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My wife sometimes mispronounces words. Always specific words, and they tend to be more difficult to spell/say words.
Things like:
- Trajectory
- Ibuprofen
- Toblerone
It's not a Spoonerism, as that's generally the exchanging of one or two letters in two words.
She can pronounce the words if she slows down to say them.
She's always been like it, and I'm just interested if there's other people like her 🙂
She's intelligent, has a PHd, reads an awful lot of books, writes papers, has published books, and frequently speaks at conferences.
Anyone have any ideas if there's a classification?
Thanks!
A Malapropism? I think that's when you use the wrong word.
This just jumped to mind...
I've always preferred a Flutterby to a Butterfly.
A Malapropism? I think that’s when you use the wrong word.
Yes, but a similar sounding word. For example, Marble lions on pillows at the end of the drive, or a Spanish flamingo dancer.
I think your wife just mispronounces words, I don't think there's a pacific name for it.
My friend’s Spanish wife mentioned to their neighbour that she could hear their faeces plopping.
Eventually they worked out that she was talking about fish jumping out of the pond.
Used to work with a payroll assistant that couldn't say certificate- it was a "stificate" and "pacific" instead of specific
Who was that priest in Robin Hood?
I'll never forget asking for a turd cart at Gregg's, jokeily calling out across an open plan office that my mate might have a sports jacket on but it didn't make him a gentry **** (swear filter may make that unclear, rather than country gent)!
It's a malaprop.
Norm Crosby was an American comedian specialising in this.
There was an English comedian that was famous for it too - but I can't find his name.
Appeared in Amstrad adverts for their computer, referring to smell checks for their wordywordyprocessor etc.
Today's task is to track him down.....
I malaprop when talking to my son - based on many of his malaprops as a child. H is now 14 and asked me recently if I do it deliberately as I mangled every word in a sentence.
Here's the Amstrad ad - but who was the comedian ?
My friend’s Spanish wife mentioned to their neighbour that she could hear their faeces plopping.
Eventually they worked out that she was talking about fish jumping out of the pond.
I had a Spanish team member once who came into the office and proudly announced ‘my uncle is in Spain’ before limping off. It took us a while to sort that one out.
I don’t think there’s a pacific name for it.
This needed more recognition 👏
I get constantly flummoxed by vigilante, which I always pronounce village-aunty.
There was an English comedian that was famous for it too
Stanley Unwin
Now, like all real life experience stories, this also begins once a polly tito, and Happiness Stan, whose life evolved the ephemeral colour dreamy most, and his deep joy in this being the multicolour of the moon. Oh yes. His home a victoriana charibold, the four-wheel folloped ft-ft-ft out the back. Now, as eve on his deep approach, his eye on the moon. Alltime sometime deept joy of a full moon scintyladen dangly in the heavenly bode. But now only half! So, gathering all behind him the hintermost, he ploddy-ploddy forward into the deep complicadent fundermold of the forry to sort this one out.
@stirlingcrispin - that would be Stanley Unwin.
I work with someone who frequently says that she has been 'unindated' with work. And says stuff like 'I'm just giving you a thumbs up' instead of a head's up. Funny, malapropism or just thick? Well, I've made my mind up.
@maccruiskeen - Would that be Stanley Unwin's appearance on a Small Faces album by any chance?
Strictly a malapropism isn't mixing the syllables up, like unindated, but using another word that sounds similar but isn't. Hence, flamingo dancers, and marble pillows, etc.
Stanley Unwin was in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, talking nonsense. His role was Chancellor, interestingly starting a tradition of Chancellor's spouting utterly incomprehensible bollocks.
Unwinese
Unwinese, also known as "Basic Engly Twenty Fido", was an ornamented and mangled form of English in which many of the words were deliberately corrupted in a playful and humorous manner, but which was still largely comprehensible to the listener. Unwin's performances could be hilarious yet disorientating, where the meaning and context were conveyed in a disguised and picturesque style. For example, in his talk on music, "Populode of the Musicolly", Unwin says
They do in fact go back to Ethelrebbers Unready, King Albert's burnt capers where, you know, the toast fell in and the dear lady did get a very cross knit and smote him across the eardrome excallybold. The great sword which riseyhuff and Merlin forevermore was the beginning of the Great Constitution of the Englishspeaking peeploders of these islone, oh yes.
Unwinese has been compared to Lewis Carroll's nonsense poetry, such as Jabberwocky, where the sentences sound superficially like English when read aloud, but their precise meaning is unclear.
BFG?
I regularly use the wrong words in conversation with people I am comfortable with. I describe it to my amused family as being so comfortable around them that I dont need to slow down and check my word use, whereas in professional situations such as work I am slightly slower and more cautious about word choice to avoid mistakes.
My family now understand that the word 'fridge' can fill in for any word that my tired brain cannot pull up immediately. 'Where is the dog bowl?' - 'in the fridge' for example!
My daughter does similar, although in her case it may stem from speaking several languages and casting around for the right word and the right language.
I have something probably not related, but on a similar theme. I frequently (as in pretty much always) can't name colours properly on the first pass. It's not that I don't recognise the colour (I'm not colourblind), it's just that if I have to name a colour of (say) an object during conversation, I'll get it wrong. But once I've said it, I'll instantly realise I've said the wrong colour, and I'll be able to correct myself.
Never met anyone else who has the faintest idea what I'm talking about 🙂
If it's the wrong word but still makes grammatical sense it's an eggcorn.
I think what the OP is describing is simply being a little tongue-tied.