One of my client’s mentioned that when she was a high-school student in Canada, it was very uncommon for her teacher to correct her pronunciation.  She felt it would have helped her have better English today.  In wondering why that was, she asked whether native speakers correct one another’s pronunciation.

The correct pronunciation of words mostly occurs with foreign words.  If a person with a “foreign” name becomes famous, there will be much debate about how to pronounce the name correctly.  I recall this debate with Barack Obama when he began running for President, though many people now know his name.  Currently there is a lot of talk over how to correctly pronounce the name of the volcano erupting in Iceland.  Mount Eyjafjallajokull is not easy for a native speaker to say.  Foreign food and products are also frequently mispronounced.  Correcting someone can show that you are more worldly than others.

Most interestingly, is the mispronunciation is often attributed to social class.  I recall being taught to say “Joan saw my sister and I.” and not to say “Joan saw me and my sister.”  Both are grammatically correct.  There are some I was never taught such as “What kind of bird is that?” which apparently should be “What kind of a bird is that?”

Here is a list of words that apparently show class distinctions.  Native speakers of English will sometimes correct one another with the so-called correct pronunciation.  Correcting someone on these words can make you sound pretentious; perhaps that feeling was why my client was not often corrected during her high school days in Canada.

Word        Upper Class Pronunciation         Lower Class Pronunciation

asked                             askt                                         ast

coupon                         koo-pon                              kyoo-pon

escape                           es-kayp                               ek-skayp

fifth                                fifth                                        fith

height                            hIt                                         hItth

library                          laI-brer-ee                         li-ber-ee

nuclear                        noo-klee-*r                        noo-ky*-l*r

often                              of-*n                                    of-ten

toward                          tord                                      twahrd

*=schwa