Pet Peeves

[drew]

...Wow.

I can't beleive how bothered people are by improper pronounciation.

Doesn't bother me at all.

Not even 'New-fend-lend' vs. 'New-fend-land'? I had at least a half-hour long conversation with one of the barkeeps in Halifax over that one.

I'm guilty of mispronouncing that one..I'd normally say new-fin-LANd

Well...I guess it SHOULD be pronounced new-FOUND-Land...but no one--scratch that--no Canadians say that.

Many of the mispronounciations come from local dialects or accents, I guess that's why it doesn't bother me.

But, I may as well join in.

Feb-u-ary in stead of Feb-ru-ary.
Li-bary instead of Li-brary
Gov-er-ment instead of Gov-ern-ment

But what about millitary ranks not being spelled like they are pronounced?
Does nybody have an explanation for that one?
Colonel is not spelled with an 'R'.
Lieutenant is not spelled with an 'F' (I realize Americans don't pronounce the 'f')

Why do we say them with these missing letters?

[DukkhaWaynhim]

It could be that irony is in the ears of the ironed?

In my part of the Midwest US the "I could care less" / "I couldn't care less" combo is often replaced by the much more refined and equally confused "I could give a $hit" / "I don't give a $hit" / and my favorite brain-halter "I could give a lesser $hit"

Sometimes I look about and wonder when my spaceship will come back for me.

dw

[Prebe]

Drew: I believe that both colonel and lieutenant are french words. The pronounciation that you mention are simply anglicisms.

In the case of lieutenant, I'll bet that it is the "unnatural" pronounciation of the french "lieu" in english that has let to the change.

In the case of colonel, I guess that when it is pronounced fast in french, it i easily heard as [Kernel].

[Fist and Faith]

But what gets me is people who wash their dishes and say "waRsh the dishes!" PEOPLE!! There is no R in wash!!!!

And the flip-side: people who say something is in their dresser draw. It's a drawer, folks!

[Prebe]

Oh yeah, pet peeves. Let me see:

People who do nothing about their massive boogers - shaped like corrupted pan flutes - and yet insist on breathing through their nose, making it sound like someone forgot a church organ (and a very inexperienced organist) in their nasal cavity.

That, and the random use of "there" and "their" and "where" and "were".

[danlo]

I can't stand ice tea "tinkers"-you know what I mean. You go to a restaurant get all settled in start to look at the menu and somebody will pour their sugar in their iced tea and start swirling the spoon. This can be done with no noise but these people never fail to hit the ice and the side of the glass on a continual basis. A couple of tinks are ok, but then either their eyes wander or they start talking and they never EVER stop tinking!!!

People who talk with their mouths full--it's totally disgusting.

[Cagliostro]

People that don't know how to take a joke.

[bloodguard bob]

Expresso makes me cuckoo.
It's espresso, kids, because the water is pressed through the grounds. Not "I gotta drink this quick and jump on the express".
I admit it, though, I am one of those who was taught to pronounce sherbet as sherbert and will probably never change.

[The Laughing Man]

my immediate pet peeve is Jennifer Garner as Elektra. Gina Gershon is SO more her. why? WHY!?

[danlo]

Don't worry Bob I've never met anyone in the US that pronounces it the way it's spelt. I did, however, meet one Englishman in Portugal, at age twelve, that said "sher-bet".

Oh I also don't like guys in top hats posting about Jennifer Garner while I'm talking to Bob!

[The Laughing Man]

Kenneth G. Wilson (1923–). The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993.

sherbet, sherbert, sorbet (nn.)


Now the name of a frozen dessert, the word sherbet appeared in English in the seventeenth century, meaning “a cold fruit drink,” and developed two spellings reflecting its two pronunciations, sherbet (SHUHR-bit) and sherbert (SHUHR-buhrt). Today both spellings and both pronunciations are regularly encountered in both British and American use, to the discomfort of some purists, who argue that only sherbet is acceptable. Meantime, food fanciers have reborrowed this word in its French form, sorbet, pronounced both in the French way (sor-BAI) and an anglicized (SOR-bet). Standard English now uses all three forms, although Edited English usually clings to sherbet and continues to italicize the French sorbet as foreign. Australian English now uses sherbert, both alone and in compounds, as another name for beer.

Top hat? It's called "The Preacher" hat.

A variation of the timeless Boss of the Plains design which was the first "Western Sombrero" made for the general public in 1865. Immortalized by Eastwood's Preacher character in Pale Rider.

my pet peeve is people who call my Preacher hat a top hat.

[A Gunslinger]

Guns:

People prounouncing "Milk" like this: "Melk"

Smokers throwing butts to the ground, out car windows, etc.

Dropping something and missing it on the firt attempt to pick it up.

[I'm Murrin]

Posters on message boards who press enter when they get to
the edge of the text entry field instead of letting it wrap
automatically, thus making the post display with shorter
lines than the rest of the page--just as I have done, as an
example, in this post.

(Doesn't bother me that much, but I can find it occasionally off-putting. The worst ones are when--inexplicably--the lines of the post are longer than the thread width, so the mid-sentence line break happens after the text has wrapped to the next line.)

[bloodguard bob]

My top 5 pet peeves:
5. Stepping in dog poop while getting out of bed (this morning).
4. Toilet paper roll turned backwards or simply left on top of the roller.
3. Shower spigot left up so the water hits you in the back when turned on.
2. Kitchen trash bag not properly fitted to the can and folks keep tossing garbage making it worse and fouling up the bin!
1. Dirty, wet, disgusting sponge left in the bottom of the sink, sometimes with dishes stacked on top of it, instead of squeezed out and set on the counter.

[matrixman]

I'm with Murrin and Cov on the "I could care less..." issue. (Er, yes, I've been guilty of using it myself.)

drew, good call on "lieutenant" and "colonel." And thanks, Prebe, for the explanation.

"Nucular" doesn't personally bother me, as I just think it's hilarious. It's even funnier when I hear it from a character like Gene Hackman's from Crimson Tide. I mean, he's captain of a nuclear submarine, so you'd think that he of all people would know better.

But like I said, man, just don't say it to Lucimay or she'll claw your eyes out! (I kid.)

Dropping something and missing it on the first attempt to pick it up.

Hahahahaha! And yet...where is the compassion, Guns? Where is the compassion for those cursed with less than perfect hand-eye co-ordination? Maybe they were too jittery from drinking bloodguard bob's espresso!

[thefirst]

Where I'm from it seems that it is the exception rather than the rule, that anyone speak anything even remotely close to proper English. And being one of the few people that I know locally, who can form an entire sentence without the use of terms like "yuns", and "aight"; I have more than a few language peeves. What really annoys me about this is that some of the greatest offenders of the the english language, are relatively well educated individuals. This only makes the offense more deplorable. My spelling of words is sometimes in haste, and I freely admit to less than perfect grammar. But I can at least mention the first meal of my day without saying "brefast", and talk about underpants without saying the unforgivable, "drarws".

I have major issues with people who cannot be bother to utter a simple "please" or "thank you", and people who push in front of 70 year old women at the check out line, should be beaten with canes.

[[Syl]]

Hmm. I'd like to add people who look at me funny or make remarks when I say 'whom' when it's appropriate. Same for when I answer the phone, 'This is he.' To a lesser degree, people who crack wise when I bust out the bigger or less common words (except Fist ), especially when they ask what I mean and say, 'Well, you should've said that the first time.'

Murrin, I've only noticed the long text wrap-around on pages with linked images slightly larger than the message area can show.

[Prebe]

Hey bgb. It looks - from you selection of peeves - as if you need a serious talk about house rules with your contubernal

[I'm Murrin]

Murrin, I've only noticed the long text wrap-around on pages with linked images slightly larger than the message area can show.

I hadn't realised that before. Yeah, can see people typing, seeing the text heading way off the edge of the field because of the stretching and correcting for it.
Though it doesn't explain every case--I have seen some people on other boards who post every single message like that.

[CovenantJr]

It could be that irony is in the ears of the ironed?

"I could give a lesser $hit"

I don't even understand that sentence...