How Do You Pronounce It?
Title
How Do You Pronounce It?
Creator
Jacob Schlitt
Description
"I am proud of my ability to pronounce difficult words and names."
Date
2009-08-25
Format
application/pdf
Type
text
Language
en
Identifier
HOW_DO_YOU_PRONOUNCE_IT
Text
HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE IT?
I am proud of my ability to pronounce difficult words and names. When I was a substitute teacher, I would quickly review the names of all the students before class, and assure myself of their pronunciation. I seldom made a mistake and the kids were pleased. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that my name was frequently mispronounced—Slit, Sklit, and of course Schlitz, and worse.
Question: How do you pronounce names ending in “S-T-E-I-N?” Standing alone, Stein is STINE. Add it to Bern, Ep, Edel, Eisen, Dick, Gold, Green, Mill, Rosen, you are not sure if it should be STINE or STEEN. When the family wants to be fancy, it’s STINE. The less ostentatious call themselves STEEN. Similarly, with L-E-V-I-N-E. There are the plain LeVEENS, and the fancy LeVINES. Example: LEVEEN’S Funeral Home and BSO Conductor James LEVINE. I was astounded to learn that in Philadelphia, SchapEEros are SchapIros.
K-O-C-H has always been a problem. My friend George Koch pronounces his name COOK. Mayor Ed Koch preferred KOTCH. Nobody wants to be called KOCK. And finally, a distinguished Jewish family in Boston by the name of K-O-H-N, call themselves KAHN. When I questioned Mr. Kohn about his pronunciation, he asked me how do I pronounce J-O-H-N. Case closed.
Pronouncing words in the English language is a challenge for anyone not familiar with them. In most foreign languages, vowels are pronounced in only one way. Not in English. Even consonants can throw you, what with hard and soft “Gs” and combinations that make no sense. A long time ago, I came across a combination of letters that the creator (It might have been George Bernard Shaw) explained was pronounced “fish.” I believe it was “ghyti.” GH as in enough; Y as in lyric; and TI as in ambition. It could have been a different word with a different combination, but that is the general idea.
Why am I writing this? To reveal for the first time that there is a word that I am ashamed to admit I mispronounced for years. I first remember seeing the word when I was in elementary school. It was on return postal cards and envelopes that were included in mail that we received. In place of a stamp, there was a box which said “No Postage Necessary if Mailed in the United States.” Above the address and the words “Postage Will Be Paid by Addressee” was “BUSINESS R-E-P-L-Y MAIL” in bold letters. I thought the second word was pronounced “REPLEE,” and that is the way I said it to myself. I have no idea when it dawned on me that it was the word for answer or respond—pronounced “REPLY.” I still smile, and feel a little embarrassed, when I see the phrase and repeat to myself “Business Replee Mail.”
My former wife shared with me the mispronunciation as well as the misunderstanding of a word that she saw for many years, which she romanticized. Near our neighborhood in the Bronx was a railroad siding. A great many freight cars were there from many different rail lines. On the side of every car was a word and a number. The word was divided by a space so it appeared as “CAPA CITY.” Sylvia thought that this fabled metropolis must be the place of origin for all the freight cars in the country, if not in the world, just as Pittsburgh was Steel City and Detroit Auto City. Of course, many years later, Sylvia had an epiphany and realized that the word was CAPACITY and the number that followed indicated weight or cubic feet or some other figure. Sylvia must smile when she sees the word “capacity,” as I do when I see the word “reply.”
My current wife, who also prides herself on her pronunciation, once made a mistake which caused her some embarrassment. When you are an adult, such mistakes are not supposed to occur. She was reading an article to our Reading Out Loud group and misread the word M-I-S-L-E-D. She saw it as MISSILED, as so many other words that end in LED—baffled, hustled, puzzled, jumbled, gambled, etc. The context was clear: misdirected. Nevertheless, she insisted that the correct pronunciation was MISSILED, with the accent on the first syllable and the second syllable pronounced SILD. Thankfully, no one pursued it. I hope she is not going to be annoyed with me for bringing it up. Nobody is perfect, not even I (or is it me?)
Finally, I want to mention a young man who worked with me in 1945, as a page in the Newspaper Division of the NY Public Library. He was several years older than me. I was a senior in high school working there part-time. He had graduated from high school, and was working there full time. He was a voracious reader and he liked to talk to me about books, many of which I had not read. He wanted to show off how many big words he knew. However, there was one problem. His extensive vocabulary came from reading, not from conversation. It was clear to me that he was mispronouncing most of the big words he was using. I resisted correcting him. It would have been embarrassing for both of us. He wanted so much to give the appearance of an intellectual, but couldn’t quite carry it off. I felt sorry that he was working at a job better suited for teen-agers. I hope he finally found his calling (and found out how to pronounce the big words he like to use.).
What I did take away from this experience (but which I sometimes forget) is not to correct someone’s mispronunciations. If you understand the speaker, let it alone. Unless they ask you if that is the way it is pronounced.
August 25, 2009
I am proud of my ability to pronounce difficult words and names. When I was a substitute teacher, I would quickly review the names of all the students before class, and assure myself of their pronunciation. I seldom made a mistake and the kids were pleased. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that my name was frequently mispronounced—Slit, Sklit, and of course Schlitz, and worse.
Question: How do you pronounce names ending in “S-T-E-I-N?” Standing alone, Stein is STINE. Add it to Bern, Ep, Edel, Eisen, Dick, Gold, Green, Mill, Rosen, you are not sure if it should be STINE or STEEN. When the family wants to be fancy, it’s STINE. The less ostentatious call themselves STEEN. Similarly, with L-E-V-I-N-E. There are the plain LeVEENS, and the fancy LeVINES. Example: LEVEEN’S Funeral Home and BSO Conductor James LEVINE. I was astounded to learn that in Philadelphia, SchapEEros are SchapIros.
K-O-C-H has always been a problem. My friend George Koch pronounces his name COOK. Mayor Ed Koch preferred KOTCH. Nobody wants to be called KOCK. And finally, a distinguished Jewish family in Boston by the name of K-O-H-N, call themselves KAHN. When I questioned Mr. Kohn about his pronunciation, he asked me how do I pronounce J-O-H-N. Case closed.
Pronouncing words in the English language is a challenge for anyone not familiar with them. In most foreign languages, vowels are pronounced in only one way. Not in English. Even consonants can throw you, what with hard and soft “Gs” and combinations that make no sense. A long time ago, I came across a combination of letters that the creator (It might have been George Bernard Shaw) explained was pronounced “fish.” I believe it was “ghyti.” GH as in enough; Y as in lyric; and TI as in ambition. It could have been a different word with a different combination, but that is the general idea.
Why am I writing this? To reveal for the first time that there is a word that I am ashamed to admit I mispronounced for years. I first remember seeing the word when I was in elementary school. It was on return postal cards and envelopes that were included in mail that we received. In place of a stamp, there was a box which said “No Postage Necessary if Mailed in the United States.” Above the address and the words “Postage Will Be Paid by Addressee” was “BUSINESS R-E-P-L-Y MAIL” in bold letters. I thought the second word was pronounced “REPLEE,” and that is the way I said it to myself. I have no idea when it dawned on me that it was the word for answer or respond—pronounced “REPLY.” I still smile, and feel a little embarrassed, when I see the phrase and repeat to myself “Business Replee Mail.”
My former wife shared with me the mispronunciation as well as the misunderstanding of a word that she saw for many years, which she romanticized. Near our neighborhood in the Bronx was a railroad siding. A great many freight cars were there from many different rail lines. On the side of every car was a word and a number. The word was divided by a space so it appeared as “CAPA CITY.” Sylvia thought that this fabled metropolis must be the place of origin for all the freight cars in the country, if not in the world, just as Pittsburgh was Steel City and Detroit Auto City. Of course, many years later, Sylvia had an epiphany and realized that the word was CAPACITY and the number that followed indicated weight or cubic feet or some other figure. Sylvia must smile when she sees the word “capacity,” as I do when I see the word “reply.”
My current wife, who also prides herself on her pronunciation, once made a mistake which caused her some embarrassment. When you are an adult, such mistakes are not supposed to occur. She was reading an article to our Reading Out Loud group and misread the word M-I-S-L-E-D. She saw it as MISSILED, as so many other words that end in LED—baffled, hustled, puzzled, jumbled, gambled, etc. The context was clear: misdirected. Nevertheless, she insisted that the correct pronunciation was MISSILED, with the accent on the first syllable and the second syllable pronounced SILD. Thankfully, no one pursued it. I hope she is not going to be annoyed with me for bringing it up. Nobody is perfect, not even I (or is it me?)
Finally, I want to mention a young man who worked with me in 1945, as a page in the Newspaper Division of the NY Public Library. He was several years older than me. I was a senior in high school working there part-time. He had graduated from high school, and was working there full time. He was a voracious reader and he liked to talk to me about books, many of which I had not read. He wanted to show off how many big words he knew. However, there was one problem. His extensive vocabulary came from reading, not from conversation. It was clear to me that he was mispronouncing most of the big words he was using. I resisted correcting him. It would have been embarrassing for both of us. He wanted so much to give the appearance of an intellectual, but couldn’t quite carry it off. I felt sorry that he was working at a job better suited for teen-agers. I hope he finally found his calling (and found out how to pronounce the big words he like to use.).
What I did take away from this experience (but which I sometimes forget) is not to correct someone’s mispronunciations. If you understand the speaker, let it alone. Unless they ask you if that is the way it is pronounced.
August 25, 2009
Original Format
application/msword
Collection
Citation
Jacob Schlitt, “How Do You Pronounce It?,” Autobiographical stories & other writing by Jacob Schlitt, accessed April 28, 2024, https://tsirlson.omeka.net/items/show/93.