Invisible letters?

[kukla_tko]

Ok, I have a question.

I realize that in this giant country of ours, there are many regions and dialects. I get that in some places people have sofas, others there are couches, and sometimes even davenports.
I understand that in England, they say "torch" when we say "flashlight" and they refer to our elevators as lifts.

I really have no problem with interesting regional use of words.

Here's the problem, though:
Why do so many Americans deliberately mispronounce words? I mean, you have TV, you know that not everyone pronounces the word that way. Your parents may have mispronounced the word, but when you went to school you might have discovered that other people don't pronounce it that way, right?

For example, I had a babysitter who consistently pronounced the word "Orange" as "Oinge". No "r" whatsoever! The last time I spoke to her, she still said it that way despite the fact that her husband pronounces the "r" in orange, as do most of her peers.

But the worst example is this:
Wash.

Where the HELL did the "R" come from? Can someone please point me to the progression that brings us a variant of "wash" that includes a damned "R"?

"I got up this morning and realized that I had a lot of WARSHING to do, so I thought I'd start by WARSHING the dishes, then maybe WARSH some clothes."

Do WHAT to them? I have a coworker who does this constantly. I've tried to suggest that she might consider using the word "Launder" when she is talking about getting her clothing clean. "After all, 'launder' has a real 'r' in it." Nope. Launder is not in her vocabulary.
And this woman went to college, and has a master's degree. She used to work as an architect. She teaches classes in a wide variety of subjects.

Does this come from trying and failing to pronounce George Washington? I can see how a lazy mouth can get the "R" in George to come up in the "Washington."

Seriously. Can someone give me the documentation on this bizarre phenomenon?

By this same token, we all seem to pronounce Sherbet with an invisible "r" too. I've worked hard to pronounce it correctly, since I discovered that I'd been pronouncing it incorrectly. I also try to pronounce "February" correctly, though I do occasionally slip up when I am speaking in a hurry.

But the point is that when I realized that I was doing it wrong, I altered my speech accordingly. It's not difficult to do, really.

Comments

[verminiusrex.livejournal.com]

Many regional accents are due to whomever settled the area many generations ago. You grow up hearing things pronounced a given way and it's hard to do any different. I can't say "rural" without swallowing my r's.

So many strange pronunciations can be blamed on the Welch, German, Autrian, etc that build the original town, or were the most recent immigrant labor that moved into an area for the local industry and stayed.

[bakadragon.livejournal.com]

Ooh! I do that too! I say "rural" and it's like an engine committing suicide. It's terrible!

[kukla-tko42.livejournal.com]

Well, yes. I'm well aware of the reasons for regional dialects.

I was hoping to get some kind of plausible explanation for the imaginary "R" in Wash, specifically. It seems to appear all over the midwest. Gah.

[verminiusrex.livejournal.com]

Alien influence?

[dontevenknow.livejournal.com]

I used to have this professor in college who actually taught correct grammar and language usage. He was well-respected in this field, and also kind of nasty about it. I saw him ream students in front of a class of their peers over not being able to correctly diagram a sentence or, God forbid, a misplaced comma. And yet, he insisted on pronouncing the state's name as "Missurah." And every time he did it, it was like nails on a chalkboard to me.

I also dislike it when people say, "li-berry."

[hick0ry.livejournal.com]

As I understand it, if you say Missurah, you're expressing a deeply held belief that the wrong side won the War of Northern Aggression. Otherwise you're just a Yankee.

[snowtiger42.livejournal.com]

I gave up on February loooong ago. That word was invented by a linguistic sadist. But I am proud to say that I have removed "warsh" from my vocabulary. My mom still says it that way, has all her life.
People say things weirdly. And say weird things. Funny lil' world, ain't it? ;)

[bakadragon.livejournal.com]

My thought is that it comes from the more southern country twang on Missouri, which likes to toss r's in with wild abandon to begin with. Makes more sense coming from a phrase like "Ya'lls gotsta warsh yer dishes afore ya'll cn pulay!" or something.

Not that a lot of St. Louisans use that anymore, but sometimes it'll infiltrate like ya'll does while still talking in a more standard American accent. That's my thought anyway.

[kukla-tko42.livejournal.com]

I can make cases for both "Y'all" and "Ain't", actually.

English lost its singular "You" ages ago. We now use the plural "You" for both singular and plural. I think that's kind of a shame, so with the advent of "Y'all" (or even You All) I kind of approve. We get a distinctive plural "you" that we've been needing.

"Ain't" is obviously the contraction for "Am Not". So "I ain't going to the store" actually makes grammatical sense. On the other hand, "You ain't going to the store" makes NO sense.
Not that anyone who uses it pays attention or cares.

But adding "R"s where there aren't any? WTF?

I just want to know, specifically, WHY midwesterners say "Warsh". I see it in Illinois, Kansas, and Arkansas, as well as Missouri.

[alphak10.livejournal.com]

This bothers me TO NO END TOO. February when I try to say it right it hurts my mouth. Illi-noise and Mahzerah both really get my goat!!

used to pronounce war with a hard "ar" until wrote a speech about the war on cultural illiteracy.

Li-berry my dad uses on purpose only! My parents never used WARSH as long as I have been alive. My gran warshes her undies in the zink. Then she goes to get a sodee from the frig-i-ator. Yes those are Grans words:) She also said things like "If you wanna run in the house, go out side!"

I get annoyed when I am in the break room and can not understand a thing coworkers are saying because they are butchering the language that much. But I have one who breaks stereotype in many ways... she uses some Afrocentric slang. Is white with Afro-am kids. MOST of her friends are Afro-am. And yet this woman does not slur her words, uses proper pronunciations unless it is a direct slang derivative, and residents can understand what she is saying, to someone else, from across the room. Many of my coworkers have to repeat a word 5 times to the face, slowly for a resident to understand.

[the-ungoth.livejournal.com]

February has been on my mind for a long time now. So has COMFORTABLE. So, come on, every one of you pronounces is COMF-TER-BLE. If you can tell me what a "comfter" is and how the subject is to represent this quality, I'll accept your argument.

[alphak10.livejournal.com]

AGGGG dang it now I am going to be worried about being Comfterble when I am saying comfortable around you... I hope you do not make me say it correctly to get in the nook for a good cuddle.

[the-ungoth.livejournal.com]

I say it, too, when I'm in a hurry. Its an "un-comfortable" word to pronounce.

[klasek1987.livejournal.com]

I have noticed this too, especially taking public transit. I don't know why it happened, or why it's still going. I know I try my hardest to pronounce things the correct way. I just don't understand how people can be so lazy and drop letter, even parts of words when speaking. It's kinda amazing in one aspect just how much they don't care, but also really annoying.

[the-ungoth.livejournal.com]

"kinda"...?

The Kinda are the telepathic native population of the planet Deva Loka.

[hick0ry.livejournal.com]

Goes the other way, too. I was taught the 't' in 'often' was silent. It made no sense at the time, but I'd just as soon not hear it now :-)