Monday, October 18, 2010

Tump Over

In the South, we have words...phrases that confuse, bewilder and infuriate English teachers. By the time our children start Kindergarten, they have heard these words countless times and have stored them in their vocabulary. It truly is the first time they have ever considered that the word they have used since they were two is incorrect...

chester drawerschest of drawersChester may keep his drawers in a chest of drawers but this phrase contains three words, all of which must be pronounced.


If they are farm kids, they know what Bob Wire looks like. They just are surprised it's spelled barbed wire! But kids are a sponge and it doesn't take long for them to learn that the liberry/library isn't a berry patch it's a fun place to go and read books!

It's not just kids or Southerners who mispronounce the most common words, adults are guilty too.

If you say one of the following, you probably mispronounce all three! 
excape/escape
expresso/espresso
excetera/et cetera
But it sounds right the wrong way...  It's February, Febuary is wrong!
This is is really common these days...irregardless should be regardless.

Really Bad English... these are the ones that make the teachers cringe in horror!
idn't for isn't
bidness for business
wadn't for wasn't
aks for ask

Klu Klux Klan should be Ku Klux Klan. Now, there's an L in the other two, why not the first? Well, that is just the way it is.. don't expect this group to be rational!

Lots of people call it mannaise, but don't forget "mayo" is the shortened version of mayonnaise!

A whole nother mess is the word other.

When we go to the drug store we need to ask for a prescription, not a perscription.
You're probly, prolly, probably getting tired of this English lesson right about now,so I'll just end with these words of advice...
If things are not going your way, do not lose your tact (that would be tactless), but take a different tack.

oh, and tump over means to overturn...
"You're about to tump that thing over."
or to fall over... 
"Is that wheelbarrow going to tump over?"



6 comments:

  1. I passed the test because I only said a couple of those words incorrectly! But I do have my share of "Hoosier-isms". Warsh=wash, tamayta=tomato, jew=did you, the list goes on and on. My husband says I can take any sentence and make it into one word. I told him that is a sign of higher intelligence. Us Hoosiers have so much going on in our brains that we don't have time to enunciate each and every word. :)

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  2. Oh, Joycee, You must have been talking to my brother-in-law!!! He says them all. Makes my hair stand up on end!

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  3. In New England you will never hear an R.
    Cathy

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  4. It took me a month trying to figure out what are my Kiwi friends talking about! Just because of the 'R' sound! I spent a year living in New Zealand 20 years back. What happen now is... my local friends are complaining that I speak like one of them! hahaha....
    Cheers, Kristy

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  5. Oh, yeah....

    I know a REAL-tor who pronounces it REE-LIT-ER.

    I've heard politicians actually say Nu-Cue-Ler instead of Nu-Clear.

    My mother, though, always tried to pronounce things the right way, even to Vac-U-Um instead of vack-yooooom. She was really stumped the first time she read the word discotheque.

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