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Missspellings abound - in English
Thread poster: Cilian O'Tuama
Charlie Bavington
Charlie Bavington  Identity Verified
Local time: 23:37
French to English
Pharxxh Jun 9, 2015

Apparently there's some racehorse with the name spelled (or spelt) wrong(ly) (adjust to taste) but the hits, numbering millions, for the "o" and "a" in either order are quite close....

 
Oliver Walter
Oliver Walter  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:37
German to English
+ ...
A related error Jun 9, 2015

This isn't a misspelling of the type under discussion, but I feel a mixture of annoyance and amusement when I see it:
Many fast-food shops in the UK sell what they call "paninis" (filled bread rolls, Italian style). If I get a chance to explain the issue to somebody I tell them:
In Italian, a loaf of bread is a pane (pronounced like "paan-eh").
A little one, i.e. a bread roll, is a panino (analogous to petit pain in French and Brötchen in German).
A number
... See more
This isn't a misspelling of the type under discussion, but I feel a mixture of annoyance and amusement when I see it:
Many fast-food shops in the UK sell what they call "paninis" (filled bread rolls, Italian style). If I get a chance to explain the issue to somebody I tell them:
In Italian, a loaf of bread is a pane (pronounced like "paan-eh").
A little one, i.e. a bread roll, is a panino (analogous to petit pain in French and Brötchen in German).
A number of bread rolls are panini.
"paninis" is therefore nonsense. (Or does it mean hundreds of filled rolls?)

Oliver
Collapse


 
Michael Grant
Michael Grant
Japan
Local time: 08:37
Japanese to English
My favorite... Jun 10, 2015

"the point is mute"...!!

 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:37
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Knut Jun 10, 2015

Oliver Walter wrote:

This isn't a misspelling of the type under discussion, but I feel a mixture of annoyance and amusement when I see it:
Many fast-food shops in the UK sell what they call "paninis" (filled bread rolls, Italian style). If I get a chance to explain the issue to somebody I tell them:
In Italian, a loaf of bread is a pane (pronounced like "paan-eh").
A little one, i.e. a bread roll, is a panino (analogous to petit pain in French and Brötchen in German).
A number of bread rolls are panini.
"paninis" is therefore nonsense. (Or does it mean hundreds of filled rolls?)

Oliver


Oliver: you are not alone. "Paninis" drives me up the wall. Alas, it seems to have been accepted not only as a word, but as a particular type of sandwich that is not a "panini" at all.

Along with "paninis" goes a horrible word pronounced as "latay" which I believe is supposed to be "caffè latte".

But like King Knut, I fear neither you nor I will be able to hold back the tide of linguistic change, or to put it more crudely, sh** happens.

http://www.mikeswan.co.uk/elt-applied-linguistics/what-happening-english.htm

[Edited at 2015-06-10 07:39 GMT]


 
Jennifer Forbes
Jennifer Forbes  Identity Verified
Local time: 23:37
French to English
+ ...
In memoriam
Lingerie Jun 10, 2015

I know this thread is about spelling, not pronunciation, but I particularly hate "lonjeray" and can't bring myself to say it that way. I have to ask for the "ladies' underwear department" if I want to be understood ...

 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:37
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Oh yes Jun 10, 2015

Jenny Forbes wrote:

I know this thread is about spelling, not pronunciation, but I particularly hate "lonjeray" and can't bring myself to say it that way. I have to ask for the "ladies' underwear department" if I want to be understood ...


Oh yes - I'd forgotten that horror "lawn jerray". Another is "nucular". And if you arrive in London by train, you may find yourself disembarking at "St. Pancreas Station".

[Edited at 2015-06-10 08:16 GMT]


 
Jennifer Forbes
Jennifer Forbes  Identity Verified
Local time: 23:37
French to English
+ ...
In memoriam
George W. Bush Jun 10, 2015

Tom in London wrote:

Jenny Forbes wrote:

I know this thread is about spelling, not pronunciation, but I particularly hate "lonjeray" and can't bring myself to say it that way. I have to ask for the "ladies' underwear department" if I want to be understood ...


Oh yes - I'd forgotten that horror "lawn jerray". Another is "nucular". And if you arrive in London by train, you may find yourself disembarking at "St. Pancreas Station".

[Edited at 2015-06-10 08:16 GMT]


I seem to remember that former President Dubya was especially fond of NUCULAR energy. A mute point, perhaps.

[Edited at 2015-06-10 08:47 GMT]


 
John Holland
John Holland  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 00:37
French to English
Mute point Jun 10, 2015

I kind of like "mute point." It makes me think of Wittgenstein:

„Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muss man schweigen."
"Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent."



 
Charlie Bavington
Charlie Bavington  Identity Verified
Local time: 23:37
French to English
Ah well, if we're not even trying to stay on topic any more.... Jun 10, 2015

I quite often see the word "arsehole" spelled as "prime minister", which riles me not inconsiderably

I dare not google it, for obvious reasons...


 
Jennifer Forbes
Jennifer Forbes  Identity Verified
Local time: 23:37
French to English
+ ...
In memoriam
Not completely "off topic" Jun 10, 2015

Charlie Bavington wrote:

I quite often see the word "arsehole" spelled as "prime minister", which riles me not inconsiderably

I dare not google it, for obvious reasons...


I was only slightly "off topic", Charlie. My (mute) point was that the mispronunciation of "lingerie" is probably now commoner in English-speaking countries than the correct pronunciation, as is the misspelling of so many words.


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:37
Member (2008)
Italian to English
It works both ways Jun 10, 2015

Jenny Forbes wrote:

Charlie Bavington wrote:

I quite often see the word "arsehole" spelled as "prime minister", which riles me not inconsiderably

I dare not google it, for obvious reasons...


I was only slightly "off topic", Charlie. My (mute) point was that the mispronunciation of "lingerie" is probably now commoner in English-speaking countries than the correct pronunciation, as is the misspelling of so many words.


It works both ways- other languages adopt English words, change the pronunciation and/or spelling, and attribute a different meaning to them. What (for example) to say to a Florentine doctor who suggested to me that I might need to come in for a "chie'appe"? He might have added that he would meet me in the "all".

And what about the Italian government's economic policy, which involved having a spending ray-view?

My point is that whether we like it or not, and I don't (much), all languages adopt words from other languages, and make a dog's breakfast of them. We language specialists wish language would stay still and behave itself, but it won't.



[Edited at 2015-06-10 16:09 GMT]


 
Charlie Bavington
Charlie Bavington  Identity Verified
Local time: 23:37
French to English
Some on, some off Jun 10, 2015

Jenny Forbes wrote:

the mispronunciation of "lingerie" is probably now commoner in English-speaking countries than the correct pronunciation, as is the misspelling of so many words.


I wasn't having a specific pop at anyone, more backing up Cilian's earlier point .

There are many cases of the kind you pointed out - "in loo" for "en lieu" being one I always have to think about before saying it out loud in English - mercifully a hyper rare event these days.

There are also numerous examples of our foreign chums abusing English words in similar ways, of course. Stuff gets borrowed and twisted in all directions and we just have to live with it, really.

However, to get back to the topic a bit, I suspect that "foreign" words, whether abused and misused or otherwise but almost certainly not pronounced in the same way as the language English nicked them from, including "foreign" in the sense of referring to something not actually found in the English speaking world, might well be a fruitful source of what Cilian was originally looking for.


 
Andreas Morgenstern
Andreas Morgenstern  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 00:37
English to German
+ ...
In memoriam
Try to ignore it Jun 10, 2015

Tom in London wrote:

pronounced as "latay" which I believe is supposed to be "caffè latte".



This is actually a big problem for English native speakers and it is observable in pretty much every foreign language (Germanic ones, Romance languages, Japanese, Thai, you name it).

'e' becomes 'ei':
Latte(i), て(い) [te(i)], แต่(ย) [te(i)], tre(i)s in Spanish, tre(i) in Italian

'o' becomes 'ou'
Mario(u), อโศก [Aso(u)k, probably the most misspelled and mispronounced station name in all of Bangkok closely followed by...], มอชิด [mo(u)chit], の(~う) [no(u), a very often used possessive particle]

I am sure that there are others, but 'e' and 'o' are the worst offenders when it comes to vowels. I would try to ignore it.


 
Roni_S
Roni_S  Identity Verified
Slovakia
Local time: 00:37
Slovak to English
Completely off topic Jun 10, 2015

but I grew up with Iowa natives who "warshed" their laundry and knew of a place called Madrd (Madrid).
But I cant stand the trend of abused apostrophes, it makes me loose my mind, and google searches most definately turn up the misspelled versions, frankly as often as the correct versions


 
Whitney Maslak
Whitney Maslak
United States
Local time: 17:37
German to English
Story of my childhood... Jun 11, 2015

englishpartner wrote:

but I grew up with Iowa natives who "warshed" their laundry


That's how my mom pronounces it, along with "oh my garsh!" I never understood where that mysterious "r" came from.

Another odd trend I've noticed lately is on a local Facebook group where people are often advertising that they are having a "yard sell." I can't really expect too much from Facebook, though.


 
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Missspellings abound - in English






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