By Tabitha Bozeman
A friend and I were talking about archipelagos today. Well, we were actually discussing how we both mispronounced the word for years as “ARK’-uh-puh-LAH-go.” It is actually pronounced “ark-uh-PEHL-ago.” This made me think of an Instagram video I saw a while back where a woman admits she’d spent years mispronouncing “chamomile” (KAM-mo-mil) as “shuh-MOM-ilay.”
Our discussion about what words we mentally mispronounced sent me down a rabbit hole on Reddit, and some of the words people generously admitted to mispronouncing are absolutely hysterical. There are the unsurprising (at least for English teachers) words like “hyperbole,” often pronounced by students as “HY’per-bowl” rather than “hy-PER-boe-lee,” and “EX-press-oh” rather than “ES-spress-oh,” but I was in tears at some of the examples people posted.
There are some strong opinions regarding pronunciation, and I get it: the way we say a word can not only impact our spelling, it can also impede understanding and communication. However, some differences in pronunciation and usage are just the nature of speaking a dynamic language, and of that language being cobbled together from many other languages, giving us many options in our communication.
The phrase “cobbled together” is one I have always loved, and I wondered why as I typed it. I think it is most likely that it is just made up of words that have positive connotations. “Together” is a word that rarely has negative usage. Instead, it denotes cooperation, companionship, and company. People get together, have get-togethers, and do things together. And, “cobble” makes me think of fairy tales and little cabins in the woods, or of hot deserts filled with fruits and sugar. I also love a good cobblestone road in front of a bookstore. So, “cobbling something together” sounds slightly misshapen in a homey, comforting way to me.
I also think “cobbled-together” is a good way to describe a lot of the daily living we do. Most of us have some short and long term goals that we are working toward, but our daily and weekly lives tend to be a little more on the cobbled-together side. We have to try and set schedules and keep up with appointments and make last minute adjustments and fit in work and play and family and hobbies and so much stuff. But, that’s just part of this journey we are all on.
Which reminds me that I have decided to stop referring to it as a “journey” because that automatically reduces living to only the destination. Instead, I am considering it a saunter. When we saunter, we have time to stop and admire the gardening, or sit on a bench and look at the view, or chat with others on the same path because we aren’t all out of breath from trying to travel from Point A to Point B as quickly and efficiently as possible. Those continual adjustments and detours and changes can be challenging to navigate, and often they are frustrating if we are only focused on some sort of imaginary, ideal, perfect way to “do” life.
Reality is much less neat and organized than it is messy and surprising and cobbled-together. In many ways, the shifts and changes in spoken language mirror the cobbled-together-ness of life in general. Life and language are always changing, and we often have to adjust. The key is to adjust in ways that allow for more togetherness and less Othering and judging because we are all sauntering through this life on intersecting, sometimes parallel, paths.
I recently read a book called Enlightened by Sarah Perry that looks at several characters trying to cobble together lives and find happiness and fulfillment amidst the unexpected, unknown and unsaid. I won’t spoil the read in case anyone is interested–it is a gorgeous and compelling story. But, one thing I loved about it was that it is a celebration of the beauty that can be found in the cobbled-together-ness of ordinary, everyday lives and relationships. It was a lovely reminder of how the daily adjustments are just as important as future, potential goals.
While reading the litany of pet peeves regarding pronunciation online, I learned a few things — my favorite is that a dialect or preferred pronunciation of words by individuals is known as an idiolect. This made me laugh because at first glance, it looks like “idiot-lect.” which I think many of those complaining online would be happy with. But, it is actually referring to individual speech habits, not a commentary on someone’s level of intelligence.
This is a new-to-me term, and I love it because it shifts the focus from someone being “wrong” to someone being “unique.” On this path through life, when there is so much pressure to conform, remembering that it is the cobbled-together nature of our saunter through this life that is what lends it beauty and meaning, it helps to remember that Ralph Waldo Emerson’s reminder, “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
Tabitha Bozeman is an instructor at GSCC. Email at tabithabozeman@gmail.com.
