I'm less bothered by honest missteps in grammar, word choice, and pronunciation than by noxious I'm-smarter-than-you hypercorrection and pompnunciations like English speakers pronouncing "ambient" as "AHmbient." Get over yourselves.

#ambient #hypercorrection #pompouslanguage #words #pompnunciation

The relentless drumbeat of "gift" as a verb in the pervasive newsflood reminds me I'm no pedant about changing language, but I nonetheless detest pointless, dorky mutations like "gifted" instead of "gave" (insert the standard blathering defense of how we need "gifted" because "gave" doesn't sufficiently imply that something was given for keepsies…or something like that here). To me, it just makes anyone using it sound like an oaf.

#verbing #verbing #hypercorrection

I contend that most Americans who even know what a 2CV is feel compelled overpronounce its French nickname as "doo shev oh" out of some inherent need to seem in the know (a similar hypercorrection to people saying "biases" as "biaSEEZ" or wrongly sound "habanero" as "habanYERoh" to seem smart), but every French person I've ever encountered slurs it together as "dooshvoh."

We're a peculiar lot.

#2CV #Citroën #hypercorrection #thescourgeofhypercorrection

Today I learned that the Box-Müller transform is, in fact, the Box-Muller transform. Ooops.

#hypercorrection

hypercorrection : ajouter exprès des fautes d'orthographe pour faire plus authentique.

Par exemple le mot « biisi » en finnois veut dire morceau (de musique). C'est un emprunt à l'anglais « piece », donc on aurait pu avoir « piisi ». La lettre « b » n'existe en finnois que dans les mots empruntés à d'autres langues, mais on a quand même remplacé le « p » de « piisi » par un « b », parce que ça fait plus authentique.

(❗ ne pas confondre « piisi » avec « pissi »)

#linguistique #hypercorrection

Another day, another instance of Whom's Law of Hypercorrection, which I first stated here:
https://stancarey.wordpress.com/2014/12/06/whoms-law-of-hypercorrection/

#language #words #EnglishUsage #whom #grammar #hypercorrection #writing #WritingCommunity

There's something inherently aggravating about listening to an otherwise fascinating interview with someone talking intelligently about language and power who consistently pronounces "biases" as "biasEEZ," in the same way it would be unsettling to hear a professional archivist talking about the "libary."

#hypercorrection #overpronouncing #words