Say What?

 

This week’s commentary has a title a lot like last week’s, except this time, it’s on a whole different topic: pronunciation.

At college, there was a young man in my dorm named Harry who had an unfortunate obsession. If you were in conversation with him and he thought you had pronounced a word wrong, he would stop you and produce a dictionary to show you the correct way to say it.

Hypothetical example: On a recent radio talk show, I heard the guest call the host a word spelled D-O-U-R, meaning harsh, stern, or gloomy. It’s usually pronounced “dower,” like “tower,” but if Harry were around, he would whip out his dictionary and show you that the correct pronunciation rhymes with “tour.” Now, I should note that not all dictionaries agree on pronunciation, especially with words that aren’t used often. But if you were talking to Harry, you had to go by HIS book.

Proper names, of course, are the worst. Let’s say you’re at a convention and you encounter a woman with a name tag reading A-N-D-R-E-A. Does she use ANN-dree-uh, or ahn-DRAY-uh? I’m sure she would straighten you out if you got it wrong. But if she’s really important and you know she’s going to be there, you may have to do some research ahead of time.

On TV a few years back, reporters gathered for a big story in Bahrain in the Middle East. One network apparently decided that the Arabic way to say it was to spit a little, as in Bachhh-rain.” Soon, all the reporters there found themselves in a spitting contest.

Getting back to plain language, though, the next time you  go to the beach or to a hotel pool, you may lie on a chaise lounge to sun yourself. Technically, though, you are lying on a “chaise longue,” French for “long chair.” In this country, the word “longue” became “lounge” because, well, that’s what you do in the chair. Makes perfect sense to me. But if you say “chaise longue,” other people at the pool may look at you funny.

So, what are we to conclude here?  Well, language is fluid, so if the  goal is to communicate, it’s best to go with the flow, even if you don’t quite approve of where the flow is going.