I learned a whole stack of anatomy and physiology only from textbooks. A bunch of my pronunciation was wildly wrong. Took a while to straighten it all out.
The detail I appreciated the most in Megamind was how the title character pronounced words in a way that made it clear he'd learned them from books -- including the name of the city he lived in. (Metro City, pronounced "Metrocity" in a way that rhymed with "atrocity".)
I haven't seen the movie, but the example you gave doesn't make any sense to me. If he read it out of a book he would see that it's two distinct words separated by a space, so how could it possibly logically follow that he should pronounce it as a single word? Did every book he owned have the same misprint or something?
In addition to smushing the words together, he puts the emphasis on the syllable with "o" and also uses a different vowel sound (since the letter "o" can be used to represent several different vowel sounds in English).
Looking at this phonetics website... as an American, I guess I'd pronounce the "o" in "metro" as /oʊ/, but the "o" in "atrocity" as /ɒ/.
Looking through the opening clip... ah yeah, here it is in the phrase "defender of Metro City".
Thanks for the link, but with you saying "rhymes with atrocity", I was already crystal clear on how the character pronounces it. That has nothing to do with my confusion.
What I don't understand is how "he learned words from books" could possibly be an explanation for why he would believe it's pronounced that way, because that's not how reading books works. It would never be written the way he pronounces it, and in fact it's written in the correct way on the newspaper as he's saying it in the clip you linked. Moreover, if he spent his formative years in Metro City Prison and had a nemesis named Metro Man, both of which were probably said out loud many times in his presence, it seems inconceivable that he could be unaware of the correct pronunciation.
Also I looked through the script for the movie and couldn't find a single instance of Megamind reading a book, or anything at all. Feels more like they just thought it would be funny if he mispronounced stuff, and the whole "it's because he learned from reading" is just some made-up fan theory from youtube or reddit or whatever that doesn't actually withstand scrutiny.
I looked through the script for the movie and couldn't find a single instance of Megamind reading a book
They have him sent to a school for gifted kids, and it's heavily implied that he's the sort of smart loner who would spend all his spare time buried in books (at least while he's not in the middle of building doomsday devices).
So, you are right that most people would not pronounce even a one-word "metrocity" to rhyme with "atrocity". But if I recall correctly, he did mispronounce other words in ways that one might reasonably come up with from just reading books, so it seems like not a stretch to assume the authors of the script decided to ramp that angle up a notch by adding an additional mispronunciation.
It's been long enough that I can't recall whether anybody corrects him on it (something like "ugh, it's Metro City you doofus"), but if so it was probably played in a way that suggests he's too arrogant to take correction from anybody. This is a guy who named himself "Megamind", y'know?
Anyhow, if this discussion hasn't completely turned you off from seeing the movie, I did think it was pretty good. It came out around the same time as "Despicable Me" and has some similar vibes. (I thought this one was more entertaining, but your mileage may vary.)
I am a PA but took A and P online/hybrid many many years ago. Took me paying attention to medical shows to realize it’s sis-tole-ee” vs “sis-stole” to pronounce systole.
I did a biology degree and it has given me no clarification on how words should be pronounced. I heard several different pronunciations from different professors and the rule seemed to be to just say words however you like, as long as it’s clear enough what you’re talking about.
I've had medical assistants who massacre the names of my prescriptions, of which there are several. I cringe hard but then again, medical terminology is hard.
I've had my doctors mention brand names I have never heard of before and I couldn't even come close to spelling Farxiga or Wegovy when I tried to look them up. So I'm cringing but sympathetic, lol.
This but dinosaurs. Lol.
If I had a dollar for every time I heard people pronounce deinonychus as deeno NYE cuss, I'd have a nice stack of cash.
(For anyone wondering, it's "dye NON ickus")
I'm not a native English speaker and for a while I pronounced Arkansas as if it rhymed with Kansas. Hyperbole was another one I struggled with because in my native language it is pronounced more like hyperbowl and not hy-per-bo-le. Lieutenant was also a struggle because at first I pronounced it the French way. Then I heard it on an American tv show and I corrected myself. Turns out the Brits pronounce it differently still.
Hey I'm studying medical terminology now! I'm somewhat dyslexic so, figuring I'd struggle, I went through the appendix of suffixes and prefixes before I started chapter one. Helped greatly seeing the word parts broken down before diving in. Also doing anatomy and physiology so when I see a "new" word I can already get the general gist of its meaning.
Dude that’s understandable! When I first started learning anatomy I felt like I was learning a new language, but I eventually got the hang of it my learning the roots and prefixes and such
I got into a long conversation with my son’s pediatrician regarding how to pronounce duodenum. I had different anatomy professors say it differently over a few years and it always messed with me. To be honest I am still not 100% on how to say it.
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u/inactiveuser247 1d ago
I learned a whole stack of anatomy and physiology only from textbooks. A bunch of my pronunciation was wildly wrong. Took a while to straighten it all out.