| 1. | Pompociation | ||
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The practice of deliberately pronouncing words in a rare, affected or conspicuously "foreignized" form in order to establish oneself as particularly intelligent or wordly. Pompociation is a mix between "Pompous" and "Pronunciation" Fresh from her travels to South America, Janice Smith, a graduate student from Iowa, committed two acts of pompociation when she said, "I just love Ar-HEN-tIna. Buenos Aires reminds me so much of Bar-THEL-ona in the spring.
Yet Janice asked her new friend, "Oh, you've been to China too?" only 20 minutes later-- using the english pronunciation of China rather than the native "Zhong Guo". |
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