Yes, Lawyers Love Lists

[Today's glorious time waster (via, I hate to admit, Andrew Sullivan)...]

[Harvard conducted an online survey to see how Americans pronounce certain words. The full results are broken down by state. As a lifelong Californian, I find I hew pretty closely to the majority for my state on most words. Here's how I say...]

[1.Aunt
b. as in "ant"
2. Been
a. as in "sit"
3. "Bowie knife"
a. as in "Bo" (Because of David Bowie, even though I think I know a more "correct" pronunciation is boo-ee.)
4. Caramel
c. I have both forms, but the two have different meanings (carra-mel for the candy by itself, cahr-muhl for apples and corn.)
5. Cauliflower
b. as in "sit"
6. Centaur
c. I use the same vowel in "car", "caught", and "centaur." (This drives my East Coast friends nuts.)
7. Coupon
a. as in "coop" ("coopon")
8. Craig (the name)
a. as in "set"]
9. Crayon
b. 2 syllables, "cray-ahn")
10. Creek (a small body of running water)
a. as in "see"
11. the first vowel in "Florida"
d. as in "sore" ("flore-i-da") (Violet, a lifelong Golden Stater like me, pronounces "horrible" hawr-i-bull, which sounds very Northeast and affected to me.)
12. flourish
a. as in "bird" ("flurr-ish")
13. the last vowel in "handkerchief"
b. as in "sit"
14. Lawyer
a. as in "boy" ("loyer"), though as I get ready to become one, I find myself giving it the full "law-yer" pronunciation.
15. How do you pronounce Mary/merry/marry?
a. All 3 are the same.
16. Mayonnaise
a. as in "man" (2 syllables--"man-aze")
17. Miracle
d. I say something in between "ee" and the "i" in "sit."
18. Mischievous vs. mischievious
d. I use both, though I'm aware "mischievous" is correct.]

[Eh, enough already.]

Previously Next