Mispronounciations

[davidlevine]

I just learned the other day that I have been mispronouncing another brand name. The marketing departments at the phone companies Verizon (which I persistently pronounce verry-ZAHN rather than ve-RYE-zon) and Quest (queue-WEST vs. QUEST) and PalmOne, makers of the low-end Palm handheld the Zire (ZEE-ray vs. ZEYER) put a lot of effort and money into creating names with specific meaning and resonance... which completely bounce off me for some reason. I don't have this problem with real words. I wonder why?

Comments

[calimac.livejournal.com]

When I walked into a Cingular store, the first question I asked them was how their name is pronounced.

Turned out to be "singular", but I'd thought that if it was to be pronounced that way it'd be spelled that way. Nor could it be Kingular, for the same reason. I had settled on ingular, for lack of anything else.

[davidlevine]

If it were Italian it would be pronounced "Chingular," I think. Which is how I pronounce it in my head -- or, if I'm feeling particularly snippy, "Chingulare" -- even though I know how it's "supposed" to be pronounced.

What is it about phone companies, anyway?