You Say Tomato: An Amusing and Irreverent Guide to the Most Often Mispronounced Words in the English Language - Hardcover

Jackson, R. W.

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9781560257622: You Say Tomato: An Amusing and Irreverent Guide to the Most Often Mispronounced Words in the English Language

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1560257628 ISBN 13: 9781560257622

Publisher: Thunder's Mouth Press, 2005

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Ever wonder if "vase" is pronounced VASE or VAHZ? If "Pulitzer" is PYOO-lit-zer or PULL-it-ser? If "niche" is NITCH or NEESH?
Whether you're an articulation stickler or (like the rest of us) insecure with pronunciation, R. W. Jackson's You Say Tomato is sure to tickle and inform. With subtle, acerbic repartee, Jackson has created a diabolically funny dictionary of words that, as he gleefully points out, even our highest officials grapple with. Are you among the millions who cringe when George W. Bush pronounces "nuclear" as NOOK-lar? Are those TV news reports correct when they say SAW-di-Arabia? (It's SOW-di, right?) How can they be so nay-EEV?
Nothing is sacred with Jackson as lexicographer. He trains his sardonic sights on everything from political correctness to pop music, corporate culture to foreign policy, and reality shows to the right wing. Prepare yourself for a wickedly irreverent reading experience!

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About the Author:

R. W. Jackson is the author of THE DIABOLICAL DICTIONARY OF MODERN ENGLISH. His idols include Swift, Dr. Johnson, Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain, Dorothy Parker, P. G. Wodehouse, and George Carlin. He lives in Sun City, Arizona.

From Booklist:

Word geeks everywhere will delight in this 700-word pronunciation guide, which is intended to take readers through the "murky phonological corridors where words such as 'Aesop' and 'anchovy,' 'viva voce' and 'synecdoche' lie in wait to trip the tongue fantastic." Given in alphabetical order, entries list the word, its phonetic spelling, its part of speech, and a definition with decidedly snarky overtones. Acumen (uh-KYOO-mun), for instance, is defined as "a quality mysteriously absent from homogenized twenty-first-century studentry (except in the area of cheating)." Jackson, also the author of The Diabolical Dictionary of Modern English (1986), displays the kind of irreverent wit that will appeal to fans of George Carlin. And in between providing chuckles, he relays some surprisingly useful information (note to self: forte is pronounced "FORT" not "For-tay"). In addition to its high browsing appeal, this little tome should come in handy for all who wish to wield language with a certain savoir faire (sav-wahr FAR). Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright � American Library Association. All rights reserved

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