![]() She even claims to be working on a book, though it is a children's book (natch).Īnd I "get" the argument that some pronunciations are cultural, but I really don't care. There's no way she could not have noticed that her word usage doesn't jibe with what she reads. I use my local library frequently and one of the women who works behind the counter uses "I seen" and other similar phrases all the time, yet we sometimes discuss novels we've read. It's not that they don't know it's incorrect, they've just decided somewhere along the way that they don't care. To not list all pronunciation variants would be irresponsible and a failure of our mission to provide a serious, scholarly, record of the current American English language. There is simply no scholarly basis for preferring one pronunciation over another, and the term "correct" pronunciation doesn't mean anything objectively. All words were pronounced differently at some time in the past. Language is changing all of the time in all respects, and any dictionary which purports to be an accurate description of the language in question must be constantly updated to reflect these changes. We have an extensive collection of files which date back to the 19th century. This has never been done for English (the spelling of which has never been regularized in the first place), so what we use for written language is actually largely based on the spoken language of several centuries ago.Īll of the entries in our dictionary (including their pronunciations, meanings, etc.) are based on usage. Many written languages (Spanish, Dutch, etc.), will regularly undergo orthographic reforms to reflect changes in the spoken language. Indeed, only spoken language can be truly considered "language." Writing is a collection of symbols meant to represent spoken language. Most importantly, spoken language is primary, not written language. For example, the "c" represents three different sounds in "electrical", "electricity" and "electrician", but is spelled the same in all to show that the words are related.ģ. English spelling is frequently based on factors besides pronunciation. Likewise, "to," "too," and "two" are spelled differently and pronounced the same.Ģ. For example, "move", "dove", and "cove" are spelled similarly but pronounced differently. Spelling is not a legitimate basis for determining pronunciation, for the following reasons:ġ. However, to say "the word is spelled (x), and therefore should be pronounced (y)" doesn't make any sense. Many people object to those pronunciations of February and nuclear on the basis that they do not conform to the spelling of the word. We are definitely not advocating that anyone should use those pronunciations or that they should abandon the others that are regarded as more acceptable. This mark indicates "a pronunciation variant that occurs in educated speech but that is considered by some to be questionable or unacceptable." A full description of this can be found in the Key to Pronunciation Symbols. Both of those pronunciations are clearly preceded by the obelus mark xF7 (which looks like a division sign). We do not list either the xF7feb(y)wer pronunciation of February or the xF7 nxFC-kyl(r) pronunciation of nuclear as "acceptable" we merely list them as commonly used pronunciations. Your pronunciations of "February" and "nuclear" are wrong! How can you say they are correct? It pretty much matched this Merriam-Webster statement on pronunciation: ![]() I'm old enough to remember when Walter Cronkite closed the evening news with a defense of his pronunciation of February (Feb-yoo-ary). Girl 1: I know a lot of gay people, you know, my dog�s groomer is gay, my neighbor is gay, I have a friend that is gay. If it�s beautiful, like, I like things that are beautiful, but you know, like, if I like it, I like it, I don�t want to, you know think when I look at art. ![]() ![]() Girl 1: I�m not one of those people who like to analyze. Girl 1: I�m like �do you have a function tomorrow?� cause I�m like� Like if I�m driving, I will have two drinks, cause like I don�t want to drive drunk. I put a mark on my paper every time I heard the word "like" but stopped keeping track after the first twenty in about five minutes or so. I started dictating because I couldn't believe how idiotic this girl sounded. Here are a few snippits from an actual conversation I overheard today in the coffee shop. ![]()
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