> > Heheh...it bugs me when people say "libary" or "Ay-mish" (rather than amish). My teeth grind when I hear "expresso", though that error is not as common as it was ten years ago.
> >
> > --Jez"still says 'misproNOUNCiation'"zika
>
> Both my brother and I were reading big thick difficult books long before we had heard most of the words in them. Therefore, there are still words that we pronounce wrong just because that's how they LOOKED. My most recent mis-step was with "adversary". I pronounced it as-VERS-a-ry, because it comes from adverse, which I DO pronounce correctly. Later on, my dad found the word (I had been reading out loud) and said "Ad-VERS-a-ry". I replied "AD-ver-sar-y?", think that that was how I had mispronounced it. It took us a while to sort out who meant what.
>
> Ki"mispronunciation is a FORM-id-able AD-ver-sar-y"ki

I have the same problem mispronouncing (or at least, I used to mispronounce) a lot of words based on how they're spelled in books. My most embarrassing example was the word 'eloquent.' I went around talking about how ee-LOKE-WENT-ly the essay writer Lewis Thomas handled prose. Finally, someone at school took pity on me and told me it was 'ELL-i-kwent.' Ouch.

For a word that's supposed to mean articulate and fluent, 'ELL-i-kwent' doesn't sound very graceful.
But 'ee-LOKE-WENT' sounds even more ungainly, admittedly.

*Still kicking self in head*

Wolf "Then there's the story where my best friend called me a 'MORON' in front of the entire school assembly, because she honestly thought it meant 'genius'..." spirit