Mispronunciation

[Joseph Salmons]

Oh yeah, 'urinous' is attested: ...  ca. 15,800 g-hits. It's in
dictionaries and looks widely used in medical lit: "Of, resembling,
or containing urine."


On Dec 12, 2006, at 7:58 AM, Dennis R. Preston wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Dennis R. Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Mispronunciation
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
> I believe it was the late Carl Sagan's PBS 'Cosmos' series which
> introduced the less well known (and previously, I believe, British
> English) use of URanus, although professional astronomers in the US
> had apparently used the form for some time (according to my extensive
> survey of one US astronomer).
>
> That's not the fun part. In 1983 or thereabouts, a phenomenon that
> occurs very infrequently took place: a lining up of the planets as
> their orbits coincide (from an Earth point of view). An excited
> reporter on a Detroit station I was listening to (and I admit
> paraphrase) said:
>
> "This is an unusual opportunity to see the planetes all lined up.
> Just go out tonight and look up; you can see all the way to urAnus --
> uhm,  I mean URanus."
>
> Probably a contender for the better left uncorrected prize.
>
> dInIs
>
> PS: I'm too lazy to look mup "urinous," "having to do with, coated
> with, etc..., urine." Is it attested?
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Michael H Covarrubias <mcovarru at PURDUE.EDU>
>> Subject:      Mispronunciation
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ----------
>>
>> Natalie Morales on NBC's Today reported on a recent article in the
>> "Annals of
>> Neurology."  [ae]>[ej] in "annals" (ae=ash)
>>
>> "Uranus" is in the middle of a fight between prudish and bold
>> pronunciations--the OED listing the prudish pronunciation first:
>> stress on the
>> first syllable and reduction of the [ej] vowel to a schwa.
>>
>> Is 'annals' so similar to 'anal' that the [ae] doesn't occur to a
>> first-time  or
>> nervous reader?  It seems so many other forms would work better on
>> analogy with
>> the spelling of other pre-'nn' A's. cf channel, flannel, annual,
>> annotate,
>> canned, planner etc.
>>
>> Is this some sort of forbidden-fruit/Freudian slip that makes
>> annals so
>> resistant to these analogies?
>>
>>
>>
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>
>>    English Language & Linguistics
>>    Purdue University
>>    mcovarru at purdue.edu
>>
>>    web.ics.purdue.edu/~mcovarru
>>   <http://wishydig.blogspot.com>
>>
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> --
> It should be the chief aim of a university professor to exhibit
> himself in his own true character - that is, as an ignorant man [sic]
> thinking, actively utilizing his small share of knowledge. Alfred
> North Whitehead
>
> There are many different religions in this world, but if you look at
> them carefully, you'll see that they all have one thing in common:
> They were invented by a giant, superintelligent slug named Dennis.
> Homer Simpson
>
> Dennis R. Preston
> University Distinguished Professor
> Department of English
> 15-C Morrill Hall
> Michigan State University
> East Lansing, MI 48824-1036
> Phone: (517) 353-4736
> Fax: (517) 353-3755
> preston at msu.edu
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org