From SZA to the Stone of Scone, the words that help tell the story of 2023 were often mispronounced
Some of the words related to this year's hottest topics were also among the most garbled when it came to saying them out loud, with stumbles ranging from the first name of “Oppenheimer” star Cillian Murphy to the singer SZA to the name of a sacred slab of sandstone used at the coronation of King Charles III.
This year's lists of the most mispronounced words in the US and Britain were released Thursday by online language learning company Babbel, which commissioned The Captioning Group in the US and the British Institute of Verbatim Reporters in Britain to compile the identify key words that are news anchors. that politicians and other public figures have struggled with.
Looking through the lists gives you a bit of an end-of-year overview that ranges from science to entertainment and politics. Babble teacher Malcolm Massey said he was struck by the diversity of the words, with words from different languages.
“I think a lot of this is due to how close-knit our cultures have become and how globalized things are,” Massey said.
SZA, who leads the nominations for the upcoming Grammys and whose “Kill Bill” was the second most streamed song on Spotify this year, made the U.S. list. Her name is pronounced SIZ-uh, according to the experts at Babbel, who say the first name of another entertainer on the list, the Irish actor who starred in this summer's hit as physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, is pronounced KI- lee-uhn .
Other statements included on the US list include:
– The name of biotech entrepreneur and Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, pronounced Vih-VAKE Rah-mah-SWAH-me.
– Two volcanoes: the Mexican Popocatepetl, pronounced Poh-poh-kah-TEH-peh-til, and the Hawaiian Kilauea, pronounced Kee-lou-EY-uh.
— The late Karl Lagerfeld's cat, Choupette, uttered the name SHOO-pet, which made headlines when the Met Gala honored the late Chanel designer.
The coronation of King Charles in May helped put the Stone of Scone, pronounced Stown uhv Skoon, on the British list and an honorable mention on the American list. The sacred slab on which ancient Scottish kings were crowned was located under the seat of the coronation chair when the crown was placed on Charles' head.
Other statements on the British list include:
— The word padam, pronounced PAD-dahm, comes from Kylie Minogue's summer hit 'Padam Padam', which refers to the sound of a heartbeat.
– Bharat, pronounced BUH-ruht, an old Sanskirt word meaning India in Hindi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government indicated this fall that Indians should abandon the name India and use the other official name Bharat instead.
The words mentioned highlight the topics that people have focused on enough over the past year “to really say something about,” said Kristie Denlinger, a lecturer in the linguistics department at the University of Texas at Austin. She said that being exposed to an unfamiliar word can ultimately help someone master it.
“Anything that's different than what a speaker is used to, they can learn how to pronounce things in a different way than they're used to, it just takes more attention,” Denlinger said.
Massey said that when learning a new pronunciation, it is important to “not emphasize perfection, but progress over time, so practice these words again and again.”
In some cases, the correct pronunciation is in the eye of the beholder. Earning a spot on the American list was the last name of Travis Kelce, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end whose relationship with Taylor Swift has made numerous headlines this fall. Whether Kelce should be pronounced with one or two syllables, Kels or KEL-See, has been a topic of debate even in his own family.
Both the four-time All-Pro tight end and his brother, Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce, pronounce their last names KEL-see. In an episode of their “New Heights” podcast, they discussed with their father, Ed Kelce, how that statement came about.
“I got tired of correcting people,” said Ed Kelce, who said his colleagues always called him KEL-see.
Jason Kelce then asks, “Should we go by Kels or KEL-see?” His father replies: “Do what you want, that's what I did.”