i say too-more-oh, you say ta-mar-oh

what is it about pronunciation and word choice that gets people all riled up and defensive? it seems that it's never about enjoying our diversity or uniqueness... it's about being right or wrong. who is saying it correctly and who is saying it "funny"? and you may be saying to yourself "i don't get defensive. what do i have to get defensive about? i don't say words with a funny accent... " but i promise you, there are words you say that people would think sound odd, and the second they pointed it out to you... you'd have something to say about it.

ten years ago, i packed up my belongings and headed to idaho for college. unaware that canadians even had an accent, i found it funny that people were constantly pointing mine out. "say ABOUT ... say TOMORROW ... say SORRY ... " are these people crazy? i say these words just like them!? -- i know now that this was false. slowly but surely the american accent made its way in, and my canadian accent made its way out. and soon my canadian friends were making fun of my american accent. "how's U-taaaw? i'm Saawree!" but the crazy thing is... the americans never stopped making fun of my occasional "mispronunciation". so now, i get it from both sides.

for your enjoyment (or my inability to filter out things that aren't really that interesting), here are a few of the changes i subconsciously and consciously made over the last ten years:

so-rry is now saw-rry
too-more-oh is now ta-mar-oh
grade 12 is now 12th grade (or "my senior year")
fleg is now flay-g (though, literally my mouth was not made to say this word with an american accent)
have a shower is now take a shower
write a test is now take a test
which r-OOTe are you taking? is now which r-OUTe are you taking?
washroom is now restroom
marks are now grades

and the list goes on and on.

so... who's right? and why in the world do we care? ... who knows... but we do!

so i'm going to do a little experiment on pronunciation (mostly to settle a little marital dispute. haha.) i want you to listen to the following audio pronunications and tell me what you hear:

do you think "ultimate" is said with an UHL sound or an OHL sound?
do you think "alternator" is said with an ALL sound or an UHL sound?

and seriously... i assure you, there is no T at the end of across!