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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPeople are judging you for the way you pronounce 'vase'
Last edited Wed Jan 1, 2020, 04:10 PM - Edit history (1)
Hearing Trump ask Kim for a beautiful "vahs" made me think of some of my republican relatives. Maybe it's just a regional thing.
Who cares, right? To-may-to, to-mah-to
Well, actually, a lot of us seem to care about the way we pronounce words. As study after study has confirmed, the way we speak influences the way others perceive us. Linguists sometimes refer to this phenomenon as the accent prestige theory: the belief that certain types of accents, because of their historical associations with high society, are more prestigious than others. According to this theory, we attach social judgments to people's accents. And as research shows, these judgments can influence something as superficial as how physically attractive we find someone or something more substantial like hiring practices.
This week, more research came out to confirm that we attach judgments to accents. The company behind the study was eBay yes, really who, in addition to selling LeBron James' old underwear, also conducts studies. For example: how many of its users say vahz versus how many say vayse. eBay has a huge pottery and glass page, and some of the researchers attached to the company began to wonder about the accent divide among their audience.
The study was simple enough. Give about 1,000 people six words that are often pronounced in two different ways, and ask them to attach value judgments to the different pronunciations. As the results below show, language is a social indicator.Do you put flowers in a vahz or a vayce?
https://www.vox.com/2014/7/31/5952737/do-you-say-vahz-or-vayce
muriel_volestrangler
(101,390 posts)I'd have said you pronounce "chaise lounge" as "you've spelled that incorrectly - it should be 'chaise-longue'". Which you pronounce "shayz long". It's French for "long chair". American English has, in the past 30 years or so, favoured "chaise lounge", while British English has stuck with "chaise-longue", but the French have never used the "lounge" form (see https://books.google.com/ngrams ).
Foolacious
(497 posts)I used to get teased (good naturedly) by colleagues for my pronunciation of "roof" and "root", since they said "ruuf" and "ruut", and their mocking sounded like "ruff" and "rut". They claimed to hear no difference when I said "rut" versus "root". I asked them if they could hear the difference between "fut" and "foot". "Of course!" they would exclaim, as my point whizzed over their heads.
GemState
(48 posts)Didn't know the rest of the country pronounced "roof" the way it's spelled until I joined the Air Force. Same thing with "root". I also discovered the difference in pronunciation of "aunt".
Newest Reality
(12,712 posts)I think that is a more Midwestern thing, which is where I grew up. Of course the same with "root".
Throck
(2,520 posts)I'm not understanding the problem?
braddy
(3,585 posts)marybourg
(12,642 posts)if you cant make heads or tails of these charts? Asking for a friend.
NRaleighLiberal
(60,026 posts)MineralMan
(146,338 posts)I gave up after a minute. I didn't care anyhow, though.
malaise
(269,219 posts)While I can spell in both British and American, I speak British English or Jamaican
spooky3
(34,498 posts)When it should be pronounced vahs, she replied, when it is filled with dahs-ies.
Happy New Year! Tennis returns tomorrow!
malaise
(269,219 posts)I was going to send you a tennis PM later today.
Happy New Year to you and yours
moriah
(8,311 posts)"Do you sofTen your hands as you do dishes?"
She *hated* people pronouncing the T in "often".
spooky3
(34,498 posts)Leith
(7,813 posts)"Excuse me, I wasn't list-ening."
3catwoman3
(24,071 posts)...my tongue not to correct him. Been biting it for 38 years.
He also says acrosst.
DavidDvorkin
(19,497 posts)pamela
(3,469 posts)malaise
(269,219 posts)Happy New Year!
pamela
(3,469 posts)Happy New Year to you, too!
ecstatic
(32,748 posts)I think I'd find it weird if someone insisted on pronouncing it the other way. It's one of those words that is rarely said out loud so you have no idea where people stand until the rare moment that it's brought up, which for me is when I'm surprised with flowers and I have to place them in the 1 vase I keep for that purpose.
Also, sorry, but for me, Nevada is pronounced neh VAH duh.
Other than that, it looks like my pronunciations are mostly mainstream. Lol. SMH
shanti
(21,675 posts)The only people I know of that pronounce Nevada like you do are from the East Coast. I'm from the West Coast and have always pronounced it nuh-vad-uh. It's like when people say Or-e-gone instead of Or-e-gun for Oregon. It's actually the latter that is correct.
ecstatic
(32,748 posts)NY, FL, and GA. It's good to know I pronounce Oregon correctly--but wait--who makes the determination of what's correct and incorrect? LOL! 🤔
GemState
(48 posts)Thus Boiseans say "Boy-See" while everyone else says "Boy-Zee". Except for the French, of course.
DeminPennswoods
(15,290 posts)when I hear my fellow keystone staters pronounce it that way.
It's the native born Oregonians who will set you straight on that!
The Genealogist
(4,723 posts)They is pronounced nuh VAY duh. But nobody around here I have heard pronounced the name of the state that way.
Leith
(7,813 posts)say ne-VAD-uh.
Saying the "broad a" sounds a little like saying "vaahz" instead of "vace."
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)or maybe just never left the casino.
Drahthaardogs
(6,843 posts)And who didn't.
Natives pronounce it Colo-rah-do, a nod to the Spanish
Eastern and Midwesterm folks tend to say Colo-raw-do,
My ears catch it every time.
mopinko
(70,268 posts)that are obviously because the person learned the word by reading it, not speaking it.
i usually gently correct those mistakes, letting the person know that i understand how that works.
but i'm from the midwest. we dont have accents here.
JustABozoOnThisBus
(23,374 posts)mopinko
(70,268 posts)tho in my case- coke. some say pepsi.
greatauntoftriplets
(175,755 posts)If I drank them, I'd order by name.
shanti
(21,675 posts)I'm on the west coast.
JustABozoOnThisBus
(23,374 posts)... that heathens use to dilute the heavenly essence of scotch whisky.
It's on the shelf next to "tonic".
shanti
(21,675 posts)as in vodka tonics, and then there's soda, as in sweet, flavored sparkling water, i.e. Coke. I can see where it can get confusing. BTW, my dad used to call it pop and he was from rural Washington (state). I never picked that term up though.
NRaleighLiberal
(60,026 posts)what people think of me ( the advantage if growing older!)
Happy New year, DUers!
JohnnyRingo
(18,665 posts)I spect a buncha poor people own a Tiffany vahs.
Codeine
(25,586 posts)when they mean roof, because thats some crazy shit.
CTyankee
(63,912 posts)pamela
(3,469 posts)I moved to Md from Virginia when I was around six and thought they were speaking another language.
dweller
(23,682 posts)rhymes with phase
✌🏼
Brother Buzz
(36,478 posts)I'm a fifth generation Californian and say vase - Rhymes with face.
We both agree 'vahz' is mostly a Boston Brahmins thingy.
a la izquierda
(11,797 posts)We say vaze.
So I imagine its a north eastern thing.
aikoaiko
(34,185 posts)About how pronouncing words a certain way or choosing certain words (sofa not couch) was essential to being accepted by a certain ingroup.
Hekate
(90,865 posts)...a blue glass pitcher for most of them, a blue glass Perrier bottle for a few stems, and a blue glass Nivea hand cream bottle for another several stems. (I have some pretty glass jars gathered just before everything went to plastic.)
The only actual vayse I used for the narcissi was a small blown-glass affair my daughter in law gave me some years ago.
No matter what the original cost (which some folks apparently use as a means to decide whether it's a vahz) this Californian uses vayses.
Too funny.
nolabear
(41,996 posts)I was talking to my good friend Elaine and I says, "Elaine, my boyfriend Ernie gave me a big bouquet of roses today. Now I guess I'll have to have my legs in the air for a week." Elaine says to me, she says, "Whatsa matter, Soph, aint you got on vaaaaahse?"
LakeArenal
(28,858 posts)WARM
Do you say War with an m. Or
Do you say Arm with a w?
A good friend says wARM
I say WARm
mia
(8,363 posts)dewsgirl
(14,961 posts)MineralMan
(146,338 posts)Those differences in pronunciation are more regional than class-based.
I say vace, foyay, rewf, shez lounge, dayCOR, and neesh.
Why? Because that's what I heard growing up. I understand the words, regardless of how they are said, and don't give a damn, either way.
yewberry
(6,530 posts)I'm originally from just north of Boston. My mom has a fairly strong Brahmin accent, as did my grandparents. My dad had a less-strong Boston accent, and his later wife had a strong downcast accent.
I've got 'vase' securely as rhyming with 'space' but grew up with vahs. These are the words I have to think about almost every time I say them:
basil (BA-sil, not BAY-sil)
tomato (to-MAH-to)
bath (bahth)
laugh (laahf)
I still can't talk about the stuff they make boxes out of. I could fall over and hurt myself.
mia
(8,363 posts)We lived in the DC area and visited our Baltimore grandparents and extended family every Christmas. They all seemed to pronounce "water" in different ways. As a young child, during the drive back home, I remember repeating the different ways to myself: "WARter, WALLter, wAWEter, wAAHda, WHUTer, WEREter, WATTer". I still wonder about how to say 'it' to this day.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)Wuter and redio. My vowels all started to sound the same: neio for no used to drive my Michigan born mother crazy. Heiou neiou breioun ceiou instead of how now brown cow.
mia
(8,363 posts)spooky3
(34,498 posts)is: Put that book OWEN the table.
MaryMagdaline
(6,856 posts)Ilsa
(61,707 posts)which brings us to the pronunciation "neesh?"
Foolacious
(497 posts)Don't care what accent you have... don't judge you on it... I just enjoy the differences.
Kurt V.
(5,624 posts)thucythucy
(8,097 posts)assumed you were dumb if you spoke with a Southern accent.
The line I remember most was, "If Albert Einstein had talked like that we never would have made the bomb."
wendyb-NC
(3,335 posts)Is it "creek", pronounced like creak, like the high pitched sound when you open a door with a rusty hinge.
Or is it "crick", rhymes with tick.
FuzzyRabbit
(1,970 posts)My dad grew up in eastern Washington pronouncing it CRICK and I learned from him.
And my state is pronounced Wush-ington, not Wah-shington nor War-shington.
gladium et scutum
(808 posts)I was born in Longview and raised in Vancouver. Grew up hearing an r sound in Washington. Had to work many years to break myself of that pronunciation
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)is always the right way if you're in California. I never heard anyone call a vase a vahs except in old movies.
Here in deep south Georgia, people don't say bedroom sweets, they say bedroom soots. I had no idea what it meant when I first heard it, but it was on a fundraising tour of homes for an arboretum and I figured that, since the soot probably cost more than our car, chortling in some California conceit over pronunciation would be inappropriate. Still sounds silly. You can take the girl out of California...
mia
(8,363 posts)I grew up calling them "walk-in" closets.
ManiacJoe
(10,136 posts)"walking" seems like a simple auto-correct problem, or simply folks not knowing what correct word is in the first place often due to slurred speech.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)Bless their hearts, as we say in Georgia.
guillaumeb
(42,641 posts)To nest.
And it is pronounced neesh, in French.
rickyhall
(4,889 posts)Is it "ant" or "awnt" or "aint"? I've heard all three ways in Texas.
Oh, yeah, is it can't or is cain't?
I grew up in Ft. Worth. Mom's parents were from the Southside while Dad's parents were from the Northside. Going from one to the other was like changing countries.
Polybius
(15,510 posts)Take caramel for example. Up until the 80's, everyone pronounced at car-mell. Now, everyone says carra-mell, unless they are older and were used to the old pronunciation.
3catwoman3
(24,071 posts)...Chicago, and spoke of window seels and warter. By the time I was 8, we had gone thru several moves, and ended up in Rochester NY. It always sounded to me like he said Rock-chester.
I have seen and heard many instances of people not knowing how to say or spell voila. The most common bastardization seems to be wallah, when spelled, and pronounced WAH-lah. The first time I saw it in writing, it took me ages to figure out what the hell the writers was trying to say. Ive also heard it in a commercial.
My older sons 8th grade language arts teacher pronounced poignant as poyg-nant. It made my teeth hurt from clenching my jaw so tight to keep from correcting her.
What an entertaining thread!
The Wizard
(12,552 posts)over twenty dollars ait's vahz. If it's below $20 it's vase.
Archive Hunter
(17 posts)More natural.
BlueSpot
(856 posts)Am I the only one to be confused by this? Because, if it's the people who pronounce it one way or the other, isn't their a bias right there in the poll? But it doesn't explain the color coding either. This seems highly suspect to me.
DeminPennswoods
(15,290 posts)yellow, the less common one.
BlueSpot
(856 posts)oasis
(49,429 posts)OhZone
(3,212 posts)I pronounce it tiny fingered, Cheeto-faced, ferret wearing shitgibbon! Ha
Also - Happy New Year, oasis!
oasis
(49,429 posts)Have a wonderful 2020, OhZone.