polish, Polish
august, August
degas, Degas
herb, Herb
job, Job
lima, Lima
natal, Natal
nice, Nice
rainier, Rainier
reading, Reading
rodeo, Rodeo
tangier, Tangier
worms, Worms
and mousehole, Mousehole (Cornish village pronounced mau-zill)
Found inside the ever-interesting Futility Closet.
Mark adds quixotic and Quixote.
Heather offers maria (plural lunar seas, stress first syllable), Maria.
The website heteronym.com is devoted to this topic of words spelled similarly but pronounced differently (excuse, record, minute). The subset that where the pronunciation change is triggered by capitalization have been dubbed Capitonyms (additional examples at the link).
mousehole and Mousehole, actually...
ReplyDeleteOops. Typing faster than I'm thinking again.
ReplyDeleteFixed. Thanks, Swift.
Not exactly the same spelling, but close:
ReplyDeletequixotic, Quixote
maria, Maria (the first being the multiple of mare, the seas on the moon, and is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable)
ReplyDeleteherb, Herb
ReplyDeletejob, Job
Those two I didn't notice any difference in pronouncation. Though I believe Americans pronounce Herb differently to British
Herb the plant in North America is pronounced with a silent H, while the name is pronounced with the H.
DeleteJob, as in "an occupation," is pronounced with an "aw" or "ah" sound, while Job as in "a biblical character" is pronounced with an "oh" sound, as if it were spelled "Jobe."
Yes, the "herb" is different here. The "job-Job" is like lob-lobe.
ReplyDeleteIsn't there a special term for these kind of words? Anyone remember?
ReplyDeleteI just answered my own questions - thanks Wikipedia!!
ReplyDeleteHeteronym = meaning: different; spelling: same; pronunciation: different
Heteronyms include words that change their meaning without the involvement of capitalization.
More info at this website:
www.heteronym.com
Yes, I found it too, with a subsection on "Capitonyms." I'd better revise the post.
ReplyDeleteThank you. :.)
'roe-dee-oh' / 'Raw-Day-Oh!'
ReplyDelete'target' - 'TARJAY'
Walmart???
http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/
http://bit.ly/jzeLs
ReplyDelete^^ a is a spectacular poem regarding the English language.
.
ReplyDeletei didn't see the Capitonyms on that site
- link?
.
made me recall a Saturday Night Live skit
with Nicolas Cage as Mr. Asswipe...
"Arrgh! It's pronounced os-WEE-pay!"
.
@kaibeezy - the link I found was different from Heavenly Jane's. It's here -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.fun-with-words.com/nym_heteronyms.html
I still haven't had time to update the post...