Wordsmith

A forum for examining the language of speech and writing.

Etiquette and character

You don't drink soup

Okay, so the Wordsmith is aware that some of you, even in public, raise the bowl or cup to your head (and if the dumpling and yam 'fasten' you hit the bottom of the cup), but people, we 'eat' soup, we don't 'drink' it. The same is true for porridge, whether it is thick or 'runny'. Once you need to apply a spoon or fork, then the appropriate verb is 'eat' .

While we are on the subject of soup and porridge, the eating vessel 'bowl' even though the last three letters rhyme with owl, fowl and howl, is pronounced like 'goal'.

Character

As often as we malign people's character is as often as we 'saaka saaka' the pronunciation of the word. We keep hearing even the erudite talk about someone's 'kya-RAK-ta' with emphasis on the second syllable 'rak'. Let's get it right. The word is properly pronounced using two syllables, not three- 'Kark-ta'. If you choose to pronounce the word using three syllables, as in 'Ka-rak-ta', the emphasis must be on the first syllable. Remember also, if you are speaking English, the first syllable is pronounced 'ka', and not 'kya'.

For questions and comments, email: the speechcoach-ja @yahoo.com.