Vocal Voices

When Wrong becomes Right

I recently bought a new copy of the Oxford English Dictionary, as my old one was getting a little dog-eared.
I notice that the pronunciation of some words have, over the intervening years, changed, For example, integral,
that used to be in' ti gral is now in teg' ral, and Tini' tus[ has become Tin' i tus.

This means that what was once wrong is now right, simply because more people said it that way.

This made me think that perhaps this practice, could be applied to other human activities – not a very pleasant
thought, when carried to extremes.

I know I'm a pedant, but what do you think?

Aggers

Posts: 2065
Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2012 1:41 pm
Location: West Midlands

I am not sure that there is such a thing as "proper" pronunciation in England with all its diferent accents.

We do have the rather made up Received Pronunciation (RP) as used by the BBC to make what is spoken available to all, but it is not superior to any other accent despite its perceived "poshness" or endowment of intellect.

You say scon, I say scone
You say grarse I say grass
You are an ad-vert-iss-ment for pedantry, I am an ad-ver-tiise-ment for anarchy.

A lovely big shiny dictionary (Chambers) was the first present I ever bought Bb
Not maybe what everyone would appreciate but he sure did
He does the Times crossword, quizzes, whatever, and didn't own a dictionary.

It doesn't get used much now though, it's too heavy for me anyway and we both use the Oxford that was already installed on our kindles

I guess pronunciation evolves just as the rest of the language does

I typed an answer to this after Aggers first posted it, then it said the topic didn't exist and it disappeared

Trying again I just said that language is a fluid thing which has always evolved - When Jane Austen described a character as 'nice' 200 years ago she meant someone who was particular in their habits and somewhat fussy, not someone who was nice in the sense we mean it

As to pronunciation well, tomatoe, tomarter, potatoe, potarter

Di I do crosswords and puzzles too, almost every day

I did too Kaz, several times I've had 'internal server error'

Diflower wrote:I did too Kaz, several times I've had 'internal server error'

I have been getting that a lot today as well.

Yes I know we've had that once or twice, but I mean Aggers' post disappeared as well, Café was still in one piece! Maybe he deleted it for some reason then reposted

Kaz - My original post disappeared because I cancelled it, as I was not happy with how it appeared.

I guess my training as an engineering draughtsman turned me into a pedant, as I have always been critical of
anything that doesn't conform to my understanding of what is correct. I notice things that other people may not
be aware of, sch as the habit so many people have of putting a dot above a capital i, which, to me, stands out
as being wrong.

I know and accept that language is always changing, but I can't help dividing things neatly into RIGHT or WRONG.

It's too late now for me to change.

A dot above a capital I??!?
Noooooo, that's plain wrong!

Diflower wrote:A lovely big shiny dictionary (Chambers) was the first present I ever bought Bb
Not maybe what everyone would appreciate but he sure did
He does the Times crossword, quizzes, whatever, and didn't own a dictionary.

It doesn't get used much now though, it's too heavy for me anyway and we both use the Oxford that was already installed on our kindles

I guess pronunciation evolves just as the rest of the language does

Another reason I love you Di.

The first weekend Don and I moved to London - our first Islington flat warming present to each other was a big fat Chambers dictionary bought on Tottenham Court Road.

We still have said dictionary which is dog-eared and battered but very much loved.

It's also the dictionary (we have quite a few) that the boys would turn to after asking me..."mum, how do you spell...?" and my stock reply, just like MY mum said to me was...look in the dictionary.