Over the past couple of days, my lovely wife and I have been having a debate over the pronunciation of the word "missile." The other night during a reality TV show of one sort or another, the occupation of one of the participants was shown as "Missile Engineer." As Erin read it to me off the screen, she pronounced "missile" something like "miss-isle," with a long "i". I quickly asked, "What was that?" thinking that perhaps she had just read it phonetically and not really realized what she was saying. She repeated it -- "miss-isle." I started laughing. I informed her that she sounded like Yosemite Sam -- "Varmint, I'm a-gonna blow you to smithereens with a MISS-ISLE!"
Now in case you're sitting there going, "What wrong with that?" it probably is an indication that you ain't from around here, which probably isn't a bad thing. Here in central Indiana, I believe that the usual way of pronouncing "missile" is something akin to "miss-ul." No long "i." I should probably be careful in ever poking fun at the way someone pronounces a certain word, given that many of us Hoosiers have the linguistic abilities of Chewbacca.
When Erin looked the word up online, it was shown with both pronunciations, with HER version being listed as "primarily British." I promptly asked her if she was knackered and needed to go to the loo or have a plate of bangers and mash -- perhaps drive a lorry to the petrol station. She wasn't amused. Frankly I think she still clings to the belief that her California heritage makes her dialectically superior to me, somehow.
Perhaps...
Bret
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