Because English is so unpredictable, it\u2019s often impossible to infer a word\u2019s pronunciation from its spelling. Dictionaries help, to a point. But dictionaries often seem all too willing to penalize time-honored pronunciations after a word gets mispronounced by a sufficient number of people.<\/p>\n
So here is another in our series of pronunciation columns. The words are familiar, but their traditional pronunciations may surprise you. (Note: capital letters denote a stressed syllable.)<\/p>\n
Hysteria\u00a0<\/strong> The er<\/em> is pronounced like ear <\/em>rather than\u00a0air<\/em>. Say hiss-TEER-ia, not hiss-TAIR-ia.<\/p>\n Jewelry\u00a0<\/strong> It\u2019s hard to figure how anyone who can spell this word would mispronounce it, but the fact remains that many people say \u201cjula-ree.\u201d To them we say, please explain how j-e-w-e-l spells \u201cjula.\u201d<\/p>\n Consummate\u00a0<\/strong> When used as an adjective, as in \u201cShe is the consummate hostess,\u201d the correct pronunciation is cun-SUM-it, although CON-sa-mit has all but taken over. You don\u2019t hear many Americans say cun-SUM-it, but to its credit the latest edition (2011) of theAmerican Heritage Dictionary of the English Language\u00a0<\/em>still prefers it.<\/p>\n Memorabilia\u00a0<\/strong> It is often mispronounced\u00a0memmer-a-BEE-lia. Say memmer-a-BILL-ia. (Few people use, or are even aware of, the singular form:\u00a0memorabile.<\/em>)<\/p>\n Repartee\u00a0 <\/strong>This word for witty banter is pronounced rep-ur-TEE or rep-ar-TEE. Repartee<\/em> came into English from the French repartie<\/em>, meaning \u201ca sharp answer.\u201d Our 1968 Random House American College Dictionary\u00a0<\/em>lists rep-ur-TEE as the only allowable pronunciation. The 2014 Webster\u2019s New World<\/em> does not list rep-ur-TEE at all. It prefers rep-ar-TEE, but also accepts the pseudo-French rep-ar-TAY.<\/p>\n Incognito\u00a0<\/strong> Everyone pronounces this word the same: in-kahg-NEET-o, right? Not according to our \u201968\u00a0American College Dictionary<\/em>. A mere 47 years ago only one pronunciation of this word was acceptable to Random House: in-KAHG-nitto, stress on the second syllable, with the third syllable pronounced \u201cnit\u201d instead of \u201cneet.\u201d Quite a change. The aforementioned American Heritage dictionary, so meticulous that it has its own usage panel, now gives first preference to in-kahg-NEET-o, but in-KAHG-nitto gets second billing, so someone is still pronouncing it that way.<\/p>\n Blithe\u00a0<\/strong> The sticking point here is the th <\/em>sound. It\u2019s the difference between writhe <\/em>and wreath<\/em>, with the soft th\u00a0<\/em>the correct choice; blithe<\/em> and writhe<\/em> make an exact rhyme.<\/p>\n Elvis Presley\u00a0<\/strong> Those who grew up listening to him will verify that PREZ-lee is the wrong way to pronounce Elvis\u2019s last name. PRESS-lee is how the singer himself pronounced it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Because English is so unpredictable, it\u2019s often impossible to infer a word\u2019s pronunciation from its spelling. Dictionaries help, to a point. But dictionaries often seem all too willing to penalize time-honored pronunciations after a word gets mispronounced by a sufficient number of people. So here is another in our series of pronunciation columns. The words […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,10,49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adjectives-adverbs","category-definitions","category-pronunciation"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2009"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2009\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}