said "phenomenons" instead phenomena for the plural. She responded to my email quite contritely and politely. Michael on February 4, 2011 1:01 pm Wow, I see how someone can pick up bad pronunciations. I have lived in several states and the language, the approach to language has varied in each state. I definitely have picked up some of these bad habits. In Boston, most people never say route (rout) but say route (root). It's funny when I hear people outside of Massachusetts mispronounce Worcester (Wister) as war-ches-tar. venqax on February 4, 2011 1:38 pm Well, that's a problem with dictionaries, especially the "populist" ones that track usage rather than propriety. In their defense, they say so up front. Some in the US are, in the same spirit of chaos, listing noo-kyoo-ler and "irregardless" as "alternative" pronunciation as well. Usually with a mild admonition like "often considered non-standard" or "colloquial", like it's dialectical thing. So everyone gets an A and no one feels inferior. Let's do structural engineering that way too! I have some really interesting bridge and tunnel designs, and I haven't been corrupted by those snobbish, elitist, math and physics nazis who try to tell everyone else that THEIR ideas of gravity and stress llimitations and such are better than ordianary folks'. I think you need to look further into more authoritative scholarly, sources, not just ones aimed at a popular, lay audience. Like you would for sophisticated knowledge on any subject. That's something I admire about Elster, Bernstein,