Bless her.
Linda has, once again, managed to give our little house a cozy..festive welcoming feel as we await the arrival of family and friends home for the Christmas holiday. Notably missing this year, though, are poinsettia plants. They were usually provided by our daughter who worked in the floral department of Lewis.
I don’t know about you but both Linda and I have always pronounced the name of that flower Poin-setta..three syllables. It turns out, though, that much of the world prefers the proper (read that snooty) four syllable pronunciation; Poin-set-ee-ah.
My co-workers at Kelo were always correcting me until I showed them a dictionary that says either pronunciation is acceptable much like Cara-BEE-un and Cah-RIB-ee-un or Feb-YOU-ary and Feb-ROO-ary. Hemmingsen always teased me about saying Feb-YOU-ary until I pointed out that if it was good enough for Walter Cronkite, it was good enough for me.
Some say that mispronouncing words is a reflection on one’s intelligence. I don’t know if that’s true especially after seeing a story on NOVA recently in which an atomic scientist repeatedly said nuke-YOU-lur energy instead of the correct nuke-LEE-ur.
Some of my best friends and family members say Nuke-YOU-lur or Real-AH-tor instead of REAL-tor or Pros-STRATE instead of pros-TATE when referring to that little gland that only men have and is so prone to cancer.
I do cringe when hearing such language abuses as, “I Could care less,” which is opposite of what you mean. Or, Anyways..with an unnecessary “s” at the end. Calvary is where Christ was crucified. Cavalry is what Custer was leading when he ran into all those Indians.
Mispronunciations likely have more to do with where you’re from and how your parents and grandparents spoke..than how bright you are. Both Linda and her friend, Joanie, came from different Midwest towns but were taught to say WARSH instead of WASH. I don’t know where the extra “R” comes from..probably from people in Maine or Massachusetts who often don’t bother using their “R’s” at all. “The Hahvad professah sat down to dinnah with his sistah and brothah eating food from the gahden.”
Me, I grew up believing that the place where mom kept my socks and underpants was a “chester drawers” and those flowers she had growing alongside the house were Pee-YO-nees and my dad wore over-HAULS to work every day.
When I first started in TV I was assigned to do a commercial in which I said that Ben Hur Ford was having a CLARANCE sale. The director yelled, “Whoa..did you just call it a “clarance” sale..like the cross-eyed lion?” That’s when I first discovered that stores have a CLEARance sale because they’re CLEARing out their inventory not just offering bargains to guys named Clarance.
I spent over 30 years in a profession in which proper pronunciation is not only expected, it’s mandatory. Yet those inaccurate utterances that were planted in my head as a child continued to pop out of my mouth right up until retirement.
I was recording a promo for a Keloland special sponsored by a furniture company. I kept saying SlumberLUND until promotional director Paul Farmer’s quiet voice came over the studio loudspeaker, “Uh, Doug..I believe that’s SlumberLAND.”
One of my most notable on-air faux pas came during a newscast when, after a story, I turned to Angela Kennecke and said something about it having “grammarical” errors. She looked at me and said, “Do you mean grammatical, Doug?”
Well, I turned as red as a baboon’s butt as we went to commercial.
When we returned from the break I tried to make light of my blunder blaming everyone from my parents, aunts and uncles to the English teachers at Volga High School.
After the newscast I got word that the general manager, Mark Antonitis, would like to see me in his office. As I entered, he just shook his head and said, “Well, at least you covered yourself nicely.” And that was it.
He’s the one responsible for getting all KELO reporters and anchors to be consistent in the pronunciation of IRAQ. “It’s not EYE-RACK,”he said. (Although that’s how a majority of people, including soldiers, say it) It’s either EAR-RACK or EAR-ROCK. After consulting with Qadir Aware of Sioux Falls, a native of the country in question, we settled on EAR-ROCK.
In researching for this blog I’ve come across words and phrases that I continue to screw up such as: Card SHARKS instead of the correct card SHARPS. Tijuana has just three syllables..not four. Silicon is the valley where computers are made. Silicone is what surgeons implant in woman to create bigger valleys.
Oh, well I guess you can teach an old pundent new tricks. Wait a minute..it’s PUNDIT isn’t it?
22 Responses
Mr. Lund: I am so pleased a friend in Pierre called my attention to this. My mission in life has been to whine and complain and shake my head when I hear idiotic mispronunciations and unbelievably poor grammar. (“Me and my friend are doing this and that.” for instance.) Thanks for fighting the good fight. I was a teacher for 18 years, then a journalist for 25 years, and though retired now, I still write a lot and will to my dying day keep correcting people, whether they like it or not. Merry Christmas to you and yours!
Great article. I’ve made my mistakes with this. When I first started at KELO 30-plus years ago, I pronounced “often” with a ‘T’. Frustrated at my constant mispronunciation of the word, a certain Doug Lund (lovely fellow), corrected me. “The ‘T’ is silent,” he said in his kind manner of precision. “It’s pronounced ‘ofen’–with an ‘F’. And so as I moved up the ranks into news directorship (dictator) at other stations, I corrected not only myself, but any reporter, anchor, janitor or any other scallywag bent on sticking that ‘T’ sound in ‘OFF-‘T’EN’. Once retired and sitting on my couch watching a network newscast, I heard an anchor use that ‘T’ in this often used word. “Doug Lund (wonderful fellow),” I said to myself, “is kindly going to twist your tongue sideways for that.” More time passed and I noticed, with minor exceptions, everybody was using the “T”–anchors and doctors and lawyers, even undertakers, not to mention the kids I underpaid to mow my law once a month who said, “You should pay me more, more of’T’en.” My life nearly coming to its end, I was going to dig to the root of this before it did end, and I dug out three separate dictionaries–the Bible of them all being the “Oxford.” There it was–“o’F’en” as the preferred pronunciation with “Of’T’en” coming in a lurking second place as somewhat acceptable. I sucked in a deep breath; great pride steamed in my chest, knowing I had rightfully and often steered scores of reporters in keeping that tongue flicking ‘T’ off the roof of their mouth in usage of this word. Then, suddenly, confusion set in. Now, most people are using the ‘T’ in this word as the preferable pronunciation. Had I steered a generation of reporters down the path to pronunciation perdition, ruining their chance for advancement? I worried. Are they homeless now because of it? Slowly, letting out my breath, I calmed myself. No, I thought, Doug (amiable and gentle man as he is) was right. But just in case times are a changing, I don’t use that word anymore–at least not very often.
Great blog! You certainly included a lot of incidences of mispronounciations… 🙂
Being a professional newscaster, perhaps you can answer a question for me. For the last few years I’ve noticed and have gritted my teeth, every time I hear a newscaster pronounce an S as SH. “The accident was on 3rd Shreet.” or “He had to shretch to catch the ball.” I’ve heard this on both local and national news and during live broadcasts such as NFL games. Did someone change how you pronounce letters and forget to tell me?
As a teacher, I’ve always believed that no one should be allowed to teach that can’t pronounce reindeer (reindeers), Valentine’s (Valentime’s), library (libary), or picture (pitcher) correctly. I’ve heard and corrected these particular mis-pronounciations from teachers too many times over the years.
Eisenhower said Nuke-YOU-ler, too. I liked Ike, but not his miss-pronounciation. Now I have to check some stuff at the li-BARY. And when did we start saying HOUSES, with a hard “S?” It used to be a more genteel HOUZES with two soft “Z”s. And who started this THE apple stuff instead of THEE apple and Thee before any word that started with a vowel or vowel sound? Now I feel better. I off-ten do after clearing The air. That’s even harder to spit out. ELIDING is a good thing…except in FEB-YOU-ERRY.
All of a sudden I hear folks say, “All of the sudden”. Where did that come from?
I must have learned from you, dad, along with a number of fantastic teachers. I hear grammatical errors all the time, and go a little nuts. I have a hard time correcting people in my professional circles, and once you’ve let it go for awhile, it’s awkward to bring it up later! 🙂
A few examples: Suppose instead of supposed – “I was suppose to do my homework yesterday.” It’s often written that way too! Related is the use of supposably instead of supposedly. It happens at work and I can’t look the person in the eye when I hear it. I think the worst is the use of “I’s” as a possessive, both written and spoken, as in, “My friend and I’s plan is to hit the mall.” Smart, professional people have used it many times recently. Seriously? What happened to proper grammar education?
I wonder what words I mispronounce or use incorrectly that nobody has the nerve to tell me!
Great Blog Doug!
I have heard nice folks from all walks of life mix up the words “cavalry” and “calvary” through many years. Even newscasters, high ranking military officers and learned historians are prone to state “calvary” rather than cavalry
The famous military leader Mr. Custer led the famous 7th. CAVALRY for a time in the 1870’s….not the 7th. Calvary.
This error of word usage is not a big deal in anyone’s life, but it certainly appears that it will continue as long as
there is a human race on this good earth.
I still catch myself saying worsh and Worshington instead of wash and Washington. Where the hell did we pick that up? I
got a summer job at the Library of Congress after High School and managed to get corrected almost daily about where I lived. “It’s Washington stupid not Worshington and it’s a creek not a crick.”
One has to think of modern English as a science. Pick up any old book written before the mid-1800s or so and see what a mish-mash the language was, a pot-luck of several languages that didn’t necessarily interface. Spellings that were inconsistent from chapter to chapter, ala Lewis and Clark’s journals. Here’s the way I feel like spelling Sacagawea tonight.
Today, with texting and dictionaries that find any mispronunciation acceptable, we are regressing. What happened to the dictionaries where, with multiple pronunciations of spelling of one word, the first entry was “preferred?” Will our great (average) grandchildren revert to speaking in grunts?
Maybe we should give the whole language and second look and at least start going more phonetic, spelling words like beautiful like we pronounce them. What is the “a” doing in the middle of beautiful anyway? Mr. Trebek? Shouldn’t “value” be spelled “valyoo, like Yahoo?
As far as that goes, shouldn’t “Doug” be “Dug?” Steve is okay.
And I don’t know why we need that extra syllable in “probably.” I’ve said “probly” since I was a kid…like some people rationalize Feb-you-ary.
It’s not just lengthy words getting mispronounced. My pet peeve is FUR instead of FOR. Too many people are “going to the store FUR milk.” Always makes me think of a cat’s hairball.
My biggest peeve is, “I seen that.” No, you saw it. Don’t even get me started on spelling or cashiers to count your change back. Ugh.
At Brown Institute of Broadcasting we used to be fined a nickel if we said “jist” or “git” in class. I still say “jist.” Jist can’t shake it. Probly could if I really tried.
When I was in the Army we had a soldier from Maine who had a heavy accent! He would say, Let’s get in the Cah, and go to the Bah, it can’t be Fah!! I myself keep saying Calvary instead of Cavalry, I say soldier instead of shoulder, and had a friend that went to the bank to get a loan- but was turned down because he didn’t have enough “Cholesterol!!” Another old timer said, “He needed to get a new “Cadillac Converter” for his Chevy car!!” Stu Surma
I can still hear my Navy buddy from Boston say: “Let’s pak the ca by the coib and go into the ba and get a beah.”
Enjoyable article and great comments.
Now, if only we could get those news media folks to say “affect” at least some of the time, instead of “impact”!
Spell check is a whole different ballgame. One time, years ago, the Argus did a story on wealthy people referring to them as “effluent” instead of “affluent.” I called in a noted that in a societal sense I agreed with the slip, but it was probably not what they meant.
Doug I had two Great Aunts that were Sister s in the Catholic Church, and when I would write them
letters, they would correct my spelling errors and punctuation , and high light them and send them back
to me. Well that is how I found out that I was always miss spelling “separate” and a few other common
words that we speak but don’t always write them down.
Great blog
I am frustrated by the overuse of “impact” or “impacted.” I insist it came about because we never learned the difference between affect and effect.
My peeve is: “Going forward” Why would newsletters or CEO notifications contain this phrase numerous times?
Is South Dakota using whole language in teaching reading? Did I read that right?