Quote:
Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce
Once is a typo. Multiples in the same paragraph is misspelling.  |
I hope you're not indulging in spelling flames.
Despite your assertions, they
were typos. I make repeatable typos fairly often because I type words using muscle memory and my typing is not the best. Some frequent typos of mine include "because" as "becuase" and "to the" as "tot he". "Pronunciation" is another word where I sometimes make the same typo, in this case omitting a "c". I usually catch my typos before I post but on this occasion these ones escaped into the ether.
I knew the correct pronunciations of "squirrel" because I had recently looked them up in a pronunciation dictionary (Longman's) as a part of a recent discussion on the pronunciation of "squirrel" and "stirrup" on a linguistics forum. These words were of interest because these are the only two words in English (or at least the only two words we could find at the time) where the vowel in "bit" with a following "r" in British English is replaced by the vowel in "earth" in American English. It is more usual for the vowel in "but" with a following "r" in British English to be merged with the vowel in "earth" in American English. (This is why "hurry" and "furry" rhyme for many Americans but not for British speakers.)
For the record, one syllable or two are both acceptable for "squirrel" according to Longman.