People adding a "t" sound to the end of the word "across" when spoken. What is up with that? If you have not noticed this particularly peculiar enunciation aberration, pay attention and you're likely to hear it soon.
And then you won't be able to STOP hearing it.
I have no idea how this vocal quirk came into use, but it drives me bananas. "Accrost" is NOT a word!
But the worst case of it I ever came accrost was when I actually saw it written out - spelled "accrost" - in a Facebook comment a couple of months ago. Now, I know I said I wouldn't pick on social media typos, but this is different. This is someone actually taking their weird verbal tick and transliterating it into the written form.
And that is just bizarre - especially since most people are unaware of the fact that they are adding the "t" sound to "across" in their speech. To add it into their writing indicates awareness of the mispronunciation, but not enough awareness to realize just how wrong it is.
What's even more bizarre? I came accrost this gem on the web, while looking for an image for this blog post:
"I was digging thru a pile of slabs in my lapidary shop , and came accrost another giant slab of very old stock crazy lace agate..... check out the KILLER tiny close banding creating a fantastic paralax shadow effect....."Never mind the other typos...this has "accrost" spelled out, too! Wow. Just, wow.
Then I did a Google search for "accrost" - and opened up a world of grammatical pain. It's EVERYWHERE (46,800 hits for that spelling alone). *facepalm*
All of this oddness leaves me with one last question: why did the chicken go accrost the road?
Bock, bock! Don't spell out your incorrect pronunciations, please!
Haha, this is great!
ReplyDeleteMy accounting teacher in high school would always say "acrost", and I just heard one of my coworkers say it too.
Maybe it originated from acrostic poetry and people just assumed the "t" was part of the root?
One thing that exacerbates this issue is that in the two examples you cited, the offenders had an additional "c" where the correct spelling has only one. Where does this extra "c" come from?
People I know say "accrost" and are in absolute denial of it. I grew up hearing, I dunno, maybe 10% of people saying it that way and assumed it was a regionalism of northwest MO.
DeleteI've been taking extra C lately to boost my immune system. But that fails to answer your valid question. :)
ReplyDeleteto Gets to the other side
ReplyDeleteHillbilly english is on the rise...... guess will have to "revert back"..... "accrost" here to cover the extents of "use" people "talken" this here way....etc etc
ReplyDeleteYou find it in America, but more Canada, Australia and other such former British colonial areas, because Accrost is old-fashioned and slightly obsolete English.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it's still as grammatically correct as words like Amongst, Amidst, Whilst, Betwixt, and so on.
Origin
ReplyDeleteMid 18th century; earliest use found in Essex Institute Historical Collections. Variant of across and across, with excrescent -t, as also in amidst, against, amongst, etc.
Aaaaand...you've just illustrated how words change and evolve over time. Language is alive, and as others have noted above, 'across' is actually the modern interloper.
ReplyDeletePersonally I'm eagerly awaiting the grammatical acknowledgement of 'alot.' It SHOULD be a word, don't you think?
I would have to say, irregardless
ReplyDelete