fox: linguistics-related IPA (linguistics)
fox ([personal profile] fox) wrote2006-10-15 08:59 pm

but it's different when you're on the radio, isn't it?!

So okay, I know sometimes we get uppity about language and how it changes and whatnot, but that really language is an organic thing that has a life cycle of its own, so changes happen.  The first generation that would never have dreamed of saying feb-yoo-ary must have been driven bananas by its children's insistence on pronouncing February that way.  We haven't lost library and nuclear to lie-berry and nuke-you-ler yet, but it's just a matter of time.  Both we in the US and they in the UK have laboratory, but we tend to pronounce it lab-ra-tory and they tend to pronounce it lab-or-a-tree.  In short:  you can't fight a tidal wave.

But I do reserve the right to be annoyed when the weather guy on the radio -- and this is the all-news radio station, he's not the guy who reads the weather at some station full of pop music nonsense -- says -- well, listen, I can get behind temp-ra-cher and even temp-er-cher (although I don't like it), but I yell at the dashboard when I hear temp-a-cher.  rar.  And then five minutes later I hear something else like inf-a-structure.  RAR!

[seethe]

And do you know what's worse than that?  Today I heard a bit about how in the 60's there was a kid who was designated the 200,000,000th American, and any day now he will be happy to hand the media attention over to the 300,000,000th American -- and the reporter read these as "two hundredth million American" and "three hundredth million American", respectively.

Oh. my. god.

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