Mispronunciations

“ALWAYS VISABLE”

Adjectives, Common English Blunders, Mispronunciations, Misspellings

I saw this on a website.

Problem:
The adjective is misspelled — in capital letters, no less!

Explanation:
The adjective “visible” — misspelled as V-I-S-A-B-L-E — appeared in a banner advertisement on the MEN7 website, which I discovered after seeing a television program called “MEN7” on the ION network a few nights ago.

The website’s banner ad was for something called “Billionaires Car Club”.

The full text of the all-capital-letters ad was “LAMBORGHINI, MURCIELAGO | PRICE TO OWN $350K | ALWAYS VISABLE | SEE IT ON BILLIONAIRES CAR CLUB”.

I was not surprised to see the adjective “visible” misspelled by a website and TV program focused on fast cars and the male equivalent of “Cosmopolitan” magazine instead of on more intellectual pursuits.

But seeing the adjective “visible” spelled with an “a” in the middle made me wonder how typical this blunder was.

For fun, I searched Google for each of the following (without the quotation marks) and got about the indicated numbers of matches:

  • “visible” — 238,000,000 matches
  • “visable” — 723,000 matches

This tells me that Web authors have used the correct spelling versus the incorrect spelling by a ratio of 329-to-1, which is superb.

However, nearly three-quarters of a million misspellings tells me that spelling the adjective “visible” with an “a” is a common English blunder.

I believe that this blunder is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis.

It is simpler to pronounce this adjective as if there were an “a” in the middle than to clearly pronounce the “i” in the middle.

And I believe that this mispronunciation drives the misspelling.

Solution:
“ALWAYS VISIBLE”

“… promising lightening quick data rates …”

Hyphens, Mispronunciations, Misspellings

I saw this two days ago in a news article about a new mobile phone.

Problems:
1. A word is misspelled.
2. A hyphen is missing.

Explanation:
The news article was about the BlackBerry Storm.

One of the Web pages in the article discussed the data-related features of the Storm.

While discussing the data technology, the article author wrote “The smart phone operates on Verizon Wireless’ 3G EV-DO Rev A. network in the U.S., promising lightening quick data rates and Internet surfing.”

First, while trying to play on the “Storm” model name, the author misspelled “lightning” as “lightening”.

I believe that this first problem relates to sloppy pronunciation of the noun “lightning”.

Second, while trying to modify “data rates” to indicate a high speed, the author failed to put a hyphen between (sic) “lightening” and “quick”.

I suspect that this second problem relates to a general decline in skill with hyphenation.

Solution:
“… promising lightning-quick data rates …”

“Accredidation”

Devolution toward Simpler, Mispronunciations, Misspellings, Nouns

I heard this during a radio broadcast this morning.

Problem:
This is a mispronunciation.

Explanation:
The radio broadcast was about The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB).

The news reporter said that UTMB would not lose its “accredidation” in spite of yesterday’s announcement that 3,800 employees there would be laid off.

The noun is correctly spelled A-C-C-R-E-D-I-T-A-T-I-O-N because it comes from the verb “accredit”, which ends with a “t”.

Therefore, the final two syllables of the noun “accreditation” should be pronounced as “tation” (starting with a “t” as in “tango”) instead of as “dation” (starting with a “d” as in “delta”).

For fun, I searched Google for each of the following (without the quotation marks) and got about the indicated numbers of matches:

  • “accreditation” — 38,100,000 matches
  • “accredidation” — 85,500 matches

This tells me that Web authors have used the correct spelling versus the incorrect spelling by a ratio of 446-to-1, which is superb.

However, this ratio does not tell the complete story because it covers spellings, not pronunciations.

I believe that the mispronunciation of “accreditation” is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis. It is simpler to say “dation” than it is to say “tation”.

Solution:
“Accreditation”