When I first moved to California, I felt like once I had adapted to the strangeness that is Southern California (known locally as SoCal), I fit in pretty well. Until I opened my mouth. People would look at me, cock their head to one side, get a little grin on their face and then say, "You're not from around here, are you?" The first time someone asked me that I thought there must be something awesome about me that screams "OKLAHOMA!!" - side note: when I read that last sentence, I said "OKLAHOMA" like the beginning of the song (OOOOOOOOKLAHOMA). They must think I'm so cool! I would get all excited and say, "No, I'm not. How'd you know?" They all said the same thing, "You talk funny." I'm mentally giving all of them the finger.
One of the words that I earned the most ridicule for was "lawyer". I worked in a law office and it was a word that came out of my mouth no less than 816 times a day. It sounds like a harmless little word and I always thought that it was, but apparently it's a real doozy. How do you say it? I say it like it reads, "law-yer". I never knew that there was another way to say it. Apparently, everyone else in America says, "loi-yer" - or at least everyone in my office said it that way. I told all of them that they were all wrong and didn't know anything about the English language and apparently they couldn't read. It's spelled l-a-w. Duh.
Last night I asked my bff google about it and guess what I found?
law-yer /'loi-әr/
What??? Who's the idiot that decided they would spell it "law" and pronounce it "loi"? This can't be right! Go ahead, click on the link and listen for yourself. Loi? Really? Are there other words in the English language that have an "aw" pronounced "oi"? If there are, I'm probably saying those wrong, too. I'm staging a protest against this word. Join me in this fight! Let's right this wrong! Repeat after me: LAW-YER! LAW-YER! LAW-YER!
This message brought to you by English teachers all over Oklahoma. Just kidding :)
Bahahahahaha Ok so I have been cracking up!! For one I am the same way!! When we went to New York I got made fun of so much. I just looked at them like they were the weird ones!! Like "sack"(not a pronouncing issue on this one). A sack is what to you? To me.. it is what I put my groceries in, food from the drive through, etc. They were very unclear as to what a sack was. And, ya'll.. they just laughed hysterically at me. My friends that I knew there always seemed so interested in what I was saying. But, now I realize it was how I pronounced everything!! LOL
ReplyDeleteLOL I totally get the sack thing! I got made fun of when we were in Missouri. Everyone got a kick out of listening to me talk and said that my accent was "cute". I just said they were weird :) And no one drank pop, they all drank soda (pronounced more like "sooda", not "soda").
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