Eggcorns
May 23, 2009Yes, you heard me right. Eggcorns. You know what those are don’t you? The nuts on oak trees. Yes, they are. Honest.
Or at least that is how one person always heard the word acorns. And eggcorns has come to mean those tricky words you’ve probably only ever heard and never seen written down. So your mind interprets the sounds as it sees fit.
So depending on your accent it might be social leopard or soaping wet.
There are more examples here
And then of course there is my own personal stumbling block. Words I’ve only ever seen written down and so pronounce as they they look like the should be pronounced. When I was 12 or so I had to read aloud in class. I’d only have seen ‘quay’ written down. And Qu = a Kw sound, right? Yes, so I said kway. Yes, it took a while to get over the giggles that caused.
And it was only a couple of months ago that I discovered that hyperbole is not pronounced hi-PER-bowl. When I heard Judi Dench say it in Quantum of Solace I wondered what on earth was that word? Maybe it was just her posh accent? A quick trip to the dictionary and a cry of ‘No WAY!!’ and now I know – I’ve been saying it my head wrong all this time. I should have been saying hye-PER-buh-lee to myself. And I still say wrong in my head now, because I can’t get out of the habit.
So, what words does your brain interpret in its own sweet way?
In other news, I’m doing a serious ( well a bit serious anyway) blog post tommorow about making characters 3D – check out the Naughty Girls Next Door
I remember a girl from my old work who pronounced archives with as arch-ives (soft ch rather than hard ch). She was always telling customers over the phone: one second while i go back in the arch-ives.
Personally, i remember pronouncing Prague with as Pray-gwee once, in front of people. That was funny. So, yes, happens to me a lot as well.
Hyperbole is not pronounced hi-PER-bowl?? wahhhh!
When I was little, I always said “sew” as soow. Not sow.
Hi Julia,
I heard Michael O’Leary of Ryanair mispronouncing that word recently on the radio. He called it “hype-bowl”. I always knew he was a idiot!
I have one 2-word phrase that I cannot say. It looks easy enough on paper, but I always fail when I try to enunciate:
Specific statistics
And I never know how to pronounce “genre”. What a horrible word!