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

Re:

[thalia]

My guess is that they're people who simply have no ear for language.

I'm not convinced. I have the pronunciation problem that Fox is talking about, but my pronunciation of French and German is pretty good, considering I'm nowhere near fluent in either at this point. I can, for instance, hear the difference between "dessous" and "dessus," and "attendre" and "entendre." But in English I know most of my vocabulary comes from reading, and if I haven't heard a word spoken, I'm really bad at guessing how it's pronounced.

And just for completeness, I'm very, very left-brained, and I have a good understanding of grammar rules; I don't go by how things sound. Make of all that what you will.

Re:

[dargie.livejournal.com]

I guess that this, like most other complex questions, has more than one answer. But the folks I know who have a consistent problem have heard these words more than once. Frex: One of my dear friends pronounces Jerusalem as Jeruzelham, and I know it's not a problem with never having heard the correct pronounciation.

[thalia]

Oh, like the nuke-yoo-ler thing. I think we were talking about two different problems. Mine is specifically with words I've never heard; I hadn't thought about those people who continually mispronounce relatively common words. Probably should have, though; one of my college friends had a boyfriend who drove me nuts by pronouncing "unique" UH-nih-cue. He wasn't very bright. To put it mildly.

Re:

[dargie.livejournal.com]

Right, exactly. I'll make mistakes on words I've never heard pronounced, but once I hear it, I have it. But I know people who aren't stupid by any stretch, but cannot seem to get certain words no matter how many times they hear them.