DEAR WORD COURT: Recently you were talking about "metal," "mettle," "meddle" and "medal" all sounding alike. A couple of days ago "Jeopardy" had a category of "silent L" words, and most of them I ...

Students and teachers who chose to keep their ethnic names usually run into an irritating obstacle: pronunciation. Acquaintances might be willing to try to learn the correct accent but ...

It’s only one syllable, but it’s enough to make Gonzaga fans throughout the country cringe. Gon-ZAH-ga. Anyone who knows the school will tell you- it’s “Go Zags, not Go Zogs.” So where does the ...

My colleague, Dr. Washington, and I were probably among the first group people who suggested an early “Obama victory Party” before anybody else. Mr. Obama got our attention, our contribution and our ...

A spelling bee combines all the worst aspects of childhood except compulsory rope-climbing. As a contestant, you must stand up and, under pressure, spell impossible words in front of adults under a ...

Related video above: 'Jeopardy!' Masters host Ken Jennings talks about new show"Jeopardy" had a pronunciation problem on Tuesday's episode.All three contestants lost out when they mispronounced the ...

Kirsten Dunst, the acclaimed actress, recently revealed the long-mispronounced truth about her name. It's "Keersten," not "Kirst-in," a nod to her German heritage. After years of corrections, Dunst ...

Call it “reader’s ear.” Sometimes, it’s a tin ear. Reader’s ear is an affliction suffered by those of us who gather most of our information by reading, as opposed to listening. We may see a word in ...

Should there be an official commission that decides thorny pronunciation questions about North Carolina places and names? You know – towns such as Clinton, Kure Beach, Chalybeate Springs and counties ...

In the case of professor John McWhorter, he is also wrong. The reality is that “ax” versus “ask” and other idiomatic faux pas have nothing to do with ethnicity. Two far more damaging problems are ...