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Mistakes that irk you in your vernacular

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Chris13
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FinlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name
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53 posts - 64 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Swedish, Finnish

 
 Message 1 of 73
18 June 2014 at 8:10pm | IP Logged 
Okay, so upon returning to the UK I have had to face a lot of changes since living here before the move. The particular area I'm from is not exactly prevalent for its language competency to say the least. However, I've recently noticed a particular "mistake" that is driving me to depths of insanity and it usually takes every semblance of self-control I can muster to not utter the correct word as soon as the speaker has misused it.

"Somethink"
"Anythink"

The above are the main culprits, but it got me thinking - besides the fact I have no idea if it's a regional error, though I've seen it on television and even in songs - do similar things happen in your vernacular? If so, what would be the main examples?

*Edited to fix a typo

Edited by Chris13 on 18 June 2014 at 8:13pm

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Jeffers
Senior Member
United Kingdom
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Speaks: English*
Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German

 
 Message 2 of 73
18 June 2014 at 8:38pm | IP Logged 
When I first came to England, I was supply teaching in a fairly rough school in Northampton. One day a girl asked what I thought about their accent, and then she asked, "Do we sound fick?"* I thought to myself, "Not until just now." In the same school I saw students actually write "somefink" in their work. The thing is, these kids were smart enough, but that's just the way everyone around them spoke.

*"thick" is British slang for stupid.
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soclydeza85
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United States
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Speaks: English*
Studies: German, French

 
 Message 3 of 73
18 June 2014 at 9:03pm | IP Logged 
American English is riddled with these kinds of things. What gets me the most is poorly spoken grammar (on purpose). Examples:

Who you be with?
You be crazy
I seen it
What is you doing

(this is just the basic gist; there is a whole way of talking like this. It gets worse when they spell the word the way it sounds)

It doesn't bother me if it's a foreigner or maybe someone from in impoverished area with poor education, I completely understand that. But I meet people that grew up in middle-class homes in nice, rural areas that talk like this to sound more tough or "gangsta", but they just sound like fools to me. It's mainly just amongst youth though.

And don't get me started on made-up "words" from pop-culture that make their way into everyday speech....




Edited by soclydeza85 on 18 June 2014 at 9:04pm

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drygramul
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Italy
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165 posts - 269 votes 
Speaks: Persian, Italian*, EnglishC2, GermanB2
Studies: French, Polish

 
 Message 4 of 73
18 June 2014 at 9:21pm | IP Logged 
For Italian "a me mi" is considered a mistake by many, but it's very common and not irky at all. (and to tell the truth in an informal conversation it's not even a mistake)


I can't stand people that use intransitive verbs (in a specific context) as if they were transitive. It seems it's common in southern Italy.
I won't use the most classic example, which is indecent, but for instance:
- Scendi il cane che lo passeggio roughly translated as come down the dog so that I walk him
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Bao
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Germany
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Speaks: German*, English
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 Message 5 of 73
18 June 2014 at 9:21pm | IP Logged 
Oh no! Ways of using the language that make me feel like I am excluded from the group.
Of course there are. I dislike the way words like geil and krass are used. Because, I knew those words, and they meant different things, and then those kids learnt those words and used them differently from how I'd used them.
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ScottScheule
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United States
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Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Latin, Hungarian, Biblical Hebrew, Old English, Russian, Swedish, German, Italian, French

 
 Message 6 of 73
18 June 2014 at 9:42pm | IP Logged 
I find nearly all of us descriptivists, no matter how pure we try to be, still bristle at certain usages. For instance, I'm willing to accept singular they, but once you drop the [s] sound at the end of "coup de grace," well then sir you've really gone too far.

I also think people should say "octopodes" instead of "octopi."

Those are the big two. Strangely enough, I don't care that people put the stress in babushka on the wrong syllable.

PS: I'm secretly curious how far such a provocative-titled thread can go before someone's feelings get hurt. Given that Bao already seems irked, perhaps it's finally time to implement a forum wide rule: never say anything negative about anything.
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kanewai
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United States
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Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese
Studies: Italian, Spanish

 
 Message 7 of 73
18 June 2014 at 10:02pm | IP Logged 
You mean you are supposed to pronounce the [s] ?!?
(wanders off for a quick look in the dictionary)

IPA: /ku də ɡrɑs/
IPA: /ku də ɡrɑː/ (hyperforeign)—Some English speakers, aware that some final
consonants are dropped in French, overcompensate by dropping the final /s/ sound in
grâce, making this sound like French coup de gras (“strike of grease”). This
mispronunciation is quickly becoming ubiquitous and is being popularized by the media
(e.g., it occurs twice in Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Volume 2).

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 didn't know there was an actual term for this (hyperforeign)

Edited by kanewai on 18 June 2014 at 10:06pm

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biagio
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Italy
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26 posts - 33 votes
Speaks: English

 
 Message 8 of 73
18 June 2014 at 10:29pm | IP Logged 
"Di questo NE parliamo..."

It drives me insane.


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