Pronunciation problems

Last Tuesday, when I met my friends (we usually meet on Tuesdays), the topic somehow came up about how there are various words we know but don't know how to pronounce, having seen them in writing but never heard them spoken. We were talking about how this can be a trap in Japan, if you've been here too long and don't hear much 'native' English spoken.

For me it is even more of a trap. I grew up without TV or radio, and liked to read (although I was supposed to grow up without books as well - I found ways around THAT one, believe me). Then I had five or six years when I watched TV all the time, and then I came to Japan and pretty soon was never watching it, because local TV is such rubbish (and anyway it was Japanese, not English). And then we got cable, with such wonderful things as BBC World and Discovery and Fox and so on, but I was out of the habit by then and it was too late. (Where do people find the TIME to watch TV? I don't understand it.)

Anyway, in the course of this conversation one of my friends happened to mention that she had been mispronouncing impious for years.

"Really?" I said. "What does it mean?"

And then I thought about it and realised what it meant and said, "REALLY? IS THAT HOW YOU PRONOUNCE IT? YOU'RE NOT MAKING IT UP?"

I had no idea! I'd always pronounced it more or less like impiety, only with a different ending! Thank goodness it's not a word my students have ever asked me how to pronounce.

Impious

Impiety

(Both of the above links have audio.)

But at least I knew the pronunciation of indict when my students challenged me on it. Their professor had told them that 'most Americans' didn't know how to pronounce it. I pronounced it perfectly, smugly informed them that I was not American (they were SHOCKED), and immediately felt guilty for perpetrating the stereotype. I am now taking this opportunity to apologize to all Americans who know how to pronounce indict, and to rap the knuckles of every Kiwi who doesn't.