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I dislike it when self-proclaimed guardians of language become curmudgeonly and start going on about how people today should stop talking the way they do. I especially dislike it when the curmudgeon is me. Here I go.
I think people should stop pronounced ‘or’ as if it’s a long ‘o’. I can tell you when I first noticed this. It’s in a Toyota commercial now on TV. Remember, Toyota’s slogan is “Moving Forward” (Jon Stewart pointed out the irony of this slogan for cars accused of sudden acceleration). But the guy on TV says something much more like “Moving Foe-ward.”
Having become attuned to this, of course I hear it everywhere. My least favorite baseball announcer, who is paired with my most favorite baseball announcer most days, will say something like “fast ball on the outside coe-ner.” It’s part of his whole Mississippi good ol’ boy persona, and even he doesn’t do it all the time.
Please stop, everyone. Thank you.
This has been a curmudgeonly rant. We now resume our regular programming.
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