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I have known a person for decades who had difficulty with "f" and "p", frequently substituting the latter for the former in speaking (and only when the letter was at the beginning of the word). It might have been due to a slight speech impediment
Sometimes we should cut people some slack, just out of kindness, even if their errors are due to laziness or ignorance (and even if it grates on our nerves).
Because I have never pointed out his pronunciation errors to him, I believe that I am cutting him some slack.
However, what I think is interesting is that this person has no problem pronouncing the letter, "p", in other contexts.
I actually believe that he may think that, "Mississiffi", is the correct pronunciation , but in any event, I am not going to correct him.
I used to work with a woman who had severe asthma problems.
Following her return to the office after an appointment with her doctor, I asked if he had given her a new prescription. She replied, "Yes, he prescribed, 'Prestone', for me".
Being fairly confident that her MD did not advocate consuming antifreeze, I asked to see the prescription bottle. Sure enough, it was a prescription for, "Prednisone".
A couple of weeks later, I asked her if the new Rx had relieved her symptoms, and she replied, "Yes, that Prestone prescription has really helped me!".
I have known a person for decades who had difficulty with "f" and "p", frequently substituting the latter for the former in speaking (and only when the letter was at the beginning of the word). It might have been due to a slight speech impediment
Sometimes we should cut people some slack, just out of kindness, even if their errors are due to laziness or ignorance (and even if it grates on our nerves).
I'm not sure I understand. Do you think we are cruel or unseemly to be posting the mistakes people make, even when their name isn't mentioned?
Because I have never pointed out his pronunciation errors to him, I believe that I am cutting him some slack.
However, what I think is interesting is that this person has no problem pronouncing the letter, "p", in other contexts.
I actually believe that he may think that, "Mississiffi", is the correct pronunciation , but in any event, I am not going to correct him.
I have a coworker who always says, "ax" for "ask." Yet she has no problem saying the word "task."
If she is able to say "task" instead of "tax" you would think she would be able to say "ask" instead of "ax."
Sometimes we should cut people some slack, just out of kindness, even if their errors are due to laziness or ignorance (and even if it grates on our nerves).
Speaking English properly has professional and social benefits.
I do think I cut people slack when I don't point out grammatical errors but instead suffer in silence. This thread is a satisfying place to vent frustrations.
I have known a person for decades who had difficulty with "f" and "p", frequently substituting the latter for the former in speaking (and only when the letter was at the beginning of the word). It might have been due to a slight speech impediment
Sometimes we should cut people some slack, just out of kindness, even if their errors are due to laziness or ignorance (and even if it grates on our nerves).
That's why I posted it on here and didn't say anything to her.
By the way, this woman is very intelligent and well-educated. It's just her speech pattern from growing up in the souf, I think. I would never say anything to her about it
We also have a number of people from India where I work. The "W" often gets substituted for a "V".
My daughter is a linguistics major so I just take all this stuff back to her for discussion. There are reasons for these speech patterns and/or the inability to pronounce words correctly.
I have a coworker who always says, "ax" for "ask." Yet she has no problem saying the word "task."
If she is able to say "task" instead of "tax" you would think she would be able to say "ask" instead of "ax."
It's likely that's how she heard it growing up and she has no idea that she is saying anything wrong.
"Ax" as a form of saying "ask" goes way back to parts of England centuries ago. It's sometimes even written as "aks". To us in this day and age, it sounds ignorant, but there are still pockets of people, especially black people who grew up in the south, who carried down that old English pronounciation. It would take someone consciously making an effort to change their speech to say it as we consider it to be correct now.
It would be like me trying to say "cahfee" instead of "cawfee".
Wound and wound are two words my mother refused to pronounce differently. I don't know what fueled her determination, but, being told many times about the difference did not help. An injury was a wound, as in the clock was wound, rhymes with sound.
But, there was no mystery to her need to pronounce astronaut, arstronaut or to say elastic circle for rubber band. To her way of thinking, it wasn't nice to say ass or rubber.
That's why I posted it on here and didn't say anything to her.
By the way, this woman is very intelligent and well-educated. It's just her speech pattern from growing up in the souf, I think. I would never say anything to her about it
We also have a number of people from India where I work. The "W" often gets substituted for a "V".
My daughter is a linguistics major so I just take all this stuff back to her for discussion. There are reasons for these speech patterns and/or the inability to pronounce words correctly.
I used to work in a medical group where nearly all the doctors and many of the other employees were from India or Pakistan. Most of them did the "W"/"V" substitute, along with other substitutions that we quickly learned to recognize.
It could be difficult for them to call in prescriptions to the pharmacy because the pharmacist had problems understanding them.
A few of them spoke nearly perfect English, with excellent enunciation. In fact their enunciation was much better than the average American. I got into a discussion with one of them about learning English, and he told me that English was taught in every first grade class in India and Pakistan, so the words are familiar but they don't pick up the pronunciation until they move to America. He told me that he actually took English classes for several years after moving here because he was determined to speak properly. He said that many don't go to that extreme, they are satisfied with being able to speak well enough to communicate.
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, but in any event, I am not going to correct him.
