Have you ever noticed how word pronunciation across the world is extremely different depending on where you go? Our neighbors across the pond say “WA + "tuh” instead of “water,” and even in our own country, word pronunciation is divisive.
Harding proved to be no different, sharing their own word pronunciations, as well as strange pronunciations they’ve heard from others in a poll sent out to the students and staff.
Some answers were pretty unanimous, with 85.4% of people pronouncing the word Tuesday as “toozday,” as opposed to the 9.7% of people that say “tooezday.” Okay, good job so far, Harding.
The word tire was also very consistent, concluding that 90.4% of students and staff pronounce the word as “tai-er.”
However, the word caramel was far more divisive, with 53.8% of people saying “kar–uh-muhl” and 46.2% saying “kar-muhl.” No, you were doing so well! We don’t want to start a civil war!
The pronunciation of the word white had similar results, with 58.8% of people not pronouncing the h in the word “white,” whereas 41.2% claim that they do.
There are also 70% of people that pronounce the word gyro as “jai-row” instead of “yee-roh.” Harding isn’t super divided on that one—it's just wrong.
Harding also had some interesting results when asked about the weirdest pronunciations they’ve ever heard.
For example, one person said they heard someone pronounce orange as "oi-nch." Ew, that just sounds gross.
Another responded, “literally anything to do with the word ‘worcestershire’ ever.” Very, very true. I have never heard anyone pronounce that word right. It’s wor-st…okay, I give up.
The pronunciation of the word niche came up a couple of times, with one respondent stating, “In science, it's fun to hear how students all pronounce niche differently: Neesh, Nitch, nee-chee, etc.”
One person passionately exclaimed, “WHEN PEOPLE SAY 'woo-tor' for water like ITS WATER.” Very scared.
However, those responses are not nearly as good as “Um I don't know. However, if this is going in the Harding Herald, anybody interested in doing my Aleks topics I will pay you 50 cents a topic. That may not seem like a lot but I have 167 topics that I need done.” Dang, you’re cheap.
On that note, next time you're having a discussion in class, maybe take notice of how people are pronouncing “caramel” and “niche.” Then you can…start a fight?
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