Most of you have heard of the dreaded "grammar Nazi." Those are the people who are dedicated to making sure that everyone uses proper grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. There's no doubt that most who know me would put me into that category. Oftentimes—and more commonly as of late—the term "grammar Nazi" is losing favor to the term "grammar police." Use of the word "Nazi" is considered offensive by some because of its tie to the horrible things that the Nazis did during World War II as they tried to conquer Europe. That's perfectly fine with me.
But regardless of which term is used, most of my friends would agree that either one would fit me. I have even begun switching over to that term and say that I am an officer on the Spelling and Grammar Police Force™. I'd show you my badge, except it fell off while I was feeding Chimi and it landed in his cage. In order to get it, I'd have to decide how much I like my hand.
As some people hit the occasional "clinker" when they sing—you know, you're expecting to hear a note sung one way, but it comes out too high or too low—some people do the same in their spoken words. Not a giant surprise, but I like words pronounced a certain way—the way that I would pronounce them. I'm not sure how or why I got that way. Perhaps because I've said some things that were a little off the beaten path but I thought were just fine, and was hit with the question of "why did you say that?" It made me sensitive to how others said things. I don't correct other people's pronunciation, but sometimes the way a word is pronounced is pretty cringe-worthy to me.
Let me examine some of these in no particular order.
One of the first ones I noticed was "EE-thur vs. AYE-thur" and "NEE-thur vs. NIGH-thur." In our family, we were brought up with "EE-thur and NEE-thur." For whatever reason, it bugged the heck out of me when for reasons unknown, our sister Valerie started saying "AYE-thur" and "NIGH-thur." It just didn't sound right coming out of her. Perhaps because it was different than how we were raised, I just didn't like it. Her kids use those same pronunciations, and I cringe to this day, but will forever hold my peace.
In this next case, I don't know if I've just been asleep or didn't notice, but I have taken notice to more people saying "PREE-zen-tay-shun." I've always said "PREH-zen-tay-shun" because that's how just about everyone said it when I was growing up.
If something is oozing with a rainbow of colors, to me it's "MUL-TEE-colored." Again, I just never noticed when someone said "MUL-TYE-colored." Or "MUL-TYE-anything." For me, it just doesn't roll off the tongue or something. Not sure what it is, but it just doesn't sound right to me.
Sometimes I associate these pronunciations with "corporate speak." Almost like the corporate types tweak a pronunciation for a little impact. Of course, I could be wrong. I was wrong once.
As I stated earlier, regardless of how others pronounce their words, chances are I won't give them any grief about it. Sometimes there is more than one way to do the same thing.
But a word to the wise: don't EVEN get me started on annoying, overused phrases like "and stuff like that" tacked onto a sentence. I have a few of those that just might be enough to entertain you with another entry.
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