Words you didn’t realize your family mispronounced

[luvsvacation]

On the theme of pronounciations…what words did you grow hearing wrong in your home that you didn’t realize until you were older? For me it was eyebrows, my mom always called them eye bras and I had no idea that was incorrect. We still laugh about it every time she says it, we’re like, no mom, your eyes don’t have bras!

 

[DLgal]

A lot. My parents are both native Spanish speakers. My mom pronounced every word with a "ch" the hard way, like checkers, even when it should sound like "sh." Chef was one that she never got right. She still pronounces it wrong.

 

[mom2rb]

Pinch, I didn’t know that it was wrong until my DH heard me say that the seat belt was pinching me. He laughed so hard that I can’t believe he got a second date. I grew up saying It PEEnch.

 

[bcla]

Well - I'm quite familiar with people who aren't originally from the United States, so pronunciation can always be interesting. Once I was talking about insurance with someone, who mentioned maybe checking with an insurer called "Gaggle". It took me a while before she spelled it out - G-E-I-C-O, or "gaggle".

 

[disykat]

My DH's family says LOTS of words wrong. For example, eating spaghetti means they are eating "EYEtalian" food. DH prides himself on being well educated (first in his family to go to college, etc.) and would never want to look uneducated, so I try to gently let him know later when some of those words come up. (I know - it sounds obnoxious, but he would REALLY want to know.) He always said that both (his family's way and the accepted norm) must be right, but I noticed he'd start paying attention and sometimes change his own pronunciation. It took until the internet became a thing and he could look things up easily and verify my opinion, that he finally just started believing me when I'd mention a correct pronunciation or grammatical rule. (And trust me, it's not like I know how to pronounce everything - his family is just particularly not gifted in that area!)

Again, I know it's REALLY obnoxious to correct people, but my husband would truly want to know and I also owed it to my kids.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

what words did you grow hearing wrong in your home that you didn’t realize until you were older?

Not really heard growing up, but I was an adult before I realized the word that I pronounced cal-ee-ope was calliope (cuh-lie-oh-pee). I knew what a calliope was, and used that term when speaking, but didn't realize that's how it was spelled.

 

[disykat]

Not really heard growing up, but I was an adult before I realized the word that I pronounced cal-ee-ope was calliope. I knew what a calliope was, and used that term when speaking, but didn't realize that's how it was spelled.

It's hard with words like that where you've just read them in a book. I love having the internet to look up pronunciations. So much easier than the old pronunciation guide in the dictionary!

 

[tvguy]

Well, do you fillet (fil-a) a fish or fillet (fill-let) a fish? My mom's family always says fill-let.

EDITED: Checked my old 1965 dictionary and it lists both pronunciations, so must be regional.

 

[MillauFr]

We mispronounce. Disney. We keep the D silent..

 

[mrodgers]

My parents grew up in Pittsburgh and I started out until 8 in Pittsburgh. Good grief, everything my mother says is pronounced wrong.

She still warshes her clothes.

 

[DeeBee3]

My mom's family is from the Bronx so basically every word I heard growing up is considered mispronounced. It's too late to change my speech patterns, so it is what it is!

Everyone has an accent - I don't think there really is a correct way to say something unless 99% of the rest of the English-speaking world disagrees.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

The speech of people from South Philadelphia has been referred to as a dialect. In some areas-like where I grew up, on 2nd street-the accent is so thick and people speak so fast that an outsider would have a really hard time understanding. There are words like "tret" for step (as in "you tret on my foot), or "coalbin" for sewer that come to mind, that are only spoken in the old neighborhood.

I didn't know it was a potential problem until I began doing freelance work for this one Philadelphia company as an artist and designer. I would have to be in meetings with people from out of town from companies that were commissioning illustrations or whatever. Before I even started attending these meetings with my sketchbook, the boss met with me to suggest I take speech classes. I politely refused. He told me outright that the "power people" wouldn't respect my work because of the way I sounded. He was wrong, but man did I have a complex for years about my accent. I always slowed down my rate of speech and didn't speak like a South Philly Millie in meetings, but the heavy accent stayed.

 

[MillauFr]

Where is LowKey when you need him?

 

[kymom99]

We did the worsh and changed the oral in the car. I have corrected these things over time. My mom was hearing impaired and had a lot of interesting ways to say things. Since she is gone they are endearing and we use them to remember her.

 

[RedAngie]

My maternal grandmother pronounced it as “sammiches” or “sammies” decades before Rachael Ray was born.

For some unknown reason, my father pronounced helicopter as HEE-lee-o-cop-ter.

DH and I sometimes intentionally mispronounce words as kind of a private joke between ourselves.

 

[georgina]

I think this is regional; I grew up pronouncing caramel as CAR-mel, my southern born SIL keeps telling me it is care-a-mel, like it is spelled!

 

[PollyannaMom]

I think this is regional; I grew up pronouncing caramel as CAR-mel, my southern born SIL keeps telling me it is care-a-mel, like it is spelled!

I use both in different situations. - Like for some reason, I buy car-mul corn, but put care-a-mel sauce on ice cream.

 

[mjkacmom]

I think this is regional; I grew up pronouncing caramel as CAR-mel, my southern born SIL keeps telling me it is care-a-mel, like it is spelled!

You are correct.

 

[disykat]

Some things are definitely regional. Others, not as much. For example, last night I googled "Eyetalian" while reading this thread and, while I always just thought it was "redneck English," I discovered it's considered a racial slur.

 

[Skippy918]

Growing up we had steam heating and my parents called it the radiator (rah-Dee-ay-tor), but then I learned it’s supposed to be pronounced ray-Dee-ay-tor.