William Labov (1927–2024)
A giant of linguistics.
a giant of linguistics
Domestic comedy
“His /ant/ or /ahnt/ was there — I’m not sure which.”
Psst, David Brooks
I noticed ebullient twice in Brooks’s comments during PBS’s coverage of the DNC last night, each time pronounced /EB-yə-lənt/. As Garner’s Modern English Usage notes, that’s a common mispronunciation. Has David Brooks latched onto this word for use in talking and writing about Kamala Harris? If so, I hope he gets it right.
One more kwoi
“Sequoia,” in a 1943 dictionary.
macOS Something
How to pronounce “sequoia”?
“Tin yars in Versales, Mazura”
From Jean Stafford’s Boston Adventure.
How to pronounce Leuchtturm
As I await the arrival of a Leuchtturm1917 planner, I have learned that Leuchtturm is not only a name but a word, meaning “lighthouse.” And I’ve learned its pronunciation
“HOIT”
Nancy and the er/oi swap.
Brian Cox pronounces Scotch whisky names
There are many, all single malts.
NPR pronunciation
Of Iran.
A merger in Minneapolis
A wine-whine merger from the Mary Tyler Moore Show.
Another Lumbly
PBS is re-airing a documentary tonight, Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool. The narrator is the actor Carl Lumbly. “Lum-blee” was my toddler pronunciation of Columbia, Miles’s record label.
A wine–whine merger
The shift from /hwēt/ to /wēt/ is an instance of what’s called the wine-whine merger, aka glide cluster reduction.
“Sepulveda”
Today’s Zippy is all about Los Angeles.
Pronouncing omicron again
Improving a sentence from The New Yorker.
“Mandit”?
An NPR reporter pronounced mandate that way, three times in one story: “mandit.”
Pronouncing omicron
From The Wall Street Journal : “However You Pronounce ‘Omicron,’ You’re Probably Saying It Wrong.”
How to pronounce omicron
Several ways.
It’s Ciattarelli, dammit
In 1994, Jack Ciattarelli, now the Republican candidate for governor of the state, did indeed attempt to ban cursing in the borough of Raritan. Talk about cancel culture.
We heard what we heard
She said “subpoenas.” But we heard what we heard, the two of us.
Peppa Pig, language influencer
From The Wall Street Journal : “Peppa Pig, a Pandemic Favorite, Has American Children Acting British.”
Small pleasures
Hearing “cameo” pronounced correctly, once in our living room, twice on on TV, and getting a lesson in pronunciation that will stick.
Things fall apart
A guest on The 11th Hour tonight: “vius versa.” And another guest, a couple of minutes after that: “stimmied,” for “stymied.”
Yo!
Trump* and Kelly Bundy, mispronouncing “Yosemite.”
Whale, oil, beef, hooked
A quick lesson in how to do an Irish accent.
All dais long
They keep saying ˈdī-əs.
What?
Representative Matt Gaetz (R, Florida-1) just referred to the Rorkshire — or was it Yorkshire? — inkblot test.
Fiona Hill’s accent
“I grew up poor with a very distinctive working-class accent. In England in the 1980s and 1990s, this would have impeded my professional advancement. “This background has never set me back in America.”
Missouri?
How to pronounce it?
NPR, sheesh
“Melee” does not rhyme with “smelly.”