you know what's not a word anymore? MOBILE

[etben]

Okay, internet: question time! How do you pronounce the word "mobile"?

(if it makes a difference, we're talking about the hanging sculpture-y things that you put over babies' beds to make them smarter or whatever.)

soundslikej and I have been going over this one for...a while...and we cannot decide, and now it's not even a WORD anymore, so we are turning to the internet to tell us how to talk good the english. HALP.

CLARIFICATION: J says "mo-beel"; I thought I said "mo-bile" but on further reflection "mo-bill" actually sounds a little better? But I would also understand "mo-beel" if somebody said it? AUGH WHY IS ENGLISH NONE OF THESE ARE EVEN WORDS ANYMORE A:LDJS:LDKAJDLSDJ:LAKDSJAS:LD.

Comments

[panisdead.livejournal.com]

/mo'bil/

[etben.livejournal.com]

huh! that's what J says, too; I think it sounds okay, but mobile-rhymes-with-while sounds better, to me.

BUT NONE OF THEM ARE WORDS ANYMORE AUGH AUGH WHY IS ENGLISH.

[sheafrotherdon.livejournal.com]

mobile-rhymes-with-while is definitely how we say it in Britain! and mo-beel is a town in Alabama.

[fleurdeliser.livejournal.com]

moe-beel for the hangy thing.

mo-bul for everything else, basically.

[desfinado.livejournal.com]

this is fascinating! I've never heard either before! and yet we live so close! hmmmmmmm

[etben.livejournal.com]

huh! fascinating! il seeing what everybody's distinctions are in terms of which definitions get which pronunciations...

[desfinado.livejournal.com]

LOL well you guys live in a very different region of the continent than I do, so there may be accents involved but I sayit moe(as in Moby)-bile(rhymes with "while")...?

LOL

GOOD LUCK

[etben.livejournal.com]

n, that is definitely what I say, too (although at this point, I'm honestly not sure what I say - they all sound equally NOT LIKE REAL WORDS).

[asmallbluedot.livejournal.com]

This is so confusing! I keep changing my own mind. My initial response was rhymes-with-while, but now I keep coming back to eel, and I... brain broken.

[etben.livejournal.com]

inorite? I would definitely know what somebody meant if they said any of the options I've heard thus far, but I have such a hard time deciding which one sounds right.

[janet-carter.livejournal.com]

Baby mobile is moe-beel, emphasis pretty close to even on both syllables. Close to automobile, depending on how you say that?

[misspamela.livejournal.com]

Ditto!

[etben.livejournal.com]

huh! I say it to rhyme with "while", but J is on your side. AND NONE OF THEM ARE WORDS ANYMORE SO IT DOESN'T MATTER ANYWAYS.

[janet-carter.livejournal.com]

Rhymes-with-while is how I'd say cell phone if I were pretending to be British! Or I might say the adjective mobile that way; I think I rhyme it with while or with global interchangeably?

I THINK THE GULF COAST OF ALABAMA MIGHT TAKE EXCEPTION WITH THIS DE-WORDING.

[etben.livejournal.com]

yeah, we just agreed that the adjective is mow-bile ("is it stationary? no, it's mow-bile!"), or at least it can be.

THE GULF COAST OF ALABAMA CAN SUCK ON IT. THEY'RE SENDING ME HURRICANES WHERE NO HURRICANES SHOULD BE; THEY DON'T GET TO HAVE WORDS.

[sheafrotherdon.livejournal.com]

mow-bile

[etben.livejournal.com]

I thought that was what I said, but on further reflection I maybe say "moe-bill" sometimes instead? ugh, English, why do you have to be so difficult?

[sheafrotherdon.livejournal.com]

well, there's mow-bile, hangy thing, and mow-beel, in Alabama, and mow-bull, as in a home that moves :D

[etben.livejournal.com]

oh, huh - it's definitely a mow-bill home, and mow-beel, AL...I'm just not sure about the other one.

(question: are mow-bill and mow-bull the same for you? inquiring minds, etc.)

[sheafrotherdon.livejournal.com]

Nope, different. I don't actually ever say mo-bill. Although I'd recognize it as meaning the movable house if someone said it to me.

[etben.livejournal.com]

huh! they're completely non-contrastive for me; I can hear a difference if I'm listening, but I would pronounce them exactly the same unless I were trying to show the distinction.

Language: it is weird! also awesome.

[chase-acow.livejournal.com]

This random Okie says it with a long 'i' with emphasis on the 'bile'.

[etben.livejournal.com]

huh! honestly, at this point I have no idea what I say; I'll have to check with myself first thing in the morning tomorrow. ENGLISH WUT.

[omphale]

So I just spent a ridiculous amount of time that I don't really have, trying to figure out how I say this word. And it turns out that I say mo-beel for the thing over a crib, but mo-bile for the movement, and mo-bill for the structure. Like, "That baby must be mo-bile, because she just pulled the damn mo-beel off the ceiling in my brother's mo-bill home."

And then I decided to crack open a PBR with my hamburger helper and watch project runway in mismatched socks and track pants. Because I'm obviously classy like that, and also because my other option was reading the first three chapters of my required AI programming textbook. Which...yeah. I should go do that now, I guess. Maybe the beer will make it more comprehensible.

[sansets]

*dies of laughter* I just spent a really long time coming to the EXACT SAME CONCLUSIONS. Apparently Northern and Southern Ohio are not as far apart linguistically on this matter as we are in other things. ♥

[etben.livejournal.com]

Huh, neat - that sounds good to me! mostly I just love hearing the sentences that everybody comes up with to make sense of things. Team Internet: always willing to help out with weird pronunciation questions.

[fox1013.livejournal.com]

I frequently almost make it three syllables, "mo-bee-uhl".

I did not realize that was weird til JUST NOW.

[etben.livejournal.com]

...yeah, that's weird. you're special! ♥

[angelsaves.livejournal.com]

mo-beel... i think? NOW I DON'T REMEMBER. semantic saturation >:(

[etben.livejournal.com]

inorite? the only thing I'm sure of is that mo-beel sounds weird to me, because that is what started this whole thing, but now I'm honestly not sure whether mow-bile or mow-bull sounds better. WORDS WHAT ARE THEY.

[happy-coconut.livejournal.com]

For the baby thing - mo-beel, for most everything else - mo-bill.

[idyll.livejournal.com]

I say "mo-beel!"

[speshope.livejournal.com]

It depends. It's a mo-bile phone, but when I'm walking, I am mobl. A baby mobile is a mo-beel.

...heh.

[etben.livejournal.com]

ooooh, mobl! so here's a question: would you pronounce mobl the same way as mow-bill and mow-bull? or are those all different sounds?

[speshope.livejournal.com]

it's closest to mow-bull, but the u is very, very small, much like how I say table or rubble. I've really enunciating, mow-bull is how it comes out, but if I'm really letting my country accent flag fly, it gets very squished together.

Maybe I say bull differently and that's where the confusion lies. Because bowl and bull are practically the same for me and not anything like the way I say words that end with b's l's and e's which is a very back of my throat 'ull' sort of sound that I'm sure there's a linguistic symbol for.

[entropical87.livejournal.com]

Mo-bile for the phone and the adjective, mo-bull for the home, and mo-beel for the twirly thing over a crib. I think there might be cross-contamination between mo-bile and mo-bull for me depending on which pronunciation sounds right in context, kind of like how "the" is changeable? But mo-beel is stable.

(Huh! fwiw, the dictionary on my computer offers only mo-beel as a pronunciation for the sculpture.)

[etben.livejournal.com]

huh! we looked it up online and came up with all three pronunciations, with no indication of which one mapped to which definition. WHICH IS THE WHOLE PROBLEM, because as the comments have illustrated, there are clearly differences in terms of which meanings get which pronunciations.

[torakowalski.livejournal.com]

"Mow-bile" for all situations!

[etben.livejournal.com]

huh, really! even if you were talking about a mobile home? since that's one that seems to different for a lot of people.

[torakowalski.livejournal.com]

Yep, mobile homes, mobile phones, mobile people, hanging mobiles... all pronounced exactly the same :)

[mayatawi.livejournal.com]

I would totally say mo-beel for the hangy thing, mo-bill for the adjective, and mo-byle for the phone. Though I think that last is influenced by too much British TV.

I say I'd say it that way, of course, but having three different pronunciations, I inevitably get confused about which one I mean...

[etben.livejournal.com]

god, right? I thought I said things one way, but now I've heard them all so many times that I have no idea which one I would actually say. Clearly I need to wait a month and then use the word in a sentence!

[bathsweaver.livejournal.com]

For the crib hangy-thiny: mo-BUL

For the cell phone: mo-BILE

For the city: mo-BEEL

For once the baby learns to scoot: mo-BUL

[etben.livejournal.com]

*__________________* god, English. WHAT IS EVEN YOUR DEAL.