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What local pronunciations lead to spelling mistakes in your area?


Laura Corin
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maize, in what region/country do you live?

 

I am trying to figure it out, based on the pronunciations you've listed, but I just don't know.  Are you comfortable sharing?  

 

Another one I used to hear, when I lived in the US south, was "pre-shate it"  ... for "I appreciate it."  I wonder if that caused spelling confusion for kids growing up there?

 

I'm in the Western US, and have spent more than half my life in this region (though not all in the same state). I've also lived in a few other parts of the US and several countries overseas, which I think explains why people thought I had a weird accent when I moved back here--I'd apparently picked up some foreign sounding inflections. Both my parents are from the Western US as well--they grew up in California, Alaska, Utah, Washington, and Oregon. My grandparents grew up on Utah and Idaho. I'm mentioning my parents because I think they played the biggest role in my own language development.

 

This article claims that "the Western United States is the largest dialect region in the United States, and the one with the fewest distinctive phonological features."

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I say 'been' and everyone comments on my Canadian roots when I do. I assumed 'bin' was a universally American pronunciation of the word but perhaps not? And I won't go into the 'oot and aboot' comments :laugh:

 

 

I say "ben" but I also hear "bin" a lot. "Been" with a long E would definitely mark you as being from elsewhere.

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I went into a store in Kentucky a few months ago to meet a lady who was going to start selling my wreaths.  Not two minutes after I start talking there is a pause in our conversation and her husband blurts out (in his very thick Ky accent) "So how long have you been out of Michigan?"  I haven't lived in Michigan since I was 13 years old, and I am 37 now.  I thought I had lost most of my northern accent living here in Southern Ohio, but apparently not.   I was so shocked all I could say was "How did you know I was originally from Michigan?"  He said it was because of the way I said I was going to be "out".   I talked to my dh about it later and he said I must have been nervous because over the years he has noticed that when I am nervous or have been talking to my sisters my accent gets thicker again, then after a day or two it wears off.  Apparently my out sounds sort of like the word oat but not exactly.  funny, my kids all pronounce things exactly like their dad does.

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I've heard "pellow" for "pillow".

 

My younger child had some very cute ones of his own for awhile. "lellow" for yellow "complooter" for computer "boopid" for stupid "yucky charms" for Lucky Charms

 

I miss his funny language sometimes.

My 3 yr-old calls the computer the 'puker'. Which I think is really appropriate.

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I don't think "old-timer's" instead of "Alzheimer's" is a mistake, I think it's intended as gallows humor.

Oh, no doubt that is the case in many instances. However, I'm from a very low intelligence area and there are many who truly believe this is what it's called. My grandmother and aunt are just two of these people.

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Are these two words not homophones to you? Just curious. They've always been homophones to me, so I am not surprised that people confuse the spellings.

 

Not homophones. Sale has a long a in it. Sell has a short e sound in it.

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Written in the window of one of our local pharmacies I saw this handwritten sign:

 

Average wait time for perscriptions is 15 minutes.

 

That is how people say this word where I'm from (the South), so I'm not surprised. I did inform the pharmacist that their sign was spelled incorrectly. She was very embarrassed. 

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Written in the window of one of our local pharmacies I saw this handwritten sign:

 

Average wait time for perscriptions is 15 minutes.

 

That is how people say this word where I'm from (the South), so I'm not surprised. I did inform the pharmacist that their sign was spelled incorrectly. She was very embarrassed. 

 

I'm going to have to do some listening............ I don't think I've notice anyone saying it "per" instead of "pre"...... been in the south for more than 20 years.....

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We have a good mix of French and English here, so a lot of words get butchered, in both languages.

 

We tend to pronounce t in the middle of words like d, so I see that one sometimes. For example, we pronounce Betty - Beddy and Congratulations is often spelled congraDulations.

My kids do this. Maybe it's the French influence. It makes me batty. Today I broke down and explained why we study Latin and not Laddin.

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I'm going to have to do some listening............ I don't think I've notice anyone saying it "per" instead of "pre"...... been in the south for more than 20 years.....

 

I can't remember ever hearing PREscription, it's always PERscription. Not in the south...

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My MIL (Dallas) used to pronounce it in full - happy to get every last syllable in: war-sess-ter-shire. I never said anything.

 

L

My husband has a hilarious mispronunciation of that on purpose, he also pronounced bernalillo bern-a-lil-a-lil-o, It is supposed to be pronounced like burn a leo, this amused most and annoyed some when we lived in Albuquerque. Come to think of it, he had an on purpose mispronunciation of Albuquerque, too. Not many people who don't live there can spell Albuquerque, BTW, and a few think you live in Mexico and can't be reasoned with to believe otherwise.

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