|
Sez You...
|
|
From Susan Clarke:
Bill Schmeer mentioned the
use of the word medaling in the recent Winter Olympics. I'm
almost beginning to accept medaling. The one that amazed me was
the newfound verb platforming, meaning, I can only assume from
the context, to earn a place on the awards platform by medaling.
I'm so glad you're back at
it. I missed your regular contributions.
Thanks! Nice to hear from you. |
From Karen Davis:
Malcolm Tent needs to get
a grip. An before H in words with an unstressed first syllable is,
perhaps, more typically British than American, but not exclusively so
(and NOT Cockney), and it's quite an old pronunciation. Of course it's
not "an history" - that's stressed on the first syllable!
From Claire:
I’m sure you two are more
than capable of responding to Malcolm over this one, but here goes
anyway. Our language largely comes from French (among other Latin and
European influences) and this harks back to the silent h at the
start of French words. It used to be "correct" to say "an hotel" and
many older people still do. So technically, "an historical" is probably
"correct" and if not, it is at least understandable.
From Russell Bateman:
I just think "an historical
account" flows better off the tongue, but I admit this is no reason to adopt
it. Perhaps it has snob appeal.
My wife is of the opposite
opinion, though. She refuses even to say "an apple" or "the[e] end"
believing that these euphonic accommodations are false or specious
traditions of dubious value. But, hey, she's from California and at 50 still
hasn't got past using words like "woof," "nookyooler" and "simyooler."
Love your column.
|
From Bruce Yanoshek:
TOWFI and the blog have
been dealing with the incorrect presence or absence of r and t in
various words. Other letters disappear, too, and their disappearance
annoys me. I listen to a good deal of talk radio, and participate in
many conversations, and some mispronunciations are becoming too common.
One is "fufill" for "fulfill". Another is a family of slaughterings of
"social security", including "sosecurity" and "sosa security". Here in
Cincinnati, it is not uncommon to hear "petition" for "partition". If we
aren't careful, too many letters will disappear from words, and no one
will understand anything that is said.
People, please use
spell-checkers wisely. A phrase that is used a lot in the US is "a lot".
Many people misspell it as "alot", which is then caught by their
spell-checkers and changed (with permission, of course, so the writers
are definitely not innocent victims of their software) to "allot". That
is what is appearing in blogs, forums and e-mails all over the internet,
and I'm tired of seeing it.
|
From Jeff Jones:
Your latest TOWFI
addressed the word pecan. There were a couple of things that
stood out to me as most likely in error, for whatever reason.
First "The native range of
the pecan (Carya illinoensis) extended from east Texas, Louisiana,
Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri into southern Illinois and Ohio." In
fact, Georgia and Alabama rank second and third, respectively, behind
Texas in pecan production. Pecan trees have always been native to the
southeast. Second,
"In the Northeast many say PEE-can, while in Texas and much of the South
it is pronounced peh-KAHN.". This is reversed. I was born and raised in
the South. That, combined with half my family (my mother's side and my
wife's side) from the North/Midwest (Ohio), and having spent some time
up north (Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut) as a child, I can
tell you with some authority that PEE-can is the traditional Southern
pronunciation. Southerners concerned with trying not to sound "Southern"
adopted the Northern pronunciation of "peh-CAN" or "peh-KAHN". For a
true Southerner to say "peh-CAN" or "peh-KAHN" is akin to cooking or
eating instant grits. I can't say for sure, but both may have once been
capital offenses. :)
I currently live in a
suburb of Atlanta, which places me squarely in the middle of more
Yankees than there were when Sherman came through. The same holds with
those I know from the North and South now as it applies to the
pronunciation of "pecan".
Certainly pecan trees grow all
over the south and into other areas of the U.S. However, the native
range was not so large and covered the areas we originally described.
This does not mean there weren't small populations of pecans in locations
near to but outside that native range, but it does mean that the greatest
concentration of pecan trees was located within the native range. Here
is a
description of the range from an academic source:
Pecan is a hickory
indigenous to the United States. The native range follows the river
bottoms of the Mississippi River and its many tributaries and the
rivers of central and eastern Texas and their tributaries. In the
eastern U. S., pecan extends to Clinton, Iowa in the north,
Cincinnati, Ohio in the east, and New Orleans, Louisiana in the
south. In the western U. S., pecan extends to the Devil’s River area
of Texas in the west and north and to Crystal City, Texas in the
south. The southern native pecan area in Texas extends into
northeastern Mexico (Flack, 1970; Hester, 1981; Sargent, 1933; USDA
Bureau of Plant Industry, 1931). In the early 1930s, the trees were
most abundant and reached their greatest size in southern Arkansas
and eastern Texas (Sargent, 1933).
As for pronunciation of pecan,
Melanie is from Texas, and every Texan she has ever encountered who uttered
the word pecan said it "puh-KAHN". Many transplants from the northeast
(some from the midwest) that she knew who said the word pronounced it
"PEE-kahn" or "PEE-kan". For a true Texan to say "PEE-kan" is akin to
eating Tex-Mex made in New York City. Family friends from Louisiana and
Florida all say "puh-KAHN", as well. Let's take a survey:
Readers, tell us where
you are from and how you pronounce the word. Try to use the phonetic
conventions we have used here. |
From Bruce Brown:
Love your
site, thanks.
1. Sitting in the
doctor's dining room, I realized that one of my colleague's skills
were so wanting that his care was PREPOSTHUMOUS. (preposterous)
2. I was surprised your
excellent issue 203 discussion of the uses of draft did not
mention its use in the King James Bible, being the words of Jesus in
Matthew Chapter 15, and again in Mark Chapter 7: "... Not that which
goeth into the mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh out of
the mouth, this defileth a man... for whatever entereth in at the
mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out in the draught,
but those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the
heart; and they defileth a man."
I always got a chuckle as
a child to imagine such an earthy spectacle of atmospheric
ebullience could be discussed by the pastor in the sanctuary!
Quite
amusing!
|
From Christopher Mitson:
Your addendum to this
week's edition seeks to insure that an author gets due credit.
I realise this is a difference in American and British usage but it
seems a shame that the difference between ensure (to make sure)
and insure (to protect with insurance) has been lost in the
United States. I'm not chiding you but it seems the two words have a
useful difference. As do enquiry (to ask a question) and
inquiry (a formal investigation).
We agree.
|
From Torsten Pihl:
Thanks for the interesting
story about the Danish (pastry). You date at least one legend about the
origin of the Danish word (wienerbrød) to the year 1834. In
Swedish we use the same word, and here it appears in print for the first
time a couple of years earlier (1832) so probably the pastry appeared in
Scandinavia (whether first in Sweden or in Denmark I don’t know) some
years before that.
Excellent! |
PREVIOUS | NEXT
Or
read the last issue to see what all
of these people are talking about!
|