Confessions: I pronounce everything wrong.

This is really embarrassing to admit as an English major and a bookish person in general, but I really do butcher the art of the spoken word.

It's the reason I took Spanish instead of French.

French people should thank me for that, because they would have murdered me.

But I seriously am horrendously bad at pronunciation. 

Point en case:

Friend of mine lost her school ID a few months ago, and our decals expire every year.

She got her ID, but then couldn't get a decal for a while, because they moved the office or whatnot.

Well.

She ended up getting a parking ticket - hey, there are only so many "visitor" spots - and mentioned it to me.

I mentioned to her that someone had said that if you didn't pay it, they wouldn't send you a bill or anything.

Then I said, "I guess it makes sense; I mean, they're not city or munsiple police".

She just stopped and stared at me.

"Alyse. Do you mean municipal?"

"Yeah. . . yeah, that's it."

She looked at me and laughed.

"You know what you are? You're one of those people that read a lot but never say the words out loud."

Yes.

Yes, that is exactly what I am.

That, and a dummkopf.

And actually, I can pronounce that right.

Words We Should Spell Differently: English Place Names

As most of us here speak English, this could be a very long list, but it'll be short today.

And since I actually took a "Development of the English Language" course last year, I'm sort of an authority on this.

Sort of.

And it goes without saying that this is by no means scholarly.

So don't be citing this in your English papers at 3 AM, mmk?

English is really weird.

I'm an English major; I know this for a fact.

I'm not going to go into why things are spelled so strangely, but part of it has to do with the Great Vowel Shift.

Please. Don't. Ask.

Anyhoo, I got to thinking today about Worcester, Massachusetts  Sir Leicester Dedlock, and Richard of Gloucester.

Now you know how you pronounce those?

Wooster, Layster, and Gloster, respectively.

Ummm . . .

People (usually) hate it when others are redundant.

Isn't extra letters kind of redundant if they make the same sound?

Only you can stop redundancy.

Let the letters raise their voices, and speak for themselves.

NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow and I am sooooooooooooooooooooo excited!!!

Last year, I fell epicly short of 50,000 words by about 47,500 words.

Yeah . . .

But this year I have new hope!

No, not Star Wars I/IV. 

Hope that I'll get ahead in my school work and crank out a 50,000+ word novel!