Completely unimportant language misuses that bug you

[Fiery Diamond]

Huh. Barely anyone I know says hard-g-gif. Maybe it's a regional thing? Similarly, I stand by my "nay." I think you're right on "sa," I was just transcribing it wrong.

You say "Ayr" instead of "Err"? Weird.

[Bohandas]

This has been the convention for centuries, due to the whole "you're not allowed to actually say His name" thing. So pronouns get capitalised instead.

And that's all I'll say on the matter.

Related note in the name of the Church of the SubGenius demigod J.R."BOB"Dobbs, "BOB" is always written in all caps,

[Peelee]

Speaking of hard vs soft letter g, how do you all pronounce "giga-". I've gotten the impression that most prople pronounce it with a hard g, as do I, but it's my understanding that historically it was usually a soft g, as attested in Back to the Future in the scene where Doc Brown explains how the time machine works

Hard G. Unless we're talking about watts, out of respect for Doc.

You say "Ayr" instead of "Err"? Weird.

Well, I've been sitting here saying it to myself a few times, and "air" does not rhyme with "err" as in "error." So yes.

[2D8HP]

Huh. Barely anyone I know says hard-g-gif. Maybe it's a regional thing?..

Could very well be. I know most people around here use hard-g-gif.

I've never heard anyone say "GIF" out loud ever, so it may be profound "Rumpelstiltskin" for all I know.

[DataNinja]

Well, I've been sitting here saying it to myself a few times, and "air" does not rhyme with "err" as in "error." So yes.

Oh. Well, around here, "error" is pronounced "air-or". So... yes, in some places, 'err' is pronounced the same as 'air'.

I've never heard anyone say "GIF" out loud ever, so it may be profound "Rumpelstiltskin" for all I know.

To be fair, I'm in Computer Science. So, it comes up a lot more frequently than it might otherwise in everyday conversations.

[Jormengand]

Related note in the name of the Church of the SubGenius demigod J.R."BOB"Dobbs, "BOB" is always written in all caps,

All the deities in MARDEK are in all-caps too, as well as the name of the game to distinguish it from the eponymous hero (who is definitely not a deity).

[Fiery Diamond]

Hard G. Unless we're talking about watts, out of respect for Doc.


Well, I've been sitting here saying it to myself a few times, and "air" does not rhyme with "err" as in "error." So yes.

In the dialect/accent I speak, "air" and "err" (as in error) are exactly the same, pronounced as I imagine you pronounce the latter.

[factotum]

The one that my dad complains about all the time (and thus what got me thinking about this) is "tsunami" for "tidal wave." A cursory bit of research indicates that they are in fact not quite the same thing, but hopefully you can at least see where I was going with the thought.

You seem to be complaining that people use the word "tsunami" when the English phrase "tidal wave" exists, but as you also point out, those are names for two different things? A tsunami is a large wave caused by a displacement of water, e.g. by a landslide or an earthquake, whereas a tidal wave is a storm surge or tidal bore. Calling an earthquake-derived wave a "tidal wave" is just plain wrong, regardless of it being commonly done.

[Aedilred]

Speaking of hard vs soft letter g, how do you all pronounce "giga-". I've gotten the impression that most prople pronounce it with a hard g, as do I, but it's my understanding that historically it was usually a soft g, as attested in Back to the Future in the scene where Doc Brown explains how the time machine works

It's lifted directly from Greek, iirc, so a hard "g".

[Jay R]

The obvious conclusion is that both pronunciations are in common use.

[georgie_leech]

An is to be used before the sound of nouns. An herb (if you are somewhere that doesn't pronounce the h) is fine. 'An history' is just jarring for me to hear or read.

[Rockphed]

The one that my dad complains about all the time (and thus what got me thinking about this) is "tsunami" for "tidal wave." A cursory bit of research indicates that they are in fact not quite the same thing, but hopefully you can at least see where I was going with the thought.

Tsunami has been standard for "a massive wave caused by an earthquake under the ocean" for a while now, but, as discussed in xkcd, that doesn't mean that "Tidal Wave" is not descriptive. Dictionary.com is uncharacteristically unhelpful on the etymology. Normally they at least give better references, but here they only use it in the allegorical sense (which comes from its colloquial usage for waves caused by large displacements of water, by-the-by).

Pretty much unless you are talking to a physicist about the 2 tidal bulges, you can assume that people use "tidal wave" and "tsunami" interchangeably.

[Fin]

People that enunciate poorly! I have just spent half an hour talking with someone that pronounced literary at 'littry' and I thought I was going to go into shock... I had to immediately retreat here to vent about it.

[Bohandas]

Going back to the "more unique" issue and the misues of "literally", I'd like to point out that there's also degrees of literalness as well; something could be closer to the situation described by an idiom than is usually the case when that idiom is used without matching it precisely. It could then be said to be "literally" that idiom due to being relatively literal compared to how it is normally used.

[Fri]

I don't have spelling misuses that bothers me but I freelance as a transcriptionist, and goddamnit people, breathe and split your sentences to two breath rather than forcing yourself to say everything in one go and having the last part of your sentence disappear into nothingness.

[danzibr]

BWR beat me to it. Lie/lay. Also good/well, who/whom, and when people try to sound old fashioned without knowing how to, thy/thine/thou/thee/ye.

[Aedilred]

when people try to sound old fashioned without knowing how to, thy/thine/thou/thee/ye.

Ah, that drives me crazy. Which isn't to say that I mind people doing it properly, albeit it can get a bit wearing, but people doing it badly is like a cheesegrater to the ears/eyes.

Shouldst thou wish to speak in ye* olde-timey English, thou hadst best be sure of thy footing, and, shouldst thou not be, lend thine eyes to such texts as might assist thee in so doing, lest thine interlocutors think thee a fool.



*Here, as in all such cases where "ye" is an article, the "y" is a stylised "th"; it is pronounced the same as "the".

[BWR]

when people try to sound old fashioned without knowing how to, thy/thine/thou/thee/ye.

This one really gets my knickers in a twist.

[Grey_Wolf_c]

The use of "who" as a direct object pronoun.

"Who is this package addressed to?" (fine)
"To who is this package addressed?" (argh!)
"To whom is this package addressed?" (fine)

Grey Wolf

[Wardog]

Prescriptivism

Conversely, something I'm seeing quite a lot recently: a sort of "hyper descriptivism" that effectlively becomes prescriptivism, where people insist that the most recent use of a word is the only valid one.

(Especially irritating when its so new that it hasn't even made it into the dictionary, and they're basicly expecting and insisting that everyone starts using the jargon slang of their particular bubble).

[Aedilred]

This one really gets my knickers in a twist.

Forsooth, thy knave! Thee should untwist thine knickers and reachest understanding with thou's own language, for thy do not get to tell other people how they shouldst speaketh.

I have just slapped myself, ftr. Because someone needed to.

Conversely, something I'm seeing quite a lot recently: a sort of "hyper descriptivism" that effectlively becomes prescriptivism, where people insist that the most recent use of a word is the only valid one.

(Especially irritating when its so new that it hasn't even made it into the dictionary, and they're basicly expecting and insisting that everyone starts using the jargon slang of their particular bubble).

Indeed.

[veti]

Conversely, something I'm seeing quite a lot recently: a sort of "hyper descriptivism" that effectlively becomes prescriptivism, where people insist that the most recent use of a word is the only valid one.

(Especially irritating when its so new that it hasn't even made it into the dictionary, and they're basicly expecting and insisting that everyone starts using the jargon slang of their particular bubble).

This is an education deficiency. The only honest way to come to that conclusion is never to have been exposed to the word in another context. I would say more, but it'd get political.

I think dictionaries need to be seen as both descriptive and prescriptive. They are (supposedly) descriptive in their method of composition, but, partly because of that, they are also the most authoritative sources available on the topic of language usage - certainly more so than any individual speaker - and that means they should be seen as prescriptive by anyone who's concerned with making themselves as widely understood as possible.

[2D8HP]

This is an education deficiency. The only honest way to come to that conclusion is never to have been exposed to the word in another context. I would say more, but it'd get political...

For my happiness I know I should be grateful for what I have, unfortunately I personally feel an "education deficiency", and I'm angry about it, and I'm also envious of those who have been privileged with more education.

[Some Android]

Frankenstein is the name of the scientist, not the monster! Get your facts straight!

[Peelee]

Frankenstein is the name of the scientist, not the monster! Get your facts straight!

You mean the doctor's creation. Dude had full human faculties, and you just insult him like he isn't even a person. You monster.

[Bohandas]

Does the constant misuse to the word "race" in fantasy RPGs bother anyone else?

[Fri]

Frankenstein is the name of the scientist, not the monster! Get your facts straight!

As always, there's a relevant xkcd strip.

https://xkcd.com/1589/

[2D8HP]

Does the constant misuse to the word "race" in fantasy RPGs bother anyone else?

With the word used for "the French race", as well as "the Human race", etc., it's more that the word "race" itself is so nebulous, archaic, and with such frightening historic baggage, that its use in FRP's is one of the few placed where the word doesn't bother me.

[Fiery Diamond]

Conversely, something I'm seeing quite a lot recently: a sort of "hyper descriptivism" that effectlively becomes prescriptivism, where people insist that the most recent use of a word is the only valid one.

(Especially irritating when its so new that it hasn't even made it into the dictionary, and they're basicly expecting and insisting that everyone starts using the jargon slang of their particular bubble).

Does the constant misuse to the word "race" in fantasy RPGs bother anyone else?

"Oh, the irony," I'd say, if these were posted by the same person. But they aren't, of course, so that would be a misuse of the word irony.

With the word used for "the French race", as well as "the Human race", etc., it's more that the word "race" itself is so nebulous, archaic, and with such frightening historic baggage, that its use in FRP's is one of the few placed where the word doesn't bother me.

Exactly.

[BWR]

As always, there's a relevant xkcd strip.

https://xkcd.com/1589/

SMBC has one as well