“… content assessable from the home page”

Adjectives, Devolution toward Simpler, Mispronunciations

I saw this in a PowerPoint document.

Problem:
The word “assessable” makes no sense in this phrase.

Explanation:
The PowerPoint document was about online support content. The slide in which this appeared was about providing a link to support content from the home page of the website.

The adjective “assessable” means capable of being assessed (e.g., for the purpose of taxation).

The PowerPoint author probably mispronounces — or at least hears mispronounced — “accessible” as “assessable” instead.

If you cannot imagine this, then think of the way that Jo Frost on the ABC TV show “Supernanny” mispronounces “That’s not acceptable.” as “That’s not asseptable.” instead.

I believe that this kind of mispronunciation — mispronouncing a “k” sound followed by an “s” sound as simply an “s” sound — is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis.

Solution:
“… content accessible from the home page”