You are correct, George.

It's the airs I tend to laugh at, not the mispronunciations as such. The mispronunciations are funny because they give away the airs. I picture Hyacinth from Keeping Up Appearances. There's a certain family member that my family often compares to her, and I think the evaluation is spot-on. She, not surprisingly, hates that show and that character, and doesn't at all see where she is just the same. At one point, she didn't want the public to know she was running her business out of her home. She wanted potential clients to think they were calling some big, major corporate headquarters in the city, so she had a multi-box voice mail system put in, and recorded her voice telling callers to press one for this, two for that.... out of her HOME. She has a master's degree in handwriting analysis, and does that for a living. If you see her listing in the phone book, she puts more letters behind her name than any brain surgeon ever has, showing every degree, diploma, or certification she's ever earned in her life. Reason, she's trying to look big and important to the outside world. There's nothing wrong with being from a rural, poor, or uneducated background. What is wrong, I think, is pretending you're not rural or poor when you clearly are, and claiming more education than you actually have. Plus, it's only supposed to be a phone book listing, not her resume.

She's the one who enjoys "shammily" tea, although in total fairness to her, I looked it up and found out I didn't quite have it right either. I was pronouncing it "camo-mill", rhymes with bill, but it's actually "camo-mile," rhymes with smile.

Poor spelling and grammar, and even lack of education, are certainly no indication of intelligence. My father's IQ was over 180, but he didn't finish high school. He may have had a learning disability. I don't know. He himself once remarked that he couldn't spell "cat" if you gave him the C and the A.