Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Emergency

I need your help again. With another word and how to pronounce it. This time the word is:

Tousle.

A friend and i are having a bit of a disagreement. Of course i'm too lazy to try to find the official pronunciation. Perhaps there is more than one pronunciation. That's fine. However: I cannot accept that an appropriate pronunciation would be "Tossle." I say it like towssle, hard s. which probably should be soft. Maybe it could be pronounced like toosle, as in boot. but tossle?? ridiculousness.

thoughts?

11 comments:

Alanna said...

Sorry, I'm no help here. I frequently mispronounce words. I blame it on having read them in books but never having heard or said them out loud. It can be embarrassing at times! I once got in a big fight with a friend over the correct pronunciation of the word "cardinal." (She was right, I was wrong; it turns out that you hardly say the "din" part. This was in 3rd grade...)

Ever since then, I try to rely on dictionary.com rather than what I think might be right!!! (And yes, I am dorky enough that I use that website frequently!)

Joel said...

I agree with you: I say it with an OW as in "I hurt my foot" sound and a hard S. Now let's see what Webster says...

We're right. (And, awesomely, you get bonus points because an alternate pronunciation is with the "oo" sound.)

)en said...

NICE! high five!

and a triple high five to myself. In your FACE, friend!! i wish she read my blog.

wait a second, what's that now, Alanna? the "din" in cardinal isn't really pronounced? I don't get it. Like, Card-nal? That's weird. Explain.

Natalie R. said...

There we go, I was going to say that I say "t-ow-sl" but that I'm probably wrong. But for once I'm right! Booyah. :0)

I don't know about elsewhere, but in the NW we usually say "card-nul," kind of like we drop the n and t in mountain ("mow'in").

Blognomymous said...

Hello all! Jen's "Friend" here. I respect Webster, I do. However, I would like to direct everyone's attention to Herbal Essence's current commercial for their product (which I believe our discussion leader owns) Tousle Me Softly. Now, the voice over may not say tAHsle but she is certainly, repeat, certainly, not say tOWsle (or tOOsle) for that matter.

(one minute later)

Alright, scratch that. I did a little you tubing, thinking I would be clever and add the link. The girl said tOWsle. Fine! You win! But she sounded stupid.

Pedersen Posse said...

I would have pronounced it like you, which turns out to be right. I had nice internal debate though, because I could hear both versions. I remember getting into a debate with you over the word crayon. You said cray-on and I said cran. So much of pronounciation depends on your parents and where you grew up. Tyler still occasionally says melk for milk.

)en said...

Ha! Angie, good times. Crayon vs. Cran. Good memories.

And very true about it depending on the parents, etc. Except interestingly, i've noticed things my siblings might say in a certain way that I know I used to say but don't anymore. Hmm! So what happened? And when? I can't say.

melk: Never ok. ;)

ASHLEY, you commented on my blog even though you are WRONG DEAD WRONG. THat takes guts, my friend. I applaud you.

Alanna said...

WAIT! I'm not the only one who calls them "crans"????? My husband makes fun of me all the time for that. And my in-laws can't understand me and Craig will have to interpret and say, "She means 'crayons.'"

WHERE DID THIS COME FROM???

Joel said...

It's called monophthongization (the reduction of a diphthong to a single vowel sound), and it's prevalent in certain regions of the country, notably Utah County.

Jen, thanks for posting something that allows me to use the pointless knowledge I acquired in obtaining a degree in linguistics. :)

)en said...

joel, i looove linguistics.

I will look for more opportunities & to say NERD! when you use words like monopthgoiwenrfkudfn.

Kim said...

I said "tossle" up until I saw the Herbal Essences commercial and I was all, "TOWsel?"

And then I started saying it that way because I'm a follower.