Homophones and Homographs

[Jamie123]

"Steak President" made me think of this:

Homophones are words which sound the same but are written differently. They can sometimes be mildly amusing:

• "Steak President".
• "Plank's Constant". I used this spelling consistently throughout my own dissertation and no one noticed - not even my adviser who I happen to know got a first* from Cambridge! (In mathematics though, not spelling.)
• Poster outside a church: "If it's just For Weddings and a Funeral (same font as the Hugh Grant movie) you're missing out"
• Have you read "Lord Fowl's Bane" by Stephen R. Donaldson? (brilliant book by the way - Thomas Covenant has to fight a gigantic bird to save The Land from the dreadful ur Pigeons.)

Homographs are words which are spelled (but not necessarily sounded) alike:

• "She was only a whisky-maker's daughter, but he loved her still."
• Stan Laurel: "You can lead a horse to water but a pencil must be lead."

Probably the most irritating homograph (for me) is "router". As in: "I just bought a new router for my woodworking business!" "Oh, I guess you'll be able to connect to Wi-Fi there now!"

Now this is a router: it rhymes with "shooter"...

And this is a router: it rhymes with "shouter", "doubter" and "pouter"...

The words are homographs. They are NOT NOT NOT NOT homophones!!!!

And the next time someone tells me they want to include a woodworking tool in their network, I might just murder them.

* A "first" is roughly what you Americans call "summa cum laude". In the UK we use the more prosaic term "first class honours". (There are also second and third class honours as well as degrees awarded without honours.)

Edited July 11, 2016 by Jamie123

[NeedleinA]

@Jamie123 Thanks for the insight, now I must go reevaluate my supposed "computer skills" as I have always called a computer networking device a: router (shouter, doubter, pouter)

1. Having read a sentence out of context, I've screwed this one up before: bass

Others that have caught me off guard before: entrance, minute, project, wind

2. My wife and I jokingly use "Honey Bear" with each other

3. Last one:

 

Edited July 11, 2016 by NeedleinA

[NeuroTypical]

7 hours ago, Jamie123 said:

Now this is a router: it rhymes with "shooter"...

And this is a router: it rhymes with "shouter", "doubter" and "pouter"...

Are you serious?  I've hung out with techies and watched videos for two decades, and I've never ever heard someone pronounce a wireless router 'rooter'.   Like, hundreds of it people in 5 different states and 4 countries.  

[NeedleinA]

1 hour ago, NeuroTypical said:

Are you serious?  I've hung out with techies and watched videos for two decades, and I've never ever heard someone pronounce a wireless router 'rooter'.   Like, hundreds of it people in 5 different states and 4 countries.  

I wonder if today is the equivalent of "April Fools Day" in the UK and @Jamie123 is pulling our leg

[NeuroTypical]

But... but... the topic is so important!

[NeedleinA]

3 minutes ago, NeuroTypical said:

But... but... the topic is so important!

I think you meant, "Butt...butt...the topic is so important!"

[zil]

37 minutes ago, NeedleinA said:

I wonder if today is the equivalent of "April Fools Day" in the UK and @Jamie123 is pulling our leg

Or maybe in the UK, they do pronounce the networking device as "rooter" (like they call a lever a "leaver").

[zil]

4 hours ago, NeedleinA said:

Others that have caught me off guard before: entrance, minute, project, wind

Prophecy vs prophesy?

[NeuroTypical]

49 minutes ago, zil said:

Or maybe in the UK, they do pronounce the networking device as "rooter" (like they call a lever a "leaver").

Yep - and they call a car's trunk a "boot" (or "butt", if ya listen to NeedleInA...)

[Jamie123]

15 hours ago, NeuroTypical said:

Are you serious?  I've hung out with techies and watched videos for two decades, and I've never ever heard someone pronounce a wireless router 'rooter'.   Like, hundreds of it people in 5 different states and 4 countries.  

You're quite correct - people call it a "rowter" all the time and it drives me mad!!!!!

I'm being ironic of course: different areas have their own pronunciations, but we all like to think ours is the CORRECT version.

There seem to be two kinds of American: the ones who say "rooter" and the ones who say "rowter". My wife (who is from Maine) is a "rooter" person.

The "proper" UK pronunciation is "rooter", but many people nowadays say "rowter" because they've been watching youtube videos made by "rowter Americans".

AND IT MAKES ME SO MAD!!!!! ;)

Edited July 12, 2016 by Jamie123

[LeSellers]

2 minutes ago, Jamie123 said:

My wife (who is from Maine) is a "rooter" person.

And that is why they call themselves "Mainiacs".

Lehi

[NeuroTypical]

27 minutes ago, Jamie123 said:

The "proper" UK pronunciation is "rooter", but many people nowadays say "rowter" because they've been watching youtube videos made by "rowter Americans".

I believe you, but I'm still amazed.  Singapore, India, Malaysia - all have workforces that largely speak Great Britain English, taught by GBE speaking teachers.  I've been talking to them for 15 years, and I've only heard them say 'rowter'.  

[theSQUIDSTER]

Every plumber knows a "rowter" is that thing you have in your van that tells you which way to turn at the intersection.  A "rooter" is what you use when you finally get there and need something that'll clear out the clogged drain.

[LeSellers]

19 minutes ago, theSQUIDSTER said:

A "rooter" is what you use when you finally get there and need something that'll clear out the clogged drain.

Rooter comes from the fact that sewer lines (the most often clogged) leak water (by design) and attract tree roots (which actually grow into and inside of the sewer pipe itself) and so need to be rootered, that is, have the roots cut away.

Lehi

Edited July 12, 2016 by LeSellers

[NeedleinA]

13 minutes ago, LeSellers said:

Rooter comes from the fact that sewer lines (the most often clogged) leak water (by design) and attract tree roots (which actually grow into and inside of the sewer pipe itself) and so need to be rootered, that is, have the roots cut away.

Lehi

Someone put this man on Jeopardy already! 

Edited July 12, 2016 by NeedleinA

[estradling75]

Root  --- The part of a tree that is in the ground

Route --  A path or direction of travel

Rooter -- A device for removing tree roots

Router -- A device that defines and control the path or direction data direction travels on a computer network.

It seems really easy to me to see what pronunciation makes more sense

 

[LeSellers]

7 minutes ago, NeedleinA said:

Someone put this man on Jeopardy already! 

Slow reaction time.

Lehi

[LeSellers]

6 minutes ago, estradling75 said:

Root  --- The part of a tree that is in the ground

Route --  A path or direction of travel

Rooter -- A device for removing tree roots

Router -- A device that defines and control the path or direction data direction travels on a computer network.

It seems really easy to me to see what pronunciation makes more sense

The problem is that while "root" is almost universally "rōōt" and only occasionally "rught", "route" is pronounced both "route" and "rōōt", just as "roof" is pronounced "rōōf" and "rughf" (some people pronounce the plural as "rughfs" rather than "rōōves").

So router and rooter could be homophones in either of two ways, although most dictionaries (at least USA English dictionaries) give only rowter and rōōter.

Lehi

 

[theSQUIDSTER]

and if this wasn't confusing enough... enuf?  enoof?   ... apparently Roto-Rooter is the company that pulls homeless chileans out of your pipes...  which I condemn in the strongest terms.... Nobirdy deserves that kind of tweatment... err... noboody desolves that kind of....

 

well... nevermind...