Mispronunciation

[hpst@earthlink.net]

Charlie,

Don't get me on the problem of footnoting which as far as I am concerned is
equivalent to having someone tell you that you are not allowed to say
anything unless someone else has already said it.

Many years ago some idiot  referee or other who if they had a brain
couldn't blow their nose condemned an article I had submitted because I had
not mentioned some article which I had never read on the very good ground
that it had nothing whatsoever to do with the subject I was dealing with.
(1)

Page Stephens

(1) The Journal of Absolute Assholes volume 7 Number 3 pp 23-24.

> [Original Message]
> From: Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Date: 12/12/2006 10:52:24 AM
> Subject: Re: [ADS-L] Mispronunciation
>
> Some years ago, I footnoted a dry and learned discussion about the
folklore of gerbil insertion with the smart-ass comment that I had examined
"the annals of proctology" but failed to discover actual instances of the
urban legend motif.  As far as I'm aware, nobody ever noticed the joke--or
found it amusing--or even read the article!
>
> --Charlie
> _____________________________________________
>
> ---- Original message ----
> >Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2006 10:32:38 -0500
> >From: Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> >Subject: Re: Mispronunciation
> >To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> >
> >---------------------- Information from the mail header
-----------------------
> >Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> >Subject:      Re: 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?
> >>
> >>
> >Maybe just infection by familiarity, the other side of the taboo
> >avoidance coin.  "annal(s)" looks like "anal", which is a more
> >salient word and can't resist the gravitational pull of the latter
> >(does "Uranus" have a lot of gravity?).  That would, I suppose, be a
> >kind of Freudian slip--no temptation to do the same with "channel",
> >"flannel", and the others, which in any case have the -el and so are
> >orthographically quite distinct from "anal", or "canal", which is
> >orthographically close but phonetically entirely distinct.
> >"Annal(s)" is just close enough phonetically, besides the fact that
> >maintaining or poring through all those persnickety records is, well,
> >kinda anal.  (I'm sure those "Annalistes", the French historians who
> >base their work on minute inspection of, say, the diaries of 18th
> >century rural baptism records and death certificates, are more than
> >used to puns based on the connection.)
> >
> >LH
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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