Here are four modern usages. None of them is particularly heinous and I do not know why they jar on me:
• The mispronunciation of dissect as dye-sect seems to be almost universal now. It arises from confusion with bisect, which is correctly pronounced bye-sect. Dye-sect cannot be right because a double consonant always follows a short vowel - that's what a double consonant is for.
But this is English we are talking about, so there must be exceptions. I know only one English word in which a long vowel precedes a double consonant.
There are some high-powered English language experts who sometimes look at this blog (unsurprisingly, several of them have English as a second or third language) and I am expecting one or more of them to comment on this, telling me what that word is, and providing a list of others that I haven't thought of.
• Plethora, used as if it just meant a great number, or plenty in a good sense. Actually, it means too damn many: "over-supply, glut, unhealthy repletion, or a morbid condition marked by en excess of red corpuscles in the blood". Red-faced gentlemen about to keel over with a heart attack can be described as plethoric.
• I have always used See you later to mean later on today. Many people now use it to mean See you again, any time in the future.
• Bored of.. seems to have become widely used. I have the impression that this started less than twenty years ago. Why? Tired of.. but bored with.. or bored by.. sound right to me.
12 comments:
Oh, you've hit upon a "pet peeve"! There's "my best..." instead of my favourite, "My worst" for my least favourite, "deaf aid" instead of hearing aid and one that seems worse when written, "I could of...." instead of I could have. I'm still working on the long vowel plus two consonants though.
PerfectlyVocal
Would "bass" as in double bass work?
PerfectlyVocal
I've notified this fellow: http://www.theslot.com/
Maybe he'll come by and add something to the debate. It's nice to be reminded of these changes in usage. Makes you realize how quickly language mutates.
PerfectlyVocal:
Tell you what, you promise to send £5 to the Save the Children Fund and I'll tell you the word that has a long vowel (clue: it's an "e") followed by a double consonant.
Don't quite see what you mean about double base/barss/bass. It's been a long day.
Well, "bass" would be my choice. In North America it's pronounced as Tony described, but I reckon someone from the UK might, in a BBC-approved accent, pronounce it "bahss," which would mean it doesn't fit the bill. In the southern United States, the word "oil" phonetically works, as I've heard some pronounce it "ohhl." Then again, the President says "nu-kyu-lur"...
My silly bookmark was taking me to an old page and showing me the entry "You Couldn't Make This Up" every day when I would come to check your blog.
I thought you had gone on holiday!
What a goofball I am.
I will find the "recent post" list from now on.
I just got caught up. Whew!
Yetzirah
Tony, I will gladly give £5 to Save The Children! My point about "bass" was that I thought "ay" was a long vowel as opposed to "a" as in "cat", but then that may just be my Northern accent rendering it a diphthong! It's a long time since I did phonetic transcription.
PerfectlyVocal
PerfectlyVocal:
O, ay.
The word is "camellia". Can you think of any more? Quick, before we all get bored with this discussion.
£5 duly donated this afternoon at the shop (via the collection tin) When I started to think of a list of long vowels plus consonants, I came up with too many variables depending on regional accent - a very boring topic to most readers, others than those of us interested in linguistics, so I shall leave it there.
PV
PV: All this talk of regional accents confused me, but I now realise that you are absolutely right - 'bass', as in double or Chaliapin, is a perfectly good example of shortvowel/double consonant, and if oop ther 'appen tha says 'behss', then t'aint no matter.
Anyway, well done, and well done with the donation. Th'art a reet grehdely luss, so thee be.
And this anonymous person confused me further by talking about what they do in North America, bless their little cotton-pickin' accents. It's bad enough when it's just 'ass' (as mentioned in http://omf.blogspot.com/2004/06/rough-hew-them-how-we-will.html).
These are deep waters, Watson.
PV: Of couse I meant longvowel/double consonant. Oh God, let's stop it right there.
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