Mispronunciation

[hpst@earthlink.net]

Dennis,

I am certain that US astronomers adopted URanus out of self defense after
having been asked "Are there rings around urAnus?" one too many time.

After hearing it 9000 times some gags are just no longer funny.

On the other hand I will give a nickel to anyone who can tell me the reason
Carl Sagan pronounced any word the way he did other than to distinguish
himself from every other English speaker in a rather pretentious manner.

The same goes for William F. Buckley Jr.

Page Stephens

> [Original Message]
> From: Dennis R. Preston <preston at MSU.EDU>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Date: 12/12/2006 8:58:38 AM
> Subject: Re: [ADS-L] 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