In fact, that’s right. Think “Hrothgar” from Beowulf.
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That has to be a whole new category of linguistic anthropology when the mispronunciation of a word drives a misunderstanding of its intended usage, which then leads to the shifting of its intended purpose, which then leads to the legitimization of the original mispronunciation…
I wonder if it was a mispronunciation that led to it being called duct tape, though, or if it was just a natural evolution to start calling it duct tape when people started using it on ducts?
That’s odd, given that “fishes” is, in fact, the older plural. But then, it may have been only in studying biology (I forget if it was the intro marine biology course in college, or high school biology) that I became fully aware of the distinction.
Did she accept “peoples” as a word?
Ha, an example (though this is icelandic, but there ought to be a certain similarity). Skip to 0:50 .
They’re talking about Icelandic movies, including one called Hross í Oss - “Horses and Us”, I’d guess, though it’s translated as “Of Horses and Men”.
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Also that Yachats is not Ya-chetts (a like cat), but Ya-hots (a like father). “Ya-chets” got a hearty laugh from a girl I was visiting and trying to impress at the time. It didn’t work out.
I only know the east coast crazy pronunciations of place names derived from native american languages (Monongahela, Schuylkill or Conshohocken, anyone).
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