PARVUM OPUS
Number 33
PRONOUNCE IT TRIPPINGLY
The other day someone on TV pronounced "palatable" pa-LAT-able. If you have only read the word, but never knowingly heard it pronounced, that would be a reasonable way to pronounce it. But even someone who's only read the word might know it comes from "palate", which few would venture to pronounce pa-LAT(e). By the way, I've always thought there might be a market for a dictionary of homonyms (e.g. palate, palette), with brief definitions accompanied by a simple graphic as a memory aid. Confusion over homonyms causes a lot of spelling errors. What do you think?
Also on TV recently, someone said "memory-ladened", obviously ignorant of "laden" as a form of "lade". But ~ www.dictionary.org does list "ladened" as a form no longer in use. Yet I do not absolve the TV reporter. I doubt that he dredged up this archaism from a vast literary memory bank. More likely it was a neologism that chanced to have historical precedence.
From a TV promo: "Recants some of the most chilling stories of Hawaii." I assume "recounts" was intended. It may have been a mispronunciation, but it was probably just confusion, like "kept them appraised of," which of course should have been "apprised". But what does a vowel matter? It's not like they were the wrong consonants ~ "remounts" or "affrighted". The wrong vowel is practically right by comparison.
The African country of Niger was heard on TV as something like "Nee-ZHER" (how do we spell that sound in English?) rather than "NYE-ger". Niger was a French colony until independence in 1960, and one of its languages is French, so the French pronunciation is fair. We're not used to hearing foreign names given the pronunciation of their own language, as Americans are notorious for not learning foreign languages. A foreign language used to be a requirement for a bachelor of arts degree, but no more. Sometimes we think people are being affected when they pronounce certain names or words as in their language of origin, and certainly it's usually acceptable to Anglicize them. Mexico in English is "Mex-i-co", not "May-he-co"; Deutschland in English is Germany; Cote d'Ivoire in English is Ivory Coast. But Neezher is fine, and so is Niger. You just have to decide whether you want to be considered affected. Maybe if you haven't actually been to Niger and you don't speak French, you should stay Anglicized.
In Blood of My Blood by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, I found the word "humbly" used to mean "homely". They don't seem to have had the same origins, according to the dictionary, but it's easy to see how they could have overlapped in the vernacular, because both sound and meaning are close.
People who read have a larger reading than a speaking vocabulary, so some mispronunciations are inevitable, unless you invariably converse with people who know more than you do ~ and who knows more than we do? This, of course, is why I mispronounce words from time to time. Fred says he was taught that if you aren't sure how to pronounce something, then be sure to say the word with firm authority. And, of course, you can always hope you've stumbled on a British pronunciation.
I always said "PREF-er-able" until a few years ago, when I heard someone say "pre-FER-able", which for some reason I liked well enough to adopt, without knowing whether or not it was correct. I thought maybe both were, but I think the former is preferred (but not preffered). I suppose I have to go back to PREF-er-able.
MORE T'n'V
"[They have] much lax laws and they don't enforce them very tough." There's no excuse for this one. Even assuming this person was speaking extemporaneously, how did he get his job? It's practically early W. Bushonian.
- "Wild going-ons": There's no way to comfortably make a plural of "going-on". In fact even the singular is awkward, but occasionally it's useful as a vernacular expression of activity that is more than a little suspicious. But it seems that either way a plural would be formed ~ "goings-on" or "going-ons" ~ the expression will retain a folksy, made-up quality.
Which leads me to grudgingly admit that "ongoing" is a real word, it doesn't require a hyphen, and in fact it is even listed in my online dictionary as a noun, if you can believe it, in a 1913 reference in www.yourdictionary.com:
Ongoing \On"go`ing\, n.
The act of going forward; progress; (pl.) affairs; business; current events.
The common ongoings of this our commonplace world, and everyday life.
~ Prof. Wilson.
I don't know who Professor Wilson was, but I rather like his use of "ongoings". Since the word, as an adjective, was never part of any conversation or writing that I was familiar with other than business writing, I've always been biased against its ongoing use.
That's a funny reference, isn't it ~ "Prof. Wilson" ~ as if there was only one, and he was famous.
I thought I heard someone in Iraq say the troops were "enervated" by the reported deaths of the heinous Hussein brothers, Uday and Ousay. The word sounds as if it could mean what the person may have intended, but we know that the "e" means "out (of)", as in "ex", ergo "un-nerved". I think the troops may be enervated by their job, but not by this event.
"1909 was the year Robert Perry claims the North Pole." This will be the year I lost patience with people who are torturing verb tenses.
INDIVIDUAL
"Individual" means an entity that cannot be divided without losing its identity ~ a unit, a unity. But it always struck me that it could, paradoxically, mean one that cannot be divided from its fellow beings. A person is an in-dividual, a whole, complete human, a universe. But a person is also a human among other humans, who cannot be defined as human outside the universe of other humans. The word could logically mean both, and might have meant the latter if the history of the word had been otherwise.
Copyright Rhonda Keith 2003. Parvum Opus or part of it may be reproduced only with permission, but it is permissible to forward the entire newsletter as long as the copyright remains.
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