Overly creative use of the apostrophe. Overuse of quotation marks. There was a sign on a diner I rode by every day on the way to high school that said it all:

"food" at it's BEST!

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

Twitch!

Yeah, I felt all the grammar issues kind of went without saying, huh?

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Does anybody actually eat at Domino's? (I honestly don't know -- I thought they were a takeout/delivery only outfit, but maybe they do have tables too. As you can tell, I too am not a Domino's customer.)

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Bring back Firefly!

"It is quite clear that Occam's razor does not sharpen in your pyramid." (Nicolas)

"Still, a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest." (Paul Simon)

"I could care less" when they mean the exact opposite.

And I'd favor capital (or at least corporal) punishment for abuse of apostrophe's. (Yes, I did that on purpose!)

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Cum catapultae proscribeantur tum soli proscripti catapultas habeant.

when people say ,oh just quick question, it usually is not that quick.

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If it's just us, it seems like an awful waste of space.
Contact Carl Sagan

Okay, point taken. Still.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Ah, that's the way I say it if I'm not thinking about it.

Most of my family is from the Midwest, around Iowa. Pronunciation isn't that different from California. I remember a few pronunciations that were unusual, but I don't know if they were in-family things or pretty common. "Wash" was "Warsh." "Cauliflower" was "Cowflower." "Snifter" (admittedly not used often) was "Sniffer."

There were a couple of funny in-family mispronunciations. "Sorbet" was "Sore bet." "Yahoo" was "Yay Hoot." That one came from my grandmother. She spoke dutch when she was young, and we've speculated that had something to do with it. The funny thing is that this was an invented word based on Swift's invented word. (By the way, great granddad's name was not "Van Rijn.")

There were also phrases that I grew up with, but nobody around here seems to have heard, such as "Going around Robin Hood's Barn" meaning doing something really pointless, or the long, long way around.

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I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?

Disclaimer: Avatar is not an official NASA image and does not imply any specific interplanetary or interstellar capability.

The Leif Ericson Cruiser

My grandmother insists that her TV remote need two AA "bachries" and his corrected me often when I ask about batteries.

When a friend started working for DirecTV they ha a short class on how to speak Southern. "Mash the clicker" doesn't mean much to us, but apparently it refers to the pressing of any buttons on a remote control.

When my dad worked in Missouri some of the local would use "y'all" and he would look around then say, that he was the only one there. After a few caught on and took it well, he asked them where the line was between y'all and you'uns. He was told it was the highway that crosses the state. Oddly enough, my dad confirmed that south of that road it was you'uns. It's also just about where the line is on that map from the accent calculator thread.

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A Nerd can figure out how long it will take the original Enterprise traveling at warp 6.5 to travel from Regulus to Antares.
A Geek will think he can use that to pick up a girl in a bar.
A Dork knows he can't pick up the girl with it, but will hang around for hours anyway, just in case she asks.
She might. You never know.

Ahh yes, I was wondering if anyone would bring Chaucer up. Chaucer pretty much invented half of the english language. But you know .. he also pronounced "yacht" as "yaHt" (with a hard, gutteral H - the spitting sound). That doesn't make pronouncing it that way today at all correct. "Aks" and "ask" were both common back in the 1300s and maybe even up to the 1800s but it is not actually taught today anywhere as being correct. And if people today were saying it that way because they new that it was one of the original pronunciations then fine ... but, really, and we all know it, they're just being lazy.

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1·618033988749894848204586834365638117720309179805 76286213544862270526046281890244970720720418939113 74

Did you stop in to see what they were actually serving? Also, did you determine where (uncontracted) "'food' at it is BEST" is located? Probably some obscure place far from Podunk. Most likely one of those incredibly long, consonant-laden place names in Wales.

BTW, that kind of punctuational overkill is all over the place here in the South.There was one of those payroll check cashing places that not only apparently charged exorbitant interest but also asked One wonders if the feds investigated for possible counterfeiting.

Meanwhile three favorite classic signs:

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A person's name, or a mark representing it, as signed personally or by deputy, as in subscribing a letter or other document.

I have a picture of an insurance office with plywood in place of windows. It sits at the low end of a parking lot and had a marquee above the door that read "PLEASE LEAVE YOUR CAR IN PARK".

A friend was getting married and invited many of her internet friends to the wedding. To help out she sent a brochure of the local hotels. One of the first places listed was an "Adult Retreat", that listed the amenities: Deep set bathtub built for two, dvd/vcr/bigscreen TVs, etc. No kids. Pets welcome.

One day on the way home from work I saw a guy that was about 300 pounds riding a 125cc enduro style motorcycle. (basically a street legal dirt bike). He wore a shirt three sizes too small with a message on the back that read "Loosing is nature's way of telling you you suck." The picture didn't turn out. Wrong lens and through the car windshield.

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A Nerd can figure out how long it will take the original Enterprise traveling at warp 6.5 to travel from Regulus to Antares.
A Geek will think he can use that to pick up a girl in a bar.
A Dork knows he can't pick up the girl with it, but will hang around for hours anyway, just in case she asks.
She might. You never know.

It's worth noting that dictionary.com lists "comftirbuhl" as an acceptable pronunciation.

Just out of curiosity, how do those of you who don't pronounce it "comftirbuhl" pronounce it? Like "comftuhbuhl" or like "comfirtuhbuhl"?

Pronouncing "comfortable" as "comftirble" never seemed any odder to me than pronouncing "Wednesday" as "wendsday."

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SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

The contents of this post are ©2008 by SeanF and may not be copied or retransmitted in any form without the express written consent of SeanF

That word bugs me, too; other odd pronunciations (and why not "pronounciations"?) are at least matters of either slightly changing or just removing some sounds, usually vowels, but reversing their order (especially when they're consonants) is a whole other level of wrongness (even worse than if I'd just written "a whole nother").

As a result, I never say that word out loud. There just isn't any right way to do it. The way it's usually done is wrong and grating, but the way that would make sense (with the consonants in their actual order) is awkward and unfamiliar.

Reminds me of my favourite response to the question "Where's the 'f' in Lieutenant?"

"The same place as the 'r' in Colonel."

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Quaeso quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris?

speaking of Wednesday, why don't we pronounce the first 'r' in February?

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"I will do my best to understand and explain the universe from big to small without invoking miracles, unrepeatable events, or divine intervention. In place of those things I will use observations, mathematics, and science."


-Cross
My travel blog

Some of my Astrophotography


Those that lack education have a hard time understanding its value. - Cross

No, it´s hidden behind the "w" of Lieutenant´s sword when lying on the sward.

To all those who commented about my mention of comfortable, it wasn't a serious criticism. To be perfectly frank, I'm American speaker and I pronounce it that way as well. I think it's totally normal. My point is that it's strange that many people use metathesis in everyday life, and pronounce comfortable in the "wrong" way, but when people (in particular, African Americans) pronounce "ask" as "aks" (an acceptable pronunciation even seven hundred years ago), they criticize them for using "improper English".

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As above, so below

Since moving to the South 16 years ago, I find it amazing how many folks around here refer to that retail giant out of Bentonville, Arkansas as "Wal-Mark".

I have been unable to come up with a logical reason for such a mispronunciation.

Anyone have some insight as to why?

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