Say What? Common Mispronunciations that Get My Goat

We have all experienced it; it is even "discussed" in Ira & George Gershwin's song "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off". Usually, it's not a big deal, but on occasion a mispronunciation just cuts me to the core. I don't know why really, it just does. Often, I can chalk it up to regional dialects. Things like pecan: 'pE-"kan in the south but pi-'kän most everywhere else in the country, bother me but not to the point of making my skin crawl. I tell myself it is a dialect issue, not really a mispronunciation. That being said, here is my top five list of mispronunciations that get my goat.

Number One:

Italian; I.E. Italian Dressing. The word Italian is correctly pronounced i-tal-yen, not as some people seem to think, eye-`tal-yen. People of Italian dissent hail from I-ta-ly not from Eye-ta-ly. Why this mispronunciation is so common is beyond me but I simply can't take it.

Number Two:

Apricot; app-re-cot. An apricot is an orange colored fruit similar to a peach. I have no idea what an ape-re-cot is, but apparently it is often confused for an app-re-cot. [Insert sarcasm here please.]

Number Three:

Illinois. Correctly pronounced, the S is silent, i-le-noi, not, i-le-noiz , as so many people seem to think. This falls in with Filet, pronounced Fa-lay not Fill-et. Silent consonants are not only common in the English language, but commonly mispronounced.

Number Four:

Axe. I can already hear the outrage over this being included in my list. Get over it already, incorrect is incorrect. An Axe is a tool and the word axe is a noun, not a verb as in "I axed you a question". No; you didn't, not unless you used a hatchet or similar implement to cut a question out of a tree. If however, you would like to ASK me a question, I'll be glad to try to give you an answer.

Number Five:

Cousin. A cousin is a child of one's uncle or aunt and the word cousin does not contain the letter "T" that so many people insist on placing after the letter "N". Your aunt's daughter is your cousin, not, your cousinT.