Victuals and other odd words

[marcusmarcusrc]

Stimulated by a discussion at chenoameg's WordGames, I wanted to ask people to list words whose spellings are ridiculously different than their pronunciations:

eg.
vict.ual \'vit-*l\
col.o.nel \'k*rn-*l\
Worcestershire sauce (IPA [ˈwʊstə(ɹ)ʃ(ɪ)ə(r)])

EDIT: And how could I forget
boat.swain \'bo-s-*n\
(I learned this one when I was in the Tempest)

I still can't believe that until last week I thought that "victual" and "vittle" were two different words with different pronunciations that just happened to have the same meaning. Like the years I spent assuming that there were two military ranks, colonel and kernel. Only that misconception I corrected in middle school...

Comments

[desireearmfeldt]

Even with the evidence you keep presenting, I refuse to believe that "victual" isn't "usually" (i.e. by people with middle-class British or New England accents) pronounced like it's spelled. :) I never particularly thought they were different but coincidentally similar words; I always assumed "vittle" was a dialect-spinoff version.

Yes, "waistcoat" is pronounced "weskit" (at least, in England, where it's more likely they'd say it at all), and "blackguard" (which no one says any more except on stage) is pronounced "blaggard." I've never heard anyone except possibly certain sub-categories of British accent say "forrid"; on the other hand, there's this verse:

There was a little girl
Who had a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead
And when she was good
She was very very good
And when she was bad she was horrid.

(The problem with trying to figure out how words are pronounced by looking at what other words they're rhymed with in rhyming verse is that people don't always make rhymes that their own accent would render as perfect rhymes. But it's always entertaining to listen to someone like Noel Coward, whose rhymes often take serious advantage of his particular accent, rhyming things that totally don't rhyme in mine (e.g. "boa" and "more"). Or to listen to someone reciting verse/song whose author's accent clearly doesn't match the performer's.)

[desireearmfeldt]

(One of fredrickegerman's English uncles once asked me whether I would pronounce "porn" and "pawn" differently. Since he pronounced them identically, it took me forever to figure out what words he wanted me to pronounce. :) )

[marcusmarcusrc.livejournal.com]

If you look at the OED, variations of the "vittel" spelling came first, and sometime around the 1520s it looks like the "victual" spelling crept in. (With lots of vitayles and victuayles thrown around for fun). But all the dictionaries list "vittle" as the only pronunciation...


Yeah, rhyming words are often very confusing/amusing. For example, in "you are old father William" I always pronounce "again" to match "I feared it might injure the brain", even though I normally pronounce it closer to "a-gen".

[fredrickegerman.livejournal.com]

El Reg uses "blagger" all the time. In part because of its delightful resemblance to "blogger" I suspect.