that says marine corps as how its spelled not (core) Perhaps he's only talking about dead Marines? Both my parents are flattening the "-er" in things like "drawer" ane "error." I don't know where this came from, but suddenly we're keeping things in "draws" and making "eras" when we're careless ... grrr! I can't distinguish between "drawers" and "draws" (/dr?:z/). Surely you don't say something like /dr?:r?:z/, do you? A common difference in pronuncation I hear is with the word, 'philanthropist'. I pronounce this word with a long 'a' and a 'u' for the 'o'. Does that make sense? Many pronunciation websites say it this way too with their 'soundclips'. But I have heard many pronounce it with a short 'a' and short 'o'. It should have a short 'a' and either a short 'o' or a schwa...I suspect your 'u' is actually a schwa, but when you say "long 'a'", do you mean long-as-in-length (i.e., what are called "long vowels" in sensible languages, like Latin and Greek -- /a:/) or long as in what English speakers for some inexplicable reason call "long" vowels (which are completely different vowels and dipthongs -- /e?/)? I'd find it hard to say with either... "Arctic" was actually borrowed into English from the Latin word "articus" (note the lack of a 'c' before the 't'). The Latin word, however, comes from the Greek word "arktikos". At some point, the powers that be decided to add a silent 'c' to the spelling to be more