Thursday, January 12

East vs. West accents

Lee and I always disagree about who pronounces certain words correctly (or incorrectly). The New Jersey girl she is insists that the California girl I am has a funny way of speaking. I tell her that she's the funny-sounding one.

She insists that when I eat too much, I say I am "fool" (like Mr. T of the A-Team asking, "Whatchu talkin bout FOO?!??"). I tell her that her version of having a happy tummy sound like "fuhl" (which rhymes with dull, meaning boring).

Lucky for us, the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary includes audio pronunciations for words. Lee says it sounds like the robotic voice of Speak and Spell. (Don't you think my version sounds more correct?)

Taer and I nerdily decided to explore different words. One that surprised me was the pronunciation of harassment. I always put the emphasis on the second syllable, but supposedly the first syllable, which always bothered me, is also correct. Another big surprise word was nuclear. Can nu-KYU-lar really be ok? That just seems plain old wrong. (Did they stick that in there just for Bush?)

Finally, we got a huge disagreement solved. "Orange" can be pronounced both or-inj (my way) and are-inj (Lee's way). Not to be a smart ass, but I would like to point out that my pronunciation comes first.

Alright, I'm a total smart ass. But orange you glad I'm not a banana?

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