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Mistakes that irk you in your vernacular

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AlexTG
Diglot
Senior Member
Australia
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Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Latin, German, Spanish, Japanese

 
 Message 9 of 73
18 June 2014 at 10:53pm | IP Logged 
God forbid the lower classes don't conform to middle class expectations. Why exactly is your
pronunciation "somethiŋ" more correct than "somethink"?

The question you should be asking is "what language variations erk you".

Edited by AlexTG on 18 June 2014 at 11:08pm

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Alphathon
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Scotland
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 Message 10 of 73
18 June 2014 at 11:04pm | IP Logged 
Probably the most annoying feature of in my local vernacular (that I can think of right now) is using the word how in place of why (as a question word). Sometimes it's not too bad (e.g. "How're you so late?" isn't a million miles from "How come you're so late?") but other times it just sounds wrong ("Don't do that!" "How (not)?"). In my area there's also a lot of influence from Scots which shows itself to varying degrees as a lot of people tend to code switch, although that tends to be more confusing than annoying.

kanewai wrote:
You mean you are supposed to pronounce the [s] ?!? (wanders off for a quick look in the dictionary)


Quote:
I've been doing this without even thinking about it, and yet in retrospect it's so obviously wrong. And I've caught myself doing it before - I've tried to make words sound more French by dropping the final consonant of everything.


I thought that actually was the correct pronunciation. It's good to know otherwise. As for being obvious, I assume you only mean as a French speaker, because it isn't to me.

Another related pronunciation that annoys me (although it isn't in my local vernacular) is when (mostly) Americans pronounce it /kuː də ɡɹeɪs/ or /kuːp də ɡɹeɪs/ - it just sounds so wrong.

kanewai wrote:
I didn't know there was an actual term for this (hyperforeign)


More broadly (i.e. including instances where it isn't foreign) it's called hypercorrection.
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Bao
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 Message 11 of 73
18 June 2014 at 11:08pm | IP Logged 
ScottScheule wrote:
I also think people should say "octopodes" instead of "octopi."


With my mum I might come up with the occasional 'Oktoponten' or similar made up plurals.

And, I'm not actually irked. Not more than usual. After all I have my pet peeves too. And I'm aware that while I might accept some things as language variation that doesn't change the general opinion of it.
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Chris13
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FinlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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 Message 12 of 73
18 June 2014 at 11:26pm | IP Logged 
Hmm, I'm not whether some people have purely misconstrued the point of my post, or are generally being pernickety over the wording.
I'm not an elitist in the slightest, it's just strange to me that, at least in my area, this was so uncommon that I'd never experienced it before yet upon returning to live in the UK it's so common that one might hear it on television.

To clarify, I used "vernacular" so as not to exclude anyone from the topic. I'm not talking about mistakes that a non native speaker might make without realising.

I was merely hoping to discover what sort of everyday words/phrases might have the same thing done to them in other countries, as I'm sure it happens in every language in some form. Who knows, perhaps some of those listed will help learners of the languages mentioned avoid particular mistakes they might hear and otherwise adopt if it were not for being told otherwise.

Thanks for the examples that have been given so far.
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AlexTG
Diglot
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Australia
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 Message 13 of 73
18 June 2014 at 11:51pm | IP Logged 
Chris13 wrote:
it's just strange to me that, at least in my area, this was so uncommon that I'd never
experienced it before yet upon returning to live in the UK it's so common that one might hear it on television.

Languages change over time. Upper class Romans got annoyed as the common people stopped
pronouncing 'h'. Then when the upper class started adopting the trait it became "correct", as in modern
Latin dialects like French, Spanish and Italian.

What is and isn't a mistake is really just about what sounds right to prestige speakers.

edit: btw sorry, I was a bit passive aggressive in that first post. I'm not saying you're elitist, but I think the
common judgement that certain language features are "mistakes" is flawed.



Edited by AlexTG on 19 June 2014 at 12:05am

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AlexTG
Diglot
Senior Member
Australia
Joined 4637 days ago

178 posts - 354 votes 
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Latin, German, Spanish, Japanese

 
 Message 14 of 73
19 June 2014 at 12:11am | IP Logged 
Oh my last post reminds me of something which I've always struggled with. It was beaten into me as a child
that 'h' should be pronounced as "aych" not "haych". So now I get erked by "haych". But I'm at fault here, not
the people saying "haych"

Edited by AlexTG on 19 June 2014 at 12:27am

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iguanamon
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 Message 15 of 73
19 June 2014 at 2:20am | IP Logged 
One that I see quite often written here on HTLAL (not so much from native English-speakers) is "noone" meaning "no one". "Noone" is incorrect English. I know it's a little thing, but it is a bit irritating.

Edited by iguanamon on 19 June 2014 at 2:22am

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soclydeza85
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United States
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 Message 16 of 73
19 June 2014 at 2:32am | IP Logged 
iguanamon wrote:
One that I see quite often written here on HTLAL (not so much from native English-speakers) is "noone" meaning "no one". "Noone" is incorrect English. I know it's a little thing, but it is a bit irritating.


That's one of those weird quirks of English that I've always thought about. Why is it anyone, someone, everyone, but no  one? I can see how easy it is for a non-native speaker to make this mistake.

Edited by soclydeza85 on 19 June 2014 at 2:32am



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