• TimeSquirrel@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    That’s kind of how language works. If everybody in the local area understand each other perfectly fine, then it has served its purpose.

    Theres’ a town in my region called “Purcellville”, and everybody not from the area including Google will pronounce it as “PurCELL-ville” as spelled out, but every single resident within the town will insist its “Perc-UH-ville”. Which is the “wrong” pronunciation. But the people in that town literally don’t give AF.

    • Lizardking27@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Whether the people give af or not is irrelevant. If the founder(s) of the town intended it to be pronounced Purcellville, the people are wrong. If the founder(s) said percuhville, then they’re not wrong.

      • TimeSquirrel@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        The founders are long dead and nobody alive has ever heard them say the name. That’s how language changes from one into another over time. That’s how we got all the thousands of unique languages on Earth.

        First, it’s an accent. Then over time, it becomes heavier and heavier until it eventually becomes a brand new language. Words may even be borrowed and used from other languages and changed as well.