Am I the only person who gets annoyed when people say 'EXSPECIALLY"? There's no X in the word!!!!!

Answer 1

it bugs me too, i'm always correcting people's english

Answer 2

I agree that it's wrong (not acceptable 'standard English'), but I thing we can get some idea of WHERE such a pronunciation comes from ("ignorance" is not the most useful answer), and learn something about our own language (and language generally) in the process.

"ekspecially" is an example of something very common in language -- the adapting of words with less familiar patterns to the familiar patterns, including the omitting or reversal of sounds, esp. if they seem awkward to pronounce. And many of these changes have, over time, produced "standard" English forms.

Just note how common words beginning with "exp-" are (expand, expect, expense, experience, explain, explode, export, express ...)

On the other hand, words beginning with "esp-" are rare, and mostly very "foreign" sounding (from modern French or Spanish, some of them VERY recent borrowings). See the list here -- http://www.morewords.com/starts-with/esp (If you reduce them to their roots, there seem to be only 14. And from that list the only other ones that seems 'old' and very 'English' may be espouse [not an everyday word nowadays!] and espionage!)

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Perhaps a few more notes on those common changes will help, and even help us better understand some common mistakes, since the same types of changes have happened in STANDARD forms of the language

Note especially with 'sound re-ordering', esp. reversal (called "metathesis"). The OLD English forms "brid" "thrid" and "hros" are NOW "bird", "third" [note how the old form matched the order of "three"], and "horse".

Some standard re-orderings are found in SPEECH, but not reflected in spelling. For example, "iron" is pronounced as /i-urn/ and "comfort" reverses sounds (sometimes even drops one) when adding -able ("comfortable" is commonly pronounced /cumf-tur-bl/ or /cumf-tu-bl/). (In these cases the loss of ACCENT contributes to making the 'expected' pronunciation more difficult... and to its change.)

Sometimes such a change creates a "dialectal" form that may or may not become acceptable. "Ask" and "aks" are BOTH found in Old English and Middle English.. but by Modern English are used in different dialects. "aks", the normal form in one of the major regional dialects brought by American colonists from England, ended up being considered "non-standard" at best.

As for "ekspecially" (or "exspecially"), note the frequency of English words with an "ex-" prefix (from Latin). In one case I know, even the NON-ex word originally WAS -- "escape", from Latin, began with an "ex-" that was later simplified. This helps explain why you hear "ekscape" in some dialects. (Look again at the rarity of "esp-" words vs. "exp-" words in English.)

Answer 3

Frankly I've never seen "exspecially" before, but I HAVE seen many goof-ups which annoy me; lack of commas, numerous incorrect usages of words, and run-on sentences, to name a few.

Answer 4

I completely understand!!!! especially when they make a habit of saying that word just 'cause they noe it buggs u!!!!

Answer 5

yeah, that really bugs me too. people need to learn the english language better.....

Answer 6

eXspecially, mischievIous, filEm (film)...they all bug me sooo much!

Answer 7

supposUBly is not a word

conversated is not a word

mischiEEvEEous is not a word.

Answer 8

Expecially when they aksing a question. (or is that 'axing' a question?)