@fncll Nope, I was dead serious. For decades, I’d been puzzled about what I perceived as a strange mispronunciation but like an idiot, I’d never actually dug into the etymology. So when @patrickrhone pointed out a dictionary entry that explains its origin, I realized why segway makes perfect sense. I hereby stand corrected.
@rnv Always, always, always reach for the dictionary early. That’s why we have them. My mom, who constantly had to translate old public records for her work, taught me that.
@michaelsmanley You don’t want to know how many dictionaries I own, including a complete OED, as well as a short shelf of dictionaries of etymology — and how I often read them for fun. I’m getting more and more mortified by my original post. At least I’ve never been the sort to haughtily “correct” peoples’ grammar and pronunciation.
.... ”Segway as a trade name for an American company that produces electric transportation devices.”
Segway was bought by a Chinese company. Is Jaguar still English?
@rnv Yeah, me neither. I always assume I’m going to be wrong anyway. At least once a month either my wife or I will stumble over a word and have to admit we’ve never heard it pronounced, only ever read it.
@JohnPhilpin @herself Hyundai makes an SUV called the Santa Fe. There’s a Hyundai dealership in Santa Fe.
So… You could buy a Hyundai Santa Fe from the Santa Fe Hyundai.
@fncll I encountered “clique” in middle-school, and the teacher pronounced it kleek — which made me think of the Wonder Twins’ monkey side-kick.
@michaelsmanley As @fncll points out, this is a very common plight for introverted bookworms like us.
@rnv I think they say “kleek” here in NZ. The one that gets me is for some reason all our newscasters pronounce “debut” as “day-boo.” Drives me nuts!
@herself erk—self-correcting here. A friend told me on the weekend that to avoid using language that is disrespectful to mental health, they’ve stopped saying things like “that’s crazy” or “nuts”, etc. Now to be replaced with “bananas!” 😀🍌
@herself It was the self-consciously over-pronouncing it that was part of the problem, especially since another teacher said click. (Your “day-boo” reminds me of a story, but it'll have to wait a few days till I have a minute…)
@rnv @patrickrhone @fncil I just Googled “why is seque pronounced segway” and I got … porn. Now I want to Google “why do I get porn when I search for …” but I don’t think I’ll risk it. I’d have assumed that the “gue” was pronounced in the same way as in the word “intrigue” and, failing that, as in “Montague”. Peculiar language, English. Ah, I see: the Italian origin does make a difference — as in the different French and Italian pronunciations of “cinque”.
@herself I’m with you on the debut pronunciation weirdness! As a born & bred Kiwi I only began hearing it pronounced that way about 15 years ago on TV – I suspect some misguided soul figured that was the way to say it and others followed like sheep.
@Miraz, fyi, I don’t see @mikenz on MBKiwis
(Don’t ask me to explain how I stumbled upon these two facts…I’m not sure I can—but like all good Micro.blog strange linkages, @JohnPhilpin plays a role ;-) )
@smokey Thank you. He’ll be added when I next get on the computer. Always glad to have omissions etc pointed out. 😀
@smokey Ha - always good to pay attention and when you do - have attention to detail :-)
BTW - @Miraz the kiwi index is a great resource - which is why it is listed on my resources page.
A question to all others - is anyone else curating a list of Micro Bloggers based on living in country / country of origin - if so, send me the link and I will add it here
@JohnPhilpin …And I’ve been including Micro.communities on the Micro.wiki’s How do I find people and cool content!? page, too, often borrowing liberally from your Resources page :-)
@JohnPhilpin Loops are good (at least in this case)…the more places we have useful “find my people” links, the easier it will be for people to find their people 😃👍