Is vocabulary your forte /ˈfɔr teɪ/? Or your forte? /fɔrt/?
English uses historical spelling,
it tends to preserve the pronunciation of loanwords (but not always),
and some words have alternate pronunciations
Does your house have a foyer or a foyer?
Does your computer have cache memory?
Or cache memory?
Some words are used only in a certain niche / niʃ /... niche / nɪtʃ /?
so, you’re bound to get confused sometimes.
Then you have the linguistic phenomenon called “metathesis.”
Huh?
Sometimes mispronunciations can spread throughout a community of speakers,
and even change the language.
All right...
let’s take a look at some pronunciation issues in English...
including metathesis.
Hey, Linguaphiles!
I’m Marc Franco.
Welcome to Snap Language.
This video is no way meant to mock how anyone pronounces certain words.
The fact is that you often hear people pronounce some words in different ways,
and you end up not knowing for sure
if the word has alternate pronunciations
(like data /ˈdeɪtə, ˈdætə / the British data /ˈdɑtə/ )
or if one of them is actually a mispronunciation.
Some words are just plain weird because of their spelling.
The typical example is “Worcestershire sauce.”
You look at the way it’s spelled for help,
but actually the spelling is the source of the confusion.
Let’s break it down.
New Hampshire.
We all know how to pronounce the “shire” part of New Hampshire.
In the UK, a shire is akin to a county in the United States.
When it’s part of a name, you pronounce it
as you do in “New Hampshire”
(not “New Hamp-shire”).
This part is pronounced / ˈwʊs tər /
Worcester / ˈwʊs tər /
Put “Worcester” and “-shire” together, you get “Worcestershire.”
/ ˈwʊs tərˌʃər /
Worcestershire sauce / ˈwʊs tərˌʃər ˌsɔs/
Just don’t look at the name on the bottle.
It’ll mess you up.
Some mispronunciations come from other words that are very similar.
The Italian coffee beverage is an “espresso,”
which actually shares the same etymology as “express,”
meaning to press or squeeze out.
In Italian, this X-sound in Latin changed an S- or Z-sound
so you have “example - esempio,”
“exist - esistere,”
“expressed - espresso.”
Because you have “express” in English, people think the drink is an *expresso,
which is a mispronunciation of espresso.
Speaking of coffee, a related word is to percolate.
Stimulate...
simulate... regulate... then, “perculate?”
Nope.
“Percolate.”
Instead of pressing the coffee out, to make an “espresso,”
you let hot water just drip down, or percolate,
through the coffee grounds.
People who deviate from accepted behavior are “devious,” right?
They’re also shifty.
They come up with deceitful plans.
Devious...
a similar word is “mischievous.”
Devious ... mis-chie-vious?
Well, again, perhaps the similarity between these words
ends up misleading people into thinking
that “mischievous” is pronounced “mis-chie-vious.”
Devious... hideous...
but mischievous.
/ ˈmɪs tʃə vəs /
A mischievous child had a devious plan to put Worcestershire sauce
in his Daddy’s espresso.
If you’ve worked really hard and without taking a break...
you say you’ve toiled without...
Okay, again you have similar words here: despite, satellite, frostbite...
but you also have words like definite, infinite, opposite...
If you’ve only seen this word in writing, you’ll probably just flip a coin, right?
Respite?
/ rɪˈspaɪt /
Um...
I’m glad I’m not a gambler.
You’ve toiled without respite.
/ ˈrɛs pɪt /
Let’s talk about this word...
I’ve actually had someone, um, “correct” me in the comments before
because I pronounced it “hyperbole” in a video.
That viewer was really certain that the word was hyper-bowl...
Sorry, bud...
the spelling makes it look like hyper-bowl, but it’s hyperbole.
/ haɪˈpɜr bə li /
These similarities are not just in spelling, though.
Words with similar or even identical pronunciations can throw us off, too.
If a strategy doesn’t work too well, you try a different...
Hmm...
“tact” is a fine word.
A tack?
Like a pushpin?
Well, yes... you try a different tack.
You try a different course of action.
(Not tact... but tack.)
A different tack.
“Tact” has to do with being “tactful.”
Some mispronunciations happen because of a linguistic phenomenon
called “metathesis.”
A meta-thesis?
No.
Metathesis.
Metathesis is the transposition of letters, syllables, or sounds in a word.
A common example is “ask” and “aks.”
Believe it or not, this has been around since the eighth century.
In Old English, both forms of the verb
“to ask” already co-existed: “ascian” and “acsian."
This goes to show that metathesis
has probably been around as long as language has existed.
Asterisk...
asteriks?
No.
Asterisk.
Prescribe...
perscribe?
No.
Prescribe.
Integral...
intergal?
Integral.
Introduce...
Interduce?
Introduce.
Bird... bridd?
[laughs] No one would confuse bird and bridd, right?
Well, surprise, surprise!
It’s actually the other way around.
“Bird” evolved from “bridd” in Old English.
Through the process of metathesis, the word “bridd” became “bird.”
I’m sure during that transition from bridd to bird,
some people must’ve said, “Bird?!
This is just wrong!”
But, “bird” won out over “bridd.”
In Old English, we also had “forst”... which became “frost,”
“naefre” for “never,”
and “fersc,” which gave us “fresh.”
How did we get from “three” to “third.”
Yep!
“Third” used to be “thridda” in Old English,
and metathesis gave us “third.”
“Thyrl” is a “hole” in Old English.
With metathesis, it became “thril.”
So “nas” + “thyrl” (literally, “the hole of your nose”)
became nos + thril...
nostril in Modern English.
Yep, metathesis happened... and a mispronunciation
gave us today’s word “nostril.”
Metathesis also happens in loanwords.
“Tornado” probably came from Spanish “tronado” (thunder).
Metathesis of R and O and... boom!
You have “tornado.”
“El lagarto” (the lizard)...
“alligarto”... um...
metathesis...
“alligator.”
In Vulgar Latin, “turbulare” meant “to make trouble.”
That’s where we got “turbulent” from.
In Old French, “turbler” had the idea of “trouble.”
Through metathesis of U and R, they got “trubler.”
So, from Old French, English borrowed the metathesized word “trouble”
and the non-metathesized word “turbulent.”
Pretty cool, huh?
(And I can’t believe, from “metathesis,” I just said “metathesized” and
“non-metathesized” without blinking!
These are big words!)
I think sometimes you just hear people pronounce
words different ways and you adopt one of them...
and sometimes you happen to adopt the mispronounced version.
The temporary memory in your computer is the cache memory.
Not “cachet.”
It’s when you have prestige and influence that you have cachet.
“Etcetera” is the original expression from Latin.
“Ek-cetera”... um... that’s creative pronunciation.
I’m not sure where that comes from.
“Realtor,” not “real-a-tor.
it’s spelled “realtor,” right?
Someone who sells real... estate.
A realtor.
Some mispronunciations happen so often that they end up being accepted
as alternate pronunciations.
(Remember “bridd?”)
Something you’re really good at, your strong suit, is your forte / fɔrt /.
You’ll rarely find people who say forte /fɔrt/ anymore, though.
Most people say forte / ˈfɔr teɪ /.
If being a purist is your forte / ˈfɔr teɪ /,
go ahead and say / fɔrt /,
but don’t expect other people to do so.
You may think it doesn’t sound purty... but
it ain’t gonna happen cuz you want it to.
Chances are you say “foyer” /ˈfɔɪ eɪ /.
You know... it sounds all French and fancy.
But it’s a foyer / ˈfɔɪ ər /.
These pronunciations are so common, they’re both widely accepted now.
So, don’t correct someone for saying foyer / ˈfɔɪ ər / or foyer /ˈfɔɪ eɪ
/.
Both “niche” / niʃ / and “niche” /nɪtʃ /
have become accepted, too.
(At least in American English.)
So, whether you have a “niche” / niʃ /
or “niche” /nɪtʃ /, have at it.
I’m not so sure about saying hyper-bowl, meta-thesis, or ex-presso, though...
We’re not there yet with these words.
Again, this is not intended to mock anyone for how they pronounce words.
There’s enough linguistic bias going around as it is,
which is not okay,
but sometimes pronunciation matters to people
depending on the social situation.
Differences in pronunciation are part of the language.
Mostly, they result from natural, linguistic processes
that sometimes even reshape the language over time.
After all, who determines how words are pronounced?
It’s the linguistic community using that language variety.
If a particular pronunciation is shared by that community,
that’s pretty much it for that word.
The solution for these pesky words?
If you’re in doubt and you want to make sure you’re saying it right,
use a good dictionary.
Thanks for watching!
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