There are a lot of foreign words in the English language that Americans have adopted over the generations. A lot more than we realize, actually.
Some of them have become so common that we’ve forgotten they’re not part of our native language. Others words still feel very foreign to many of us, in spite of the fact that we’ve had them in our dictionary for centuries.
Those are often the less common words that we are not throwing around in our everyday speech. When words are used sporadically rather than frequently, we don’t get as much opportunity to master them.
Foreign Words Make Up Most Of The English Language
It’s shocking to hear, but foreign words in the English language cover about 80% of the total number of words, according to dictionary.com. In fact, what we know as American English is actually mostly words borrowed from approximately 350 other languages.
The languages most dominant in American English are German, Italian, Spanish, Latin, and French. But our dictionary also has plenty of less common languages present. Including Urdu, Yiddish, and Zulu, dictionary.com reports.
Related: Lost In Translation – 7 Common Misused Phrases
With so many words coming from languages that aren’t our own, it only makes sense we might struggle with pronunciations. After all, these words often follow different phonetic rules than American English words do.
Study Shows Top Mispronounced Words In Nevada
A group of translation experts at localazy.com recently did a study to find out which foreign words in the English language residents in each state are least comfortable with. Specifically, which words residents are most likely to mispronounce. And they found the top five for us in Nevada.
They did this by flagging common words that were googled every month in conjunction with words like “pronunciation” or “meaning”. And identified which words were most often searched for like this in our state.
What they could indicate from this study was which foreign words in the English language were the ones people needed the most help with understanding. Or, more specifically, pronouncing.
A close up shot of a dictionary page that shows the definition of the word “irony”. Isn’t it ironic. Don’t you think? (Photo by aga7ta/Getty Images)
The ironic thing about Nevadans mispronouncing anything is the fact that we get so annoyed if someone says the name of our state incorrectly. I wonder if there is a YouTube video of someone pronouncing the word “hypocrisy”?
Look at that. There is. I found this by googling “how to pronounce hypocrisy”. If I had been part of this study, localazy.com would have just added a check to “hypocrisy” column.
Side note: this Julien Miguel guy is a fun one to learn pronunciations from. He’s not quick about it by any means.
But he reminds me of Esteban Vihaio in Kill Bill 2. So you will see his translations more when we get down to our list.
The Proper Way To Pronounce “Nevada”
So, while tourists are butchering the name of our state, some of us are butchering words from other regions. And round and round we go.
For those still confused about how to pronounce Nevada, here you go. Straight from the mouths of the Vegas-born band, The Killers.
It’s Nevada. Not Nevahda.
As a Vegas local, I can tell you it’s very annoying when someone says the latter. It’s actually an inside joke we use when we’re talking about out-of-towners.
But, considering how many foreign words we are allegedly guilty of killing ourselves, perhaps we should show a little more understanding.
With that being said, here are the results of the study by localazy.com.
Top 5 Foreign Words In The English Language Most Often Mispronounced By Nevadans
