April 8, 2010The Arcane ScrutinyEarlier this week, in a bit of correspondence, I crafted what we in the biz call a "homonym substitution." On purpose. That's how clever a wordsmith.I.am. For the uninitiated among you, a homonym substitution is a word that sounds like, but has an entirely different meaning from, another word or phrase. Mine, for example, was "That's like comparing tangerines to oranges. Both have appeal." See what I did there? "Appeal" sounds like "a peel." Please, save your applause till the end . . . Anyway, I recount this example of wordy-nerdiness as an introduction to a little survey I heard about today via a network of editors I'm apart of. (See what I did there?) Here's the text of the e-mail:
This, ladies and gentlemen, is what editors do. A lot. We scrutinize not only the English language but people's use (and abuse) of it. This isn't mere self-indulgence, however; we're providing a good service to society--protecting the language from its mishandlers, preserving a literary history unmarred by careless diction. You may not appreciate it, but your great-great-great-great grandchildren . . . well, they probably won't appreciate it either. Sad, I no. (See what I did there?) Anyway, please feel free to post your suggestions here; I'll make sure they get into the write hands. (Ha! I can't stop!) Posted by Dave Zimmerman
at April 8, 2010 1:05 PM
I'm a king of Oolov, myself, which isn't quite the same thing, but SIM-yu-ler. I had a college professor who never URRed in his pronunciation. He did a good job of a-CLIMB-ate-ing us to proper English usage. I might of done better in his class had I understood the difference between "of" and "have." Augustine! Comment by: Mark Eddy Smith at April 8, 2010 3:42 PMi apologize for being both off-task and off-subject. i have no commonly mispronounced words to contribute. but i need to admit that i, myself, am responsible for at least a few. when i lived in china, i earned extra cash recording audio for books used in schools throughout the country. those in charge of hiring often knew little english, and were put in charge of the near-impossible task of convincing foreigners to spend their saturdays recording for not a great deal of money. but there were two of us who really enjoyed it. in addition to our already southern-drawled accents, we would intentionally mispronounce words or speak in odd rhythms to try and make the other laugh. i know we shouldn't have; we just thought it was too funny. but it wasn't nearly as funny when, a year or two later, we'd pass a classroom at some university and hear the southern twang of one of our voices, followed by the echoes of chinese students mispronouncing words in just the same fashion. you may throw your stones now. Comment by: JamesBrett at April 9, 2010 8:47 AMI'll pray for both of you. Go and sin know Moor. Comment by: Dave at April 9, 2010 9:07 AMI hear "propitiation" mispronounced a lot. Comment by: Jim Collins at April 9, 2010 9:29 AMComments are closed for this entry. |
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