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Wednesday, February 10, 2010

LINGO

I have pet peeves regarding correct use of our language, or rather the lack thereof. Previously I complained about the fading practice of responding with a 'welcome', to someone's 'thank-you', rather than responding with a "no-problem" response.
Here is another one that irritates me.
It is the miss-pronouncation of the word To  Websters Dictionary gives the following info:
Pronunciation: \ t, ˈtü\
Function: preposition
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English tō; akin to Old High German zuo to, Latin donec as long as, until
Date: before 12th century
1 a —used as a function word to indicate movement or an action or condition suggestive of movement toward a place, person, or thing reached
Lots of people, from your everyday average schmucks, to the top schmuck, President Obama, pronounce it Ta  Next time you have an opportunity to listen to the Pres, pay attention. You'll hear him say something like "We really  need ta enact health reform", or "We have ta be better stewards of the people's money" (thats a double laugh!).  As gifted an orator as he is, it's weird ta hear that come out of his mouth!
Go figure!

1 comment:

martypantsROK said...

makes me laugh. If 'ta' was all I had to worry about with English. I spend my days fighting the 'R' vs 'L' problem and Koreans who think its wrong to say "the office" if you don't pronounce 'the' as 'thee.'

The R/L is completely self-inflicted as Koreans teach the little ones that they are in fact interchangable. Takes me months to correct what they teach.