I’m an Okie was raised by Okies and my grandmother was from the rich side of Tennessee. You know that accent the tight Southern one. I married a Yankee. I have no idea how on earth to say anything, Ya’ll.

Some of the ladies of my family would pinch me if they read this, several were teachers. (Never say ain’t in a house full of teachers. I still have a bruise)

When I was fairly young I said pleTHORa. I had heard plethora said properly...just didn't conect what I heard with what I read.

What an eyedot I was.

The one that dumbfounded me was the word 'colonel'.

As a kid I read lots of books, military and otherwise, and always in my head thought the word was pronounced like it looks - col'-o-nel.

Of course, I had actually heard the word pronounced correctly in many conversations. My Dad had been in the Army, and one of my favorite shows was Hogan's Heroes, with the infamous Colonel Klink.

But I think I was a teenager until I finally put the two together and understood that when people said ker'-nal, that this was that word colonel.

façade...

became

fa'KAYD

But at least I was using it correctly

I pronounce "Salguod" like "Sal-good".

oh I had one, and I've been trying to remember what it is, but I just can't. sigh.

I once heard a politician pronounce "epitome" as "epi-TOME" instead of "ePI-to-ME"

Does anyone say "Hyper-BOLE" instead of "HyPER-bo-LEE"?

The problem here is that they don't teach kids greek anymore.

The problem here is that they don't teach kids greek anymore.

"It's all in Plato, all in Plato: bless me, what do they teach them at these schools!"

Slightly off topic- but what drives me absolutely bonkers is when otherwise literate, educated, well spoken people say Prostrate Cancer.

Just makes me get all violent and twitchy.

Blest,
Similarly I HATE "flustrated".

Phil, I used to pronounce Aquinas Ah-KEE-ness (my Spanish training showing) until you made fun of me in the bookstore and told me it was Uh-QUI-nuss. That was the first time I'd ever heard it actually said. I was only acquainted with his name on the page.

lol... "solemn." I always read it "sober." Because I think I asked my mom once what "solemn" meant and she told me, but I thought that's how you pronounced it. And I was confused for years about why "l" said "b" and "mn" said "r"... it was terrible. (and I still rather dislike both those words...)

I'll admit, Hap, I'm not exactly accustomed to associating you and solemnity. :)

My pastor once pronounced "faux" as fox. What made it worse was that he spelled it out for the congregation so EVERYONE that knew the word knew that he didn't.

Oh, Jared. I'm sorry. I don't remember that at all, but I still feel like an "eye-dot" for making fun of you. Sorry, dude. :)

I got made fun of a few years ago for pronouncing "Augustine" (of Hippo) as Ah-GUS-teen. I was told that Ah-GUS-teen was a saint from ireland, a different guy, the grass guy, and that the dude from Hippo was pronounced "uh-gus-TEN"

Who knew?

have to chime in on the whole Ah GUS teen vs. uh GUH sten. I was taught by an oxford educated Augustine scholar to always pronounce it the opposite of your opponent in scholarly debate. So if they say ah guh STEEN, you say...who? Oh, you mean uh GUH sten. Then you have the upper hand!

He was joking (kind of) but the point is there's not rhyme or reason, although I'd say people educated at fancier institutions or in Europe tend to say uh GUH sten. But no one is really sure. Distinguishing Augustine of Hippo and Augustine of Canterbury seems reasonable, I guess. Roman historians (like me) tend to say Ah guh STEEN to distinguish between Augustine and the adjective Augustan for the era of the emperor Augustus.

I'm sorry I am such a pedant.

One name I think I've always pronounced wrong is J.R.R. Tolkien. I think it's supposed to be "Tol-KEEN", but I've always pronounced it "Tol-KEN".

I say Tol-kyen

You say Tolkeen

I say Augus-ten

You say Augus teen

Tolkyen, tolkeen, augusten, augusteen

Let's call the whole thing off!

Debris. When my older brother and I were kids, we were convinced that there were two different, but somehow related, words. There was "de-bree" and there was "deb-ris". Since my father was always encouraging us to try to figure out the meaning of words from their context, we had come to the conclusion that "deb-ris" was bigger chunks of "de-bree".

The one my older brother really tormented me about for years was when I was in 1st grade and struggled through reading a story called "Tom Uses his Head". I thought it said "usses" and read the story, very laboriously, twice through --- even carefully studying the pictures --- to try to figure out what on earth "usses" meant. Finally it became clear to me that Tom had made some sort of mysterious but highly symbolic and meaningful gesture with his head. I loved this story and began eagerly telling my brother all about how wonderful it was. He glanced at the book in my hands and said, "But the title is 'Tom USES his Head'". Surely not! I reread the story and suddenly, instead of it being filled with beauty, mystery, and shades of deep meaning, it became an ordinary, even slightly boring, story about a boy coming up with a simple solution to a simple problem.

"Tom Usses his Head" was brilliant literature. "Tom Uses his Head" was the sort of drivel you'd expect in a 1st grade reading book. I am still trying to recover from the disappointment.

I remember reading my dad's Hardy Boys books and thinking that "sedan" was pronounced sEEdan. And Blest, I still have a hard time not giggling during the first refrain of "All Hail the Power of Jesus Name" because of when I was a kid who thought that prostates falling would be remarkably painful.

I remembered - prevalent.

"pre VAL ent" v. "PREV a lent"

when I was a little girl, I told my mom that someone was a loon AT tic, when I meant they were a LUNatic. Don't know where that came from , but mom laughed herself silly. Such a lunatic!

melancholy: There's a family story about Sherry's little eight year old pronouncement, "I feel quite melancholy today." ( said in a melancholy, meditative tone and pronounced just as it's spelled, and it should be!)

I always pronouce cushion "kwuh-shun". It was only at the age of 21 that I discovered that the rest of the world prounouced it "cuh-shun" which still sounds wrong to me.

And it took me years to realise that the poets "Gurter" and Goethe (pronounced in my head as "go-ee-thee") were the same person.

All my life, I (and every other person I've met, that I know of) said the word "coupon" as "CYOO-PON".

But anytime I hear it on TV, it's pronounces "COO-PON".

It harkens back to a decade or two ago. Harassment was always pronounced "HERESS-ment" on TV, versus the way I mostly hear it from regular people: "her-ASS-ment"

(note: I know I have a rep as the vulgar Thinkling. However, the proceeding comment was not meant to be vulgar. If you took it that way, shame on you, mr. dirty-mind.)

Innocent - In NO sent rather than INN uh sent
Monastery - Muh NASS tery. Yes, my family loves to have me tell the joke about the flaming forest friars, just so they can tease me about the Muh NASS tery.