Reply to Why can’t people pronounce “especially”?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I secretly find it cute when people mispronounce words like that because it is more like a dialect (like people in certain areas saying warsh instead of wash or dropping vowels) and I don't need to notify anyone else when I hear it, feel aggravated or start a thread[/quote]

Op here.

Warsh doesn’t bother me.

Dialects are endearing.

But I just can’t write off “ex-specially” as a dialect.

To me it sounds like the mispronunciation of a child. We’ve all heard a 4 year old make such a mistake. It just sounds child-like more than anything else.[/quote]

Perhaps the simplest approach would be to enlarge your understanding of what dialects (and accents and pidgins and creoles and languages) are and how they develop.  Or you could choose to indulge your just-can’t and wallow in being bothered.  It sounds like you’re soliciting support more than you’re actually trying to overcome your desire to “correct” people who don’t speak like you.  Perhaps you could learn to code switch, OP. How many languages and dialects do you speak? Learning a few more might be a great way to expand your vocabulary and occupy your mind. 
[/quote]

FWIW I am fully bilingual and I studied linguistics in college along with other foreign languages that I haven’t fully mastered.

I’m not sure how code switching or dialects apply when we are talking about white Americans mispronouncing the word especially unless there is some midwestern or East Coast dialect where it is common knowledge that the word especially is pronounced differently. If *this* is actually a thing, then please enlighten me and I’ll finally disabuse myself of this admittedly bizarre pet peeve. [/quote]

Do you walk about saying you're going to Par-ee and Roma this summer or are you going to Paris and Rome as pronounced inaccurately by English speakers?  Do you correct people who say they're going to Milan instead of Milano?

From your linguistics studies you would have learned/learnt that people from different regions and countries speak English differently. Surveys can pinpoint quickly if you're from Texas, Maine, London, Glasgow or Sydney.[/quote]

Pronouncing a foreign city using the English version doesn’t strike me as a mistake. It would obviously be incorrect to pronounce it Paris with the S if one was speaking French.

Fair point about regional dialects and pronunciation. Pray tell, which area of the USA is known for pronouncing especially with an X?

I don’t think it’s a dialect issue…particularly since I’ve heard UMC white people from across the country make the mistake.

Wash/Warsh is a dialect.

Water/wadder/waiter is a dialect.

But adding an X where it doesn’t exist seems to be a mistake more than anything else. [/quote]

It’s not a dialect. It's more of a non-standard variant. We all use them. EX just happens to annoy you, so you label it as a “mistake.” If we put your speech under the same microscope, I promise we’d find a few “errors” that will bother someone else as much as this bothers you.[/quote]

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