Sip, Sip: Hooray!

From the department of pronunciation, this just in.

A local TV personality has a pronunciation quirk that makes my husband nuts. (No, I'm not getting specific; she does a fine job otherwise and frankly I find this kinda entertaining.)

There's this local golf course. It's the "municipal" golf course. That's "myoo-ni-SIP-pul." (I can't explain it; I just report it.)

Everything else in town follows the standard pronunciation of "myoo-NIH-sip-pul," which you can also find in genuine International Phonetic Alphabet and sound clips if you google, as I did.

I have never heard this "SIP-pul" pronunciation elsewhere for anything, other than the golf course here. It's certainly not Canadian, except in this little teeny tiny pocket of Canada.

Sure, every place has similar litmus tests. When I lived in Arkansas, new weather broadcasters pronounced El Dorado as "El Dough-RAH-dough" until someone told them it was actually "El Duh-RAY-duh." Also, the town of Blytheville drops consonants when pronounced: "BLY-vul" is correct.

So: "myoo-NIH-sip-pul" elections. Which is not what the local news anchor says. To her, everything municipal is "myoo-nih-SIP-pul."

My husband has a smaller-than-average share of pet peeves. (Yes, I recognize that I'm an overachiever in this area and should not be construed as "average.") As a peeve-deprived individual, he is not one to talk to the television. In contrast, on any given night, I'm usually muttering at someone on there about something. It's a habit I picked up from my father during the Nixon years, when I was impressionable and he was annoyed. A lot.

However, for this one pronunciation, my normally easygoing husband makes an exception. He always breathes a heavy sigh and nearly always groans. Sometimes he smacks his forehead and rolls his eyes, but I think that's just to impress me.

The only other thing I can count on to increase his drama quotient is when people (and lots of them do it) say "FEB-yoo-air-ee." He will occasionally over-enunciate "FEB-ROO-AIR-EE" for the benefit of the offender. (Yes, we know no one can hear us through the glass, but we choose not to believe.)

My husband also is not a big fan of "s" becoming "sh," as when Tyra Banks pronounces "strength" as "schtrenth." (C'mon, Tyra, what's next: "feersh"?) Not that my husband has ever seen America's Next Top Model or knows who Tyra Banks is. More and more people, especially in the US, use that pronunciation (*cough* Michelle Obama *cough*) and he dislikes it. But it's only a teeth-gritter, not a forehead-smacker.

Thankfully, the myoo-NIH-sip-pul elections are over. However, FEB-roo-air-ee is on the horizon. My prediction: It's gonna be loud during the news at 6 around here for the next couple of months.