From time to time I hear complaints about the way some people pronounce diabetes. They seem to really hate hearing “diabetis” instead of “diabeteez.” For me, hearing “diabetis” actually takes me back to my childhood.
When I was first diagnosed everyone around me said “diabetis.” My endocrinologist pronounced it that way, and so did my parents. So that’s how I said it for the first ten years of my diabetes life. Then I became a staff member at diabetes camp and another counselor gave me such a hard time about it that I started saying “diabeteez” and never looked back. I even asked my parents to change the way they said it!
At one point I was told that “diabetis” is the European pronunciation, which made sense to me. I let it go. Then the other day I heard that someone was offended by that pronunciation. That made me pause and think.
All I can say is there are different ways to say the same words. It happens in health care a lot. It happens in life. People have accents, dialects, speech impediments, and so on. That doesn’t make them bad people. Just like people who say “diabetic” aren’t bad people.
While I do take language and messaging very seriously and am working to change the conversation about diabetes, it’s not about being offended. Our work on language and diabetes is focused on meaning and impact. We’re working toward words that empower and help people.
In the meantime, I don’t have a problem with how different people pronounce diabetes.
Tomayto, tomahto.