Site of the Day for Thursday, September 15, 2016
8 Pronunciation Errors That Made the English Language What It Is Today
Today's site from The Guardian offers one of the newspaper's happy little gems
-- in this instance, on that always contentious topic, the development of
English. Language-loving Gentle Subscribers will find yet another reason to
chortle over the vagaries of English in this engaging article.
"Think hyperbole rhymes with Super Bowl? Don't worry, it could be the start of
something beautiful ... Error is the engine of language change, and today's
mistake could be tomorrow's vigorously defended norm." - from the website
Zeroing in on a number of common linguistic processes, the story spotlights
words which historically used to begin with the letter "n" termed
"rebracketing"; those which have swapped sounds internally -- "metathesis"; and
those which have had sounds disappear within them -- "syncope". Among the
words singled out as having quietly undergone a sea-change in pronunciation are
walk, wasp, and Wednesday, while even Christmas finds a place on this list as
well. Not to be overlooked is the startling level of reader participation with
more than 3500 comments logged on the report, significantly adding to the
story's appeal, and including a jaunty aside on the letter "h".
Stride to the site for a brief but splendid article on English at:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/11/pronunciation-errors-english-language#comments
A.M. Holm
Comments? Suggestions? amholm@xxxxxxxxxxx
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