Another pet peeve

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Well I will be darned...my mom worked for Reynolds in Richmond years ago and they pronounced in al loo min um. Of course, it is spelled Aluminum Foil here. No i.
 

Abbey

Spork Queen
Mutt. Dear friend. I think it's time to get out a bit. ;)

I laughed so hard reading your post. After living literally around the country, I have an accent that no one could possibly decipher. I don't even understand what I'm saying at times. I'm still trying to get y'all out of my vocabulary. All I know is that I'm picking up 'ya know' and 'ya, ya' far too quickly. I need my spork.

And yes, I do say nuclear properly. I think.

Abbey
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Now, what was I saying about singers who take a breath mid-word? Grr...

I had to LOL Marg. This is a major hang up of mine. Back in my school days I had a choir teacher who was anal about breathing correctly. Most days students would be stuck just practicing their breathing instead of singing. Taking a breath mid-word was subject to public flogging in our teacher's opinion. That and dropping the letters off the end of a word. OMG lol But to this day, I now can't stand to hear someone do it.

I'm still trying to figure out something in anatomy. Parastalysis has suddenly turned into parastalsis. Huh? When and why did they change the spelling? I've had professors argue it was never spelled originally parastalysis! When I know it was both back when I was in hs and nurses training eons ago. I know because I had a devil of a time remembering to put the y into that word, but once I got it I never forgot it. *note* I've had 2 older professors finally admit to the original spelling* lol

Now the new spelling is driving me nuts. Oh, and they've also changed how it's pronounced as well. If that's not bad enough there are human body parts being renamed left and right. And these new names are often twice as long as the originals. I'm about to pound my head into the wall. ugh!

I didn't watch the debate. Once I've made up my mind I no longer pay attention to the election mumbo jumbo. lol
 

Marguerite

Active Member
I always was taught that word as "peristalsis". Never had a Y, as far as we were taught. Unless you mean something different?

As for singers - I also had a martinet of a choir teacher. We were very well trained. Some things you just don't do.

Marg
 

Estherfromjerusalem

Well-Known Member
We also learned about "peristalsis" when I was in high school in the United Kingdom, and that was 48 years ago -- heeelp, I am so oooold!

And Marg, of course, being British I also say "aluminium."

But British (and Australians speak British English too, I think?) and American are no longer the same language, so you can't really compare.

I wouldn't have written anything, because I think this is an internal American discussion. I just wanted to second your "peristalsis," because it is a strange word that I have always remembered (and I still remember what it means, too). And it became relevant for me because of dealing with my son's encopresis and understanding what was happening in his "insides."

Love, Esther
 
F

flutterbee

Guest
I learned it as parastalsis, too. It's about the only thing I remember from 10th grade biology cause I thought...geez, they name *everything* don't they?
 

Marguerite

Active Member
On the "aluminium" debate, we accepted for years (with gritted teeth) that in the US it was spelt aluminum and pronounced "al-OO-min-um". There are a lot of cultural differences.
But husband said there is a strong international convention of chemical spelling and pronounciation which has now formally defined two words - what WE used to spell as "sulphur" and the US spelt as "sulfur" is now internationally accepted as the US spelling predominating - we ALL have to spell it as "sulfur" now. But the trade-off was "aluMIN-i-um" now being the international standard.

So back when you were at school - you were not mis-taught. It was not international convention back then. it is now.

Maybe this is what I get for living in a household of nitpicky Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Aspies!

Marg
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Marj, I wonder if I was originally taught the "Americanized version" of the word then? Irritating because I have to now remember to leave that darn y out. lol

Now I'm confused on aluminium. And sulphur I can recall being spelled both ways. Dunno why.

I've heard the supposably and it drives me nuts. lol

Amazed around here and where I grew up mauve is pronounced maw-ve. Dunno if that's right or not.

But then we called washcloths........wash rags. And shampooing your hair, headwashes. :rofl:
 

Marguerite

Active Member
There are always going to be different names for things - that's just the way language shifts and varies from place to place. This isn't so much about language variations and accents, as about mispronunciations especially where they change the meaning.

How you pronounce "mauve" - you do it how it's acceptable in your area, but if in doubt, go back to the origin of the word which is French, I believe.

Different words for things according to locality - I'm always keeping that in mind when I post, because I've been surprised sometimes at the words that I use, that are not recognised. I remember when I was a child and a new girl came to our school, having moved from Queensland. Where we called our schoolbag a schoolbag or schoolcase, she called hers a "port". We were going for a swim after school and told her to go home first to collect her swimmers - she finally realised we meant "togs".

But she wasn't wrong at all - just different. As we were, to her.

The problems can arise when a word which is innocent in one area means something derogatory in another. I once worked with a young woman from New Zealand. IN the lab were us two young women and our boss, a conservative, kindly churchgoing man. He made some references to us one day in a kidding way, about us as "wenches". My female co-worker was horrified, AND offended. "I DON'T THINK SO," she replied, then stalked off.
I followed her to find out what was wrong - the boss was worried about what he might have said to offend her Turned out, in New Zealand at the time, calling a girl a little wench was like calling her a tramp, or the town bike.
(And that's another - is "the town bike" an Aussie expression, or do you know it? It refers to a girl who has been "ridden" by everyone in town).
In Australia, "wench" at the time at least, just meant "attractive young woman".

Words which are appropriate somewhere to someone are not the issue here. It's total ignorance masquerading as erudition that drives me crazy.

I think the worst example was a man I met at a writing workshop. He was working on his magnum opus, a very important work in the James Joyce style, something which would be hailed as a masterpiece and a vital text to upcoming psychology and sociology students. If there was a pause in the proceedings this fellow would jump in out of turn and insist his most recent chapters be read aloud for everyone's benefit - after all, HIS work was noteworthy, unlike the trivial little jottings of the rest of us plebs. The custom also was, at these groups, to get feedback from the other writers there as to what they thought - any flaws, any good points - since without a readership, a writer has not communicated. I remember after one of his reading sessions we sat there confused - it was stream of consciousness stuff, as if he was writing every thought that came through his head, important or otherwise. Someone tentatively asked where the piece was going, and he witheringly replied that perhaps she hadn't understood his work because it was too cerebral for her. "It IS going to be an academic work," he said in a patronising fashion.
Then one session he actually had the foresight to hand round copies of the piece he was reading. That was how I saw some of the glaringly obvious grammatic errors - the sort you WOULDN'T find in even a first draft of an academic work. When I got to something that said, "I should of seen through him," I realised I HAD seen through our aspiring writer.
So I tentatively spoke up. "Excuse me, but for an academic work, you will need to be meticulous about the grammar before you show any drafts to an editor or even a thesis supervisor."
I got the reaction I expected. "Well, of course you are too far removed from academia to understand the subtle satire of the piece," he told me. Mind you, he had paused for a second or two; he really didn't know even basic grammar.
I continued. "I'm also not sure if it drives the story forward to be reading such intimate, fine detail about your first sexual experience. Especially as you were alone at the time."
He completely missed the satire in MY response, he simply responded with, "You really don't understand sociology, do you?"

husband says the definition of offensive writing is independent of intent - you might not intend to offend, but if you do, then what you have written or said is offensive. Our writer colleague perhaps didn't mean to offend, but he got a very high strike rate in the room that night!

(by the way - easy child 2/difficult child 2 was also in the room, she was about 12 at the time. he read on blithely unaware of just how inappropriate it was for such a young girl to hear such graphic, sordid details. I was caught between wanting to jump up and shout out "Stop! You filthy swine!" and thereby tipping OPC2/difficult child 2 off to the presence of something interesting; or to say nothing and hope she wasn't paying attention.)

I should OF told him to take a course in correct grammar.

Marg
 

muttmeister

Well-Known Member
When I first posted this, I didn't realize it was going to blossom into such an interesting discussion; I thought I was just venting. LOL
While we're on the subject, a few more of my pet peeves: suddenly people don't know the difference between "bring" and "take." I first encountered this while teaching and the first time a kid used it wrong it took me a minute to even figure out what he was talking about. At that time it was a mistake you very seldom heard. Now, I hear it everywhere.
Also, around here if you do something unintended, the phrase has always been that you did it BY accident. Now, all of a sudden, everybody says they did it ON accident. I think that is one of those things that could be a colloquilaism but it is hard on old people like me when something like that changes.
Isn't it wonderful that I've reached a point in my life that I have time to be bothered by things like that instead of going to bed and worrying that a difficult child might murder me in the middle of the night or burn the house down or God knows what? I guess that's progress.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
LOL Mutt.

Yes that is progress. One that I catch myself doing and I know it is wrong is Make. As in make me a soda or make me a sandwich. Ok...poof you're a sandwich. It should be fix me a sandwich or pour me a soda. But alas...I use make because everyone else does. I used to have much better english before I moved down here. LOL.
 
Top