Kaitlyn's Korner: Reading new words

By Kaitlyn Delaney
Photo Editor

One thing I absolutely love about reading books is being able to learn about how different people interpret the same things. Every person could read the same thing, but understand it completely differently.

This can also be applied to the way you read a word. You would think that with everyone knowing the language they are reading in, they would all read the same word with the same pronunciation. But when introduced to new words without a phonetic spelling, it can be easy to mispronounce said word.

I do this all the time. And sometimes I just read something incorrectly the first time I come across it, and I pronounce it that way in my head throughout the rest of the book.

I don’t typically notice until I go back to re-read part of it, or it is pointed out to me when I speak out loud about it. Most of the time, I read the word correctly, but I say it wrong. And apparently, that is a pretty common occurrence.

When a new movie based on a popular book comes out, I find it fun to watch people agree they had pronounced a word used frequently in the book incorrectly, and are now having to re-wire the way they say it. I mainly find it fun because I am typically among this group.

These words, for me, have a tendency to be names. Whether they be cities, characters or items, there is a chance I will mispronounce it. Despite this small challenge, I still absolutely love reading books that introduce me to new ideas, even if it takes me a while to pronounce them correctly.

And I will still continue to talk about books with anyone willing to listen, even if I find out I have been completely wrong about a word the entire time.