Coming up on Word Matters, words that give us trouble.
I'm Emily Brewster,
and Word Matters is produced by Merriam-Webster in collaboration with New England Public Media.
On each episode, Merriam-Webster editors Neil Servin, Amon Shea, Peter Sakalowski,
and I explore some aspect of the English language from the dictionary's vantage point.
You might think that we, as lexicographers,
would have a keen sense of how every word is pronounced, right?
Well...
Today we're going to disabuse you of that notion.
We've each been victims of the vagaries of English orthography when a word's printed form makes it nearly impossible to guess its pronunciation or to match the word to the one you know from conversation.
I'll open the discussion about this particular way English pulls the rug out from under those who learn its words through reading.
There's a meme that some of you may have seen.
It says, and the saying is attributed to Anonymous.
I think it is such a good thing to keep in mind that when someone mispronounces a word,
chances are they are mispronouncing it because they learned it on the printed page,
not from having heard it.
This makes me think of when I think the first Dickens book I read in school was Oliver Twist,
and Oliver Twist,
somebody uses the word V-I-C-T-U-A-L-S, which I read as Victuels.
Right?