Mischief

[Loir]

I seem to be hearing mischievious (4 syllables) more and more on the radio and TV. The dictionary spelling is mischievous (3 syllables). ( I note the 4 syllable version shows as a spelling error when I put it here.)
There is some info here:
http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2014 ... chievious/
which says that over half of people use mischievious.

I have only noticed the other pronunciation recently and it grates everytime I hear it. I guess much the same as nucular does.
Maybe I just get more sensitive as I get older!

Loir

[bungeejumper]

You can probably track that one down to one particular sitcom. Dippy stupid pronunciations can catch on the time it takes to say Pwofessor Aliss Wobbuts, or to listen to Kylie ending her every sentence with an upspeak question mark?.

It might be genuine ignorance, but I reckon some people will say that sort of thing to make themselves look faux-rustic. My old mum used to say "there now, don't get all aeriated" when she meant don't get upset. t made us laugh. And does anybody remember Mollie Sugden's character in Are You Being Served?, demanding to know: "To whom are you speaking to?"

PS, If you want real ignorance, try asking Americans why they can't pronounce a simple word like aluminium.

BJ

[Rhyd6]

Seketree and librey are guaranteed to get my blood pressure heading skywards. The BBC newsreaders and presenters seem to have a particular problem with these words.

R6

[unperplex]

And others are:-

Berk Book
Lerk Look
Gohf Golf

[dragnips]

And 'burgalry'

[kiloran]

Yurrz instead of years

--Grumpy Old Kiloran

[DiamondEcho]

You can probably track that one down to one particular sitcom. Dippy stupid pronunciations can catch on the time it takes to say Pwofessor Aliss Wobbuts, or to listen to Kylie ending her every sentence with an upspeak question mark?.
PS, If you want real ignorance, try asking Americans why they can't pronounce a simple word like aluminium.

I've an interest in accents, and also how words migrate and evolve, and IME you need to be a little careful in finger-pointing in case some expert turns up and corrects you [and no, I'm not suggesting that is me, just to be clear ] Language is a constantly evolving thing, and so there's risk in suggesting one spelling, or one pronunciation is correct to the exclusion of all others. I'll give you a couple of examples:

- Americans might say [at an extreme] Lye-cester-shire, whereas a Brit would probably say Lester-sher. Which one it more logical?
- We would say television set and hotel, a Japanese person would say terrer-bission setto, and hoteru, and those are accepted as Japanese words and pronunciations.
- re: 'Ownership'. Most Brits now use the word schlep. It's originally Yiddish that migrated to Germany, and from there [c1870-1920?] to the US. Then a lot more recently reverse-imported into Europe, likely via popular US TV series like Friends.
- To reverse, say a car, in Singaporean English is 'go stan', which is a truncation of the English nautical term for reversing i.e. 'go astern'. It would have been imported there by English sailors during early colonial days and fitted into their pattern of language and pronunciation, and also morphed from sea onto land.
- Antipodeans have an 'upspeak' accent; a similar example is how several Asian languages are tonal. I.e. the pronunciation tone - low pitch, high, rising, falling completely changes it's meaning. There's one mad example in Thai I once heard, something apparently simple like 'Lai lai lai lai' which has a different tonal pronunciation of each word and means something as divergent as 'She watered [the] garden today'
- Norwegians have words they say whilst inhaling, for example when say saying yes ... as a breathy/inhaled 'hyah' [not always, perhaps more when used in the context of 'yes, I fully agree with you'. Their one inhaled word = 6 of ours.

p.s. per Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium:
In 1808, Humphry Davy identified the existence of a metal base of alum, which he at first termed alumium and later aluminum]

And you see how complex it can be, as Humphry Davy was a noted British scientist

[Watis]

Seketree and librey are guaranteed to get my blood pressure heading skywards. The BBC newsreaders and presenters seem to have a particular problem with these words.

R6

My pet hate is 'nucular' for 'nuclear'. Grrrr!

Watis

[AleisterCrowley]

In 1808, Humphry Davy identified the existence of a metal base of alum, which he at first termed alumium and later aluminum]
In the US they seem to have settled on a hybrid - aloominum. My US colleagues were defensive about this, and in retaliation pointed out our light switches are the wrong way up.
They did admit the US data format mm/dd/yy is a bit...odd

[marronier]

As annoying as those who put a "huh" ahead of "aich" or pronounce "fillum" for film.

[wheypat]

They did admit the US data format mm/dd/yy is a bit...odd

A bit odd?

https://ifunny.co/fun/qXzK0Yuu1

Show them this map

[DiamondEcho]

They did admit the US data format mm/dd/yy is a bit...odd

A bit odd? https://ifunny.co/fun/qXzK0Yuu1 Show them this map

The US + Belize*, hehehe. There is a parallel with their income tax system, and how they're liable for taxation on global income irrespective of which country it arises in. IIRC the only other country that imposes a similar system is Djibouti.


*Belize a British colony, the US a former one - hmmm


ps. Sometimes these kind of differences come about for odd reasons. The Continent travel [horse/bike/car etc] on the right side of the road because Napolean was left-handed. That was thus also adopted in the 'French states', and later all states, in the now USA. Next time any Lemon's hear an American suggest we drive on the wrong side of the road they can spring that little factual nugget on them. And then as a coup de grace ask them why they followed the example of a man with a 1" penis

[PinkDalek]

My US colleagues were defensive about this, and in retaliation pointed out our light switches are the wrong way up.

In what way are they the wrong way up (serious question)? I had all ours done such that down is on. Was this incorrect in the UK?

PD

[AleisterCrowley]

I was told up=on, in the US
Perhaps they were pulling my leg. As colleague in question is a pilot, he may have wired his house to conform to aircraft standards (where up definitely IS on)

[PinkDalek]

I was told up=on, in the US
Perhaps they were pulling my leg. As colleague in question is a pilot, he may have wired his house to conform to aircraft standards (where up definitely IS on)

Thanks, the latter makes sense. The former is confirmed over at Wikipedia (and elsewhere):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_swi ... d_switches

Extract only:

'The direction which represents "on" also varies by country. In the US and Canada, it is usual for the "on" position of a toggle switch to be "up", whereas in many other countries such as the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand it is "down".'

[DiamondEcho]

As parodied in the 'Jesus turn me on' meme. http://bornagainpagan.com/photos/047-je ... phile.html

ps to clarify, the switch in question being an American design. And apparently it was luminous during the night, to bring comfort to children who got up in the dark.

[bungeejumper]

The Continent travel [horse/bike/car etc] on the right side of the road because Napolean was left-handed. That was thus also adopted in the 'French states', and later all states, in the now USA. Next time any Lemon's hear an American suggest we drive on the wrong side of the road they can spring that little factual nugget on them.

Are you sure? The argument I was always told was that if you were driving your cart down a narrow road and ran into an ambush, you'd have only a second or two to get your sword arm (or gun) organised. Which being the case, an attack from the left was always more dangerous because you'd have to turn your body round to deal with it. Whereas an attack from the right could be repelled much more quickly because your right arm was in the right place. Thus, you were better off keeping to the right of the road, so as to give yourself the maximum time for fending off an attack from the left.

And then as a coup de grace ask them why they followed the example of a man with a 1" penis

Aaah, but wasn't that the British autopsy report, after he'd spent years being slowly cross-gendered by the [expletive deleted] that leaked out of the wallpaper in his exile home? (I notice we still called him Boney, though. )

O/T, but I'm also told that a silverback mountain gorilla's member is only 3-4 centimetres long. Nobody ever seems to give him any trouble on that account.

[mswjr]

I was told up=on, in the US
Perhaps they were pulling my leg. As colleague in question is a pilot, he may have wired his house to conform to aircraft standards (where up definitely IS on)

Not that standard actually. 'On to the windscreen' (so up for instrument panel switches, down for overhead) is at least one manufacturer's take on it.

[AleisterCrowley]

That's the good thing about standards - so many of them...
Looks like this A320 is up=on for the overhead stuff (1:15)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqKeSO6msDk

Apparently the idea is (for the instrument panel) you can't knock stuff 'on' when you sit down/drop your drink.
I guess you have to be careful standing up.

[mswjr]

Yes indeed.
And use of colour on electronic displays also conform to 'standards' that are standard only to each manufacturer.
Some things really do seem to have been chosen simply to be different, as a matter of principle, to the competition.