linguistics-y musings

[fox]

so i was thinking this morning about people who pronounce words wrong (or, to use non-judgmental language, "people with non-standard pronunciations")([rolls eyes]). three examples that leaped to mind immediately were:

• theferrett pronounced row (argument) to rhyme with "whoa" rather than with "wow"
  
• a friend of mine in junior high once said something like "innudioes" when she meant innuendoes
  
• just the other day, i heard someone say "drawt" and it took a little sorting out before it became clear to me that she meant draught, which is pronounced "draft"

i wonder if this has anything to do with how much reading people do, or more precisely how much listening they may or may not do. it seems pretty clear that children who read a great deal acquire a lot of vocabulary that way -- but while they may know a word in context, they may never have (had occasion to) hear it used, so they're more likely than less-heavy readers to pronounce things wrong.

maybe. i mean, i was thinking about this in the shower this morning. i don't know if there's ever been any sort of study made of different groups, much-readers vs. not-so-much-readers; and if there hasn't been, i wouldn't know how to put one together. i'd have to consult with someone who had more knowledge of research methods. and then i wouldn't expect it'd be as useful a thing to know about too many languages other than english, since we're the ones with kooky unpredictable correlations between spelling and pronunciation.

ellen_fremedon? therealjae? others? any thoughts?

Comments

[autiger23.livejournal.com]

Yup, I agree with the 'heavy readers' argument. And for whatever reason, I tend to have a higher vocab than most people I know, so they can't correct me when I say something wrong. Becoming good friends with sagamore has helped me out since he's an English major(and just generally smarter than me) and we use a lot of five dollar words in normal conversation. He clues me in when I mispronounce them. And I'm hell with names. When I'm reading, I just make up what I think it should sound like in my head whether it's right or wrong. I think that's how some mispronunciations happen. And then other times, I just read something incorrectly and it gets stuck in my brain that way. Like in the HP books, I was reading 'perfect' rather than 'prefect' because I'd never heard of or seen the word 'prefect' so my brain turned it into something it could deal with. Twas very weird. :) Oh, and I love www.m-w.com since they have the sound clips that pronounce the word for you. It's a great resource.