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Are there any words that you know you tend to pronounce wrong (that can't be explained by a foreign accent) but do that way anyway out of habit?

Here are a few of mine:

• The only one coming to my mind that isn't a place name: the English word "meme". I'm largely unused to /iːm/ being spelled <eme> at the end of a single-syllable word, so what often happens is that my brain wants to treat it as a borrowing of the French "même" and pronounce it the same way as "maim". (And that somehow doesn't stop me from treating "crème" as a spelling variant of "cream" in an English-language context despite not having trouble with it in a French-language context.)
• I used to pronounce "Stromboli" with the stress on the second instead of the first syllable.
• I'm inconsistent with the second syllable of "Melbourne". Sometimes I pronounce it right given my rhotic accent (i.e. like "burn"); sometimes I pronounce it like "born".
• The annoying-as-hell "Edinburgh", which I originally thought was pronounced "Eden-berg".

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Current avatar by malibupup of FurAffinity.

My conlangs on this site:
Proto-Wideriver

My parents told me that when I was just learning to read, I said "Egypt" with a hard g.

Many, many, words. I learned a lot of my vocabulary through reading, rather than listening. I often used to get stress location wrong in Latinate words, and sometimes still do in Grecian, and I think I misread a few anglo-saxon not-what-you'd-expect vowel digraphs, though I can't remember any off-hand. I used to metathesise 'enmity' and 'inexorable'.

I continue to pronounce 'satiety' incorrectly as a point of principle, damnit...

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Blog: http://vacuouswastrel.wordpress.com/

But the river tripped on her by and by, lapping
as though her heart was brook: Why, why, why! Weh, O weh
I'se so silly to be flowing but I no canna stay!

I used to pronounce enigma as [ˈɛnɪgmə].

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"But if of ships I now should sing, what ship would come to me,
What ship would bear me ever back across so wide a Sea?”

Many, many words, ranging from expected spelling pronunciations (/ˈliːəˌpɑrd/, /Θeɪmz/) to L1 prosodic interference (descendant as /ˈdɛsənˌdænt/) to very roundabout analogical mixups with other languages (early as /jɑːrli/, by influence of earl as /jɑːrl/, by influence of Swedish jarl).

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[ˌʔaɪsəˈpʰɻ̊ʷoʊpɪɫ ˈʔæɫkəɦɔɫ]

Certainly. Well, whenever I come across one I try to eliminate the wrong pronunciation as quickly as possible, but I probably still have some.



At least it's not "maymay."

For me, a lot of linguistics terms: "velar" /ˈvɛlɚ/, "phonemic" /foʊˈnɛmɪk/, "rhotic" /ˈrɑtɪk/, "alveolar" /alviˈoʊlɚ/, "allophony" /ˈaləfoʊni/, "syncope" /ˈsɪŋkoʊp/, "diaeresis" /daɪəˈrɛsɪs/, "breve" /brɛv/.
A few miscellaneous others: "query" /ˈkwɛri/, "aqueous" /əˈkweɪəs/.

I still use these myself.

I used to say "epitome" /'ɛpɪtəʊm/, "advertisement" /'advətʌɪzmn̩t/, probably some others.

Whenever I see "meme," I read it out as [mɛm] in my head, because I think of French même, too. I also used to pronounce epitome ['ʔɛpɪtʰoʊm] and still pronounce advertisement [ˈʔæd̚vɹ̹tʰaɪzmn̩(t̚)] (or maybe I have glottal stops on both sides of the word).

According to my mom, when I was tiny, I said "remote" like "merote".

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Adúljôžal ônal kol ví éža únah kex yaxlr gmlĥ hôga jô ônal kru ansu frú.
Ansu frú ônal savel zaš gmlĥ a vek Adúljôžal vé jaga čaþ kex.
Ônal zeh. Ônal zeh. Ônal zeh. Ônal zeh. Ônal zeh. Ônal zeh. Ônal zeh.

That's not how those are pronounced? >_>

I always make a mess of "palatalization" for some reason; I can't say I even have a standard pronunciation, because I usually say it one way and then correct myself, and then give up.

Im not surprised to learn that Ive been saying it wrong, but Ive never heard anyone say it right either, and i think if i started saying "STROM-boli" people'd think it was weird.



Worcester is probably fairly well known at least in the USA because we have Worcester Massachusetts.



What was the 2nd one?

I was wrong on "labial", "bilabial", "alveolar", and "velar". For the labial word family I just assumed it was a short 'a' because of the three-syllable vowel "table ----> tabular" rule.



Also I had trpuble with "u", in words like /spurious/, /puerperal/, etc warnting not to pronounce the /j/.

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And now Sunàqʷa the Sea Lamprey with our weather report:

I still have no idea how 'alveolar' is pronounced. With -jə-?

@Sal: IIRC Tocharian (maybe TA) had regular metathesis of -mn- to -nm-. This does not go over well with my aesthetic intuitions.

@Vijay: "Advertisement" *is* /ˈædvɚˌtaizmənt/. I don't know how else anyone would pronounce it.

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Siöö jandeng raiglin zåbei tandiüłåd;
nää džunnfin kukuch vklaivei sivei tåd.
Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei. Chei.

I know.

Well, KathTheDragon is British IIUC, so she pronounces it differently now, but I just wanted to reassure her that her earlier pronunciation wasn't wrong per se, just Americanized.

/ælˈvi.ələr/, if i remember correctly. it's been a while since i've heard anyone say it out loud. that said, i think the other way is also possible.

UK pronounciation of advertisement is /ədˈvərtɪsmənt/.

I still have to remind myself that no-one says cache as /keɪʃ/, and I took a long time to internalise /ɪˈθiri.əl/ for ethereal instead of /ˌɛðəˈriəl/, and for that matter /ˈiθər/ for ether instead of /ˈɛðər/.

/ˈlaɪ.ses.tɚ/ and /ˈwɚ.stɚ/ respectively (though I can see a /ˈwɚ.ses.tɚ/ mispronunciation).


I keep wanting to pronounce the forms of the word on the second syllable in a linguistics context. Get me thinking about food, though, and I get it right.


At least it's more forgivable than the /ˈkæˌʃeɪ/ I used to make.

And why didn't it occur to me that I used the British instead of the American pronunciation of "vitamin" as a kid until after I read through this thread?

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Current avatar by malibupup of FurAffinity.

My conlangs on this site:
Proto-Wideriver

No, lester and wuster

Oregon. No one from the Midwest or East Coast knows how to pronounce it correctly which is apparently a large source of humor for Oregonians. We are taught /'O`.rI.gan/ but it's actually /'O`.rI.gIn/ or even /'O`.gIn/ in informal speech. So I had to relearn that one.

"Meme" I also used to pronounce as French "même" but I've corrected that one since.

I had to correct my pronunciation of the Montana city Helena. I always said /h@.'leI.n@/ but it's actually /'hE5.lI.n@/.

I've never bothered to pronounce Edinburgh properly. I would probably botch most English place names though I have learned a few like Worcestershire and Gloucestershire and Leicestershire. But I'd probably still manage to botch them.

I decided to relearn some French pronunciations of Belgian place names so I didn't sound like I studied French in France. Both Bruxelles and Anvers (Antwerp) are pronounced differently by the French and by the Belgians and of course I learned the French variants. The French is /'bRyk.sEl/ and /'A~.vER/. The Belgian variants are /'bRy.sEl/ and /'A~.vERs/.

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Falgwian and Falgwia!!

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.

...That's not how these are pronounced? I see my French lessons did not prepare me for English linguistic jargon...

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"But if of ships I now should sing, what ship would come to me,
What ship would bear me ever back across so wide a Sea?”

I also say [brɛv].

I still find it hard to pronounce melee as anything other than [mi:li:].

Recently:

Melanin [məl.'ʌ.nɪn] > [me.'læn.nɪn] which makes its pronunciation in line with melanocyte and melanogenesis.

I had to relearn Colorado and Nevada, both of which I pronounced with my LOT vowel rather than with the TRAP vowel.

It's thanks my Great Uncle Bill that I grew knowing how to say Louisville properly, but I had to reteach myself New Orleans. I still say Louisiana in four syllables because the trisyllabic pronunciation sounds a bit patronising from a Border Stater like me.


Not only do I, but I even trill the /r/. I know it's a veddy affected, but I just can't help myself.

Wait, that's a thing for Colorado, too? Aw crap!

Me, too!

I say it in five.

Me smart. Me can counting!

I've never heard "Colorado" pronounced with /æ/...I do have /æ/ in "Nevada." To this day I've never figured out the proper general populace pronunciation of "New Orleans," so as far as I'm concerned it's [ˈnu ˈoʊ̯ɹ̱ˁln̩z].

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"But if of ships I now should sing, what ship would come to me,
What ship would bear me ever back across so wide a Sea?”