Pronunciation watch

[Lateralthinking1]

It's usually the noun hypercorrection that's used, and it is a useful concept, nearly always the result of anxiety about being wrong (as mentioned earlier) for which there isn't really another term.

I am sure that's what's responsible for examples such as this, which is found as early as 1856:

Cockney hairdresser
“They say, sir, the cholera is in the hair, sir”
“Indeed! ahem! Then I hope you’re very particular about the brushes you use.”
“Oh, I see, you don’t hunderstand me, sir - I don’t mean the ’air of the ed, but the hair hof the hatmosphere.”

But I'm not sure it's quite the same as the pronunciation of the name for the letter.

Thank you for this, Jean. Interesting and amusing - but I would agree that it isn't quite the same as the pronunciation of the name for the letter. I am also concerned that "hypercorrection" is being used wrongly by the BBC. Surely it means "overcorrection" whereas the Pronunciation Unit is referring to individuals being made to say "aitch" and then making similar errors because of anxiety, for example "hunderstand". I don't see how that in any sense could be overly correct but it is an excuse for being wrong!

[french frank]

I am sure that's what's responsible for examples such as this, which is found as early as 1856:

It is slightly different from those examples as there is a perceived genuine anomaly with 'aitch' which, unlike other letters, does not reflect the spoken sound at all.

'Chimley' and suchlike reminds me of the very interesting Appendix Probi - an anonymous Latin document pointing out 'incorrect' Latin pronunciations, as commonly heard in spoken Latin. It's of interest to linguists because it shows that 'incorrect' pronunciations took hold and gave rise to much that explains a number of modern forms in the Romance languages. It's a sort of Missing Link.

[jean]

What one considers hypercorrection depends on what one considers correct.

I am irritated by linguists who describe aspiration in words like who, which, what, as hypercorrection. In fact, it is standard in Irish speech.

I do it because I get it from my Irish mother. I am not hypercorrecting, thank you very much.

[Lateralthinking1]

Yes, good points. I will tell you how I perceive hypercorrection. It is when someone has been told not to speak in a sloppy way and overcompensates so that improved speech sounds very unnatural. It is a pity that the BBC believes it means making greater error.

[french frank]

What one considers hypercorrection depends on what one considers correct.

I am irritated by linguists who describe aspiration in words like who, which, what, as hypercorrection. In fact, it is standard in Irish speech.

I do it because I get it from my Irish mother. I am not hypercorrecting, thank you very much.

But I think hypercorrect means forms which people choose carefully because they think they are the correct ones - 'between you and I'. Whether there is a word for usages which people deliberately use to avoid sounding posh I don't know: 'Me and my friend are going to the cinema tonight ...'

I keep meaning to check the rules on 'which' and 'that'. I'm always writing one and then changing it when I read it over. No idea which would be 'correct'

PS ON my previous one, for 'letters' read 'consonants'

[french frank]

It is a pity that the BBC believes it means making greater error.

I don't know about a 'greater' error, but in the specialised linguistics usage, hypercorrection does involve making an error because the 'standard' form seems in some way wrong to the speaker.

[Lateralthinking1]

But I think hypercorrect means forms which people choose carefully because they think they are the correct ones - 'between you and I'. Whether there is a word for usages which people deliberately use to avoid sounding posh I don't know: 'Me and my friend are going to the cinema tonight ...'

I keep meaning to check the rules on 'which' and 'that'. I'm always writing one and then changing it when I read it over. No idea which would be 'correct'

PS ON my previous one, for 'letters' read 'consonants'

If the first is true, it isn't a good word unless 'hyper' means something other than 'over'? The prefix that seems more apt is 'pseudo'. I note that the word was first in Collins in 1991. That is telling. From the United States/Hollywood by any chance?

I don't know 'which' from 'that' and only use the former if I have written several of the latter. 'Of which' feels easier. There is also 'that' which follows 'which' - "We need to drive the snow plough". "Which one?" "That which we discussed this morning". Could it be that the order in this usage is informative? Just a guess and probably not right but I don't know how they are supposed to work.

[Flosshilde]

There is also 'that' which follows 'which' - "We need to drive the snow plough". "Which one?" "That which we discussed this morning".

That might be 'correct', but it sounds rather stilted & artificial. I would say 'The one we discussed this morning'. Or even 'The one we talked about this morning'.

[Lateralthinking1]

I don't know about a 'greater' error, but in the specialised linguistics usage, hypercorrection does involve making an error because the 'standard' form seems in some way wrong to the speaker.

Yes, thank you.

The more I consider the word, the more I feel it has a colloquial tone. 'Hyperactive' is also a behavioural word and has (mild) connotations of being active 'to a fault'. I think that the notion of 'to a fault' might well have crossed over to 'hypercorrection'. However, whereas 'hyperactive' means 'overactive', 'hypercorrection' does not mean 'overcorrection'. It almost means the opposite. That is unfortunate given 'hyper' means 'over' or 'overly' and the word is being used specifically in linguistics. One wouldn't expect a poorly derived faddish word there. It reminds me slightly of the phrase "please get the pronownciation right".

[french frank]

If the first is true, it isn't a good word unless 'hyper' means something other than 'over'?

Wiki says of the prefix hyper: "A prefix often used in scientific and technical words, to denote something above or beyond the usual, normal, expected, or healthy level. Sometimes used to mean extreme or specifically "more than super-".

I'm not sure, hypercorrectly about 'more than super' since hyper and super are the Greek and Latin cognates of the same word. Still, people take all sorts of liberties with language and we do have supermarkets and hypermarkets.

[Lateralthinking1]

Wiki says of the prefix hyper: "A prefix often used in scientific and technical words, to denote something above or beyond the usual, normal, expected, or healthy level. Sometimes used to mean extreme or specifically "more than super-".

I'm not sure, hypercorrectly about 'more than super' since hyper and super are the Greek and Latin cognates of the same word. Still, people take all sorts of liberties with language and we do have supermarkets and hypermarkets.

Hmmm. I accept the point but 'something beyond the normal or expected level' is at best a disingenuous euphemism for error. Error is not the same as, say, 'in extremis'. I suppose there is a link with 'overreaching' in all its meanings - a person who attempts to correct speech can 'overreach'; a hypermarket has more of a high ceiling about it than a supermarket - it is 'overreaching' as in the sense of 'expansive' or 'all encompassing'. Anyhow, no English person who ended their days during WW1 would have known it.

Apparently, it is Danish/American -

1922 O. JESPERSEN Lang. xv. 294 Such hypercorrect forms are closely related to those ‘spelling pronunciations’ which become frequent when there is much reading of a language whose spelling is not accurately phonetic. 1937 Amer. Speech XII. 167 When James the footman says chicking for ‘chicken’ he is being hypercorrect, leaning over backward to be correct. 1972 Archivum Linguisticum III. 4 Modern authors have focussed on the [French] imperfect subjunctive as a hypercorrect grammatical form and have used it to characterize or satirize the pedantic and the pretentious.

And then American/German? -

Hence hyperco{sm}rrection, -co{sm}rrectness.
1934 WEBSTER, Hypercorrection, -ness. 1935 Language XI. 143 It is only by unceasing vigilance that hyper~correction can be avoided by one whose native dialect has this phonological feature and who wishes to correct it. 1955 Archivum Linguisticum VII. 142 Phonemic interference may be due to..phone substitution and hyper~correctness. 1959 M. SCHLAUCH Eng. Lang. in Mod. Times vi. 167 The zeal of social inferiors for hyper~correctness. 1964 H. KÖKERITZ in D. Abercrombie et al. Daniel Jones 141 Salmon..tends to become [{sm}s{fata}m{schwa}n] by hypercorrection. 1972 Language XLVIII. 484 Hyper~corrections like tesk, mast (for ‘mask’) seem to establish that tes, mas are full forms in NNE and not stylistic reductions.

And then American -

Labov, William. 1966. "Hypercorrection by the Lower Middle Class as a Factor in Linguistic Change". In Sociolinguistics: Proceedings of the UCLA Sociolinguistics Conference, 1964. William Bright, ed. Pp. 84-113. The Hague: Mouton.

[jean]

Lat, I think you are focussing too much on hypercorrect as an adjective.

If you think of hypercorrect as a verb, with hypercorrection the noun derived from it, it makes more sense - just as if I tell you you're wrong I am properly said to be correcting you, even if you are actually right and I'm wrong myself.

[french frank]

Lat, I think you are focussing too much on hypercorrect as an adjective.

If you think of hypercorrect as a verb, with hypercorrection the noun derived from it, it makes more sense - just as if I tell you you're wrong I am properly said to be correcting you, even if you are actually right and I'm wrong myself.

Yes, and in any case, it simply has to be accepted that in linguistics that is the term that is used for a particular phenomenon. Just as in a commercial sense a hypermarket is said to differ from a supermarket. Strictly speaking it can't - but it does. Hyper is greater than super even though it's the 'same' word. It's just jargon, but jargon that has a significance in a specific sphere.


Hmmm... That is the term which is used ...? I've done it again

[jean]

..."That which we discussed this morning"...

Or of course (though it doesn't fit too well in this context) we could have "What we discussed this morning", though such is the fear of sounding like a Sun headline that non-interrogative uses of what are fast disappearing.

[Lateralthinking1]

Lat, I think you are focussing too much on hypercorrect as an adjective.

If you think of hypercorrect as a verb, with hypercorrection the noun derived from it, it makes more sense - just as if I tell you you're wrong I am properly said to be correcting you, even if you are actually right and I'm wrong myself.

Thank you for the clarification.

To this day, I can remember two of the three words that my infant and junior school teachers 'corrected' wrongly in my writing - 'easal' and 'rythm'. Incredibly, those were their spellings - and I could find the third. The books are in my loft. Hypercorrection!