On the other hand, I suspect people pronounce it “forte” because it looks like a French word. English rules don’t normally pronounce an “e” at the end of the word when it follows a consonant. The only words that come to mind are French-derived words like “passe” and “resume.” So “fort” sounds more like an English pronunciation to me than “for-tay,” even though the former is roughly correct for French. I suspect analogy to French derived words is actually what is causing English speakers to pronounce it as “for-tay.” (There’s not many examples, though, of other words ending in “orte,” though in English. There’s “torte,” and that’s pronounced as “tort.”) Or, actually now that I think a little more about it, via the musical term, which is pronounced “for-tay.”
I started studying music at 5 or 6 and I encountered the Italian-English word “forte” long before I encountered the French-English word “forte.” That’s why I pronounced it the Italian way until I read that they were supposed to be pronounced differently.
Same here. So, to generalize, it seems to me that English speakers are trying to pronounce “forte” as a “foreign” word rather than a word that follows English pronunciation rules. That said, there’s really not really much precedent for words ending in “rte” in English. (“Carte” as in “a la carte” would be another one, but that’s obviously via French. Still, we pronounce it as “cart” there.) But we have plenty of “rve” words (“curve,” “swerve,” “nerve,” etc.) and vowel-“r”-consonant-“e” there, and none of them pronounce the “e.”
I’ve always heard it “flassid” and have pronounced it that way myself.
As for other words with cc pronounced ss - not really. Though I worked with a librarian years ago who pronounced accession as assession which weirded me out. I don’t know if that is some kind of acceptable alternate pronunciation, but I hadn’t heard it before and haven’t heard it since.
It’s the same thing that makes Americans pronounce the Js in Beijing and Rajiv as if they were French.
In Beijing — the J represents a sound like English CH, so “pay-ching” [peɪ tɕɪŋ] or [peɪ tʃɪŋ]
In Rajiv — the J is exactly in English judge and jury
I don’t think I have it anymore but I once had a book that claimed that since the English word “forte” comes from French and not from Italian that it should be pronounced “fort” and not “for-TAY” (or “for-TEH” if you want to be REALLY particular about it). Since then I’ve tended to pronounce that word “fort.” FWIW.
Also, the plural of penis is penes. Not that most people will ever have occasion to use it.
I’ve rarely heard “flaccid” pronounced as “flaksid”, but I have heard it.
On the other hand, I’ve often heard “acid” pronounced as “aksid” because my wife tends to do that. (English is her second language.)
I usually say it as “strong point”…
In Latin, yes. In English, no reason why we shouldn’t say “penises”.
Well, a lot of us were talking about this dude back in January 
This reminds me of an episode of episode of QI, in which a panelist sought clarification on the proper plural of “penis”. Stephen Fry responded along the lines of: “Yes, by all means, penii if you must. Penises, if you want to speak English, but penii if you must.”
More on topic: Curious if this particular variant pronunciation has any geographical associations. From the overwhelming favor for “flassid”, I’m guessing not, but it’s a possibility.
[QUOTE=LawMonkey;18298503Stephen Fry responded along the lines of: “Yes, by all means, penii if you must. Penises, if you want to speak English, but penii if you must.” [/QUOTE]
I love Stephen Fry. But he doesn’t know everything. Both penises and penes are better than penii.
On this, then, you, I and Stephen Fry are essentially in happy agreement, then. I’ll admit to favoring a rule of English pluralization for foreign words, but a) it’s not a passion and b) there’s no possible justification for penii (or octupi).
Well, “octopi” is wrong in any language. It’s either “octopuses” or “octopodes.”
The online American Heritage Dictionary gives the pronunciations of “flaccid” as flassid and flaksid in that order. But the online Oxford gives only fla(k)sid, which I take to mean either pronunciation is equally okay.
For “forte,” American Heritage and the Oxford both give “for-tay” and “fort” in that order, and I take it to mean the first pronunciation is preferred.
Gosh, thank you for the chuckles this line has brought me.
Well, here in Oz I believe most people say “fortay”, except when referring to the painkiller, which is “Panadeine Forte” (fort).
Flaksid? That just sounds comical. I have never heard that in my life.
I have not heard it pronounced that way. However, (for me at least) this is one of those words that are read way more than said. There are all sorts of words I’m familiar with that I’m not sure I’ve actually heard anyone say, like diaspora or ebullient. I assume I’m reading them correctly, but I am probably wrong about at least a couple.
Can we at least all agree that “facade” is not pronounced “fa-kade”?
No.