Run, do not walk, over to Crooked Timber and read this awesome Ph.D. defense story. It even has a linguistic angle, namely reading pronunciations.
Oddly, I was just telling someone over the weekend that I'd love to do this as a prank. I'd show up to my defense and pronounce all the technical terms wrong, as if I'd only ever read them: TYPE-a-LOW-gee for typology, ee-LATE-iv for elative, PAIR-a-DIME-a-tic for paradigmatic, HEER-artch-ee for hierarchy, and so forth. For extra points, I could even, with a condescending smile, correct the audience members who would try gently to help out by pronouncing the terms correctly in their questions. I think I could pull it off!
That prank idea of yours sounds like some DIE-a-bo-LICK-al SA-bo-TAY-gee, as Bugs Bunny would say.
Posted by: Ben Zimmer | July 17, 2007 at 05:29 PM
I once annoyed a seminar teacher by pronouncing "pidgin" with a hard "g". I hated that it was homophonous with the bird, and so I pronounced around it.
BTW, while reading your archives I found a picture of you and realized that we attended the university together, and even had a class together.
Posted by: JS Bangs | July 17, 2007 at 05:32 PM
The author of xkcd has already realized the humor in purposeful mispronunciation to annoy pedants (link to comic)
Posted by: Jonathan Badger | July 17, 2007 at 06:31 PM
"ee-LATE-iv for elative"
The NSOED gives /I'leItIv/ as the pronunciation. Tomayto, tomahto.
Posted by: AJ | July 18, 2007 at 05:01 AM
Hmm, you're right, I guess I can't use that pronunciation of elative, then. (The American Heritage has EL-a-tive.) Maybe I should go with a-BLATE-ive for ablative?
Posted by: The Tensor | July 18, 2007 at 08:47 AM
BTW, while reading your archives I found a picture of you and realized that we attended the university together, and even had a class together.
Really? Which class at which university? (Send me email.)
Posted by: The Tensor | July 18, 2007 at 08:54 AM
Maybe I should go with a-BLATE-ive for ablative?
Sadly (?), a-BLATE-ive is also a genuine pronunciation, for an alternate version of the word used in medical contexts.
Posted by: Chalks | July 19, 2007 at 05:24 AM
Oh, good grief, that will teach me to read links and drink my coffee before posting comments in the morning. :)
Posted by: Chalks | July 19, 2007 at 05:25 AM
It might be a little career-ending, but if you're on your way out, it might be utterly worth it. (Or save it for a qualifying paper defense. Or an LSA talk after you have tenure. If I get tenure before you, I apologize in advance for stealing it.)
Posted by: Lance | July 19, 2007 at 10:06 PM