Re: [OT] spelling contest
- Posted by jimcbrown (admin) Apr 08, 2012
- 4900 views
I'll say it flat out: is wrong.
The written contraction is a representation of the audible contraction. People who run togther the word "you" and the word "are" will produce the correct pronunciation of the contraction "you're". What has done is patch their dictionary to keep up with the way the words are currently used, the acceptable use of the masses, which is what dictionaries have done since the first. They add words, they change words, they drop words. The fact that the mispronunciation is now mainstream does not make it correct to print the wrong word, and it doesn't make it correct to mispronounce it.
Pronounciation and spelling change over time. Languages change over time.
Do you pronounce "meat" and "meet" differently?
Do you pronounce "knight" with a k?
If not "the masses" then who has the right to define a language? The fact that you place yourself in opposition to "the masses" smacks of "snob appeal" and elitism.
FWIW, it's also annoying to hear weather people on tv say "tempachur" for "temperature", when they'd never say "tempach" for "temperate". No doubt will legitimize that too.
Looking at it, I'm not seeing an alternative pronouciation where temperature is pronounced like temperate. The pronounciation "tempachur" or "tem-per-uh-cher" seems to be standard.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/temperature?qsrc=2446
