware that pronunciations of these words without the /l/, outside L-vocalizing dialects, existed (other than three I listed). I'm not sure I'd even understand what someone was trying to say if they said /ˈɑmənd/.

[linguoboy]

Uh...I have never heard almond pronounced with a silent l, not even on snobby cooking shows. I'm pretty certain they're wrong about that one.

This one's right snobby, innit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uoHZZRQ0hc&t=27s

[Vijay]

I don't pronounce the l in almond, either. I'd never heard it with the l pronounced until this Canadian guy in grad school said something about eating almond ice cream and I was like "what? Element ice cream?"

[KathTheDragon]

Ask

Many say this word like "axe," but in fact, the "S" sound should come before the "K."

I wonder if the /æks/ variant could be continued from OE āxian