kickycan wrote:This is not exactly the same thing, but my boss, instead of pronouncing the word conTRIBute, says CONtribute, with the "CON" pronounced like the name "Don". This is a British thing too, and it drives me crazy!
IT SO isn't a British thing!! Unless you count uneducated Brits as the norm - well ok, so they are. ConTRIBute is the first and only pronunciation. Like so many wrong prons, it comes from people reading words they don't say, so they stab at the pron and get it wrong. HARassed used to be normal, but THAT was infected from America.
Like the bit about magick and musick - bring back the K! Although Webster was creating a political language, he did have the laudable intention of simplifying - programme and the once common telegramme look silly now, and undoubtedly humor, color etc. have a perfectly good Latin ancestry. Little did Webster know what misery he was creating for editors and others worldwide - or perhaps we should look at it differently and praise his ability to create employment for so many long after his death!