DEAR MISS MANNERS: Does one need to make any type of acknowledgment when having a conversation in which both people pronounce the same word differently? I’m not talking about words that have regional influences, such as “car” and “caah,” but more like “dachshund” (“dock-sund” vs. “dashhound”) and others.
I realize that both parties believe they are pronouncing the word the correct way; it’s just that sometimes I get this awkward feeling when we go back and forth multiple times using the same word, as if it’s “dueling pronunciations”! Does either party need to acknowledge this in some lighthearted way, or just go with it?
GENTLE READER: If you cannot change the subject or laugh it off (“Oh, I never knew how to pronounce that”), at least change the word. Miss Manners realizes this will be easier if it is not being used to identify which of many dogs are involved in this scrum.