Dictionaries are bunkum. The way to find out how to pronounce stuff is to take a survey and go with the majority. What better place to attempt this than IMHO. Please help me with these and post your own:
sieve
The kitchen implement. Seeve or Sivv?
The original way or the assimilated way: penchant
PENchunt, like the English, or paw-shaw (intonated with potatoes in your mouth, or however you can manage some sort of faux French accent)?
Two that involve what I used to consider “overpronouncing”, but I’m no longer so sure:
enthusiast
en THU zee ust, or en THU zee AST?
template
TEMplut, or TEM-PLATE?
And scythe
The thing the Grim Reaper carries. “Skith” or “Skyethe”?
Or is it: sythe (“sith”, “sythe”?)
These are both actual words which, I think, mean pretty much the same thing; which one is in common use?
“enthusiast”, in my vocabulary, has a primary stress on the second syllable, and a secondary stress on the last. For an example, “yo!” has primary stress, “boys” has secondary stress, and “men” has no stress.
Ruby: Is that “ast” at the end of “enthusiast” meant to be a schwa sound (the vowel in “the”) or does it definitely have that short “a” sound? If so, to what degree of stress?
Penchant - I’ve never heard anyone use the French pronunciation, but apparently some do. I pronounce it either as “PENshent” or “PENchent.” American Heritage Dictionary supports only the “PENchent” pronunciation.
Enthusiast - I schwa the final syllable. However, AHD contradicts me on this one, and says use a short A on the final syllable.
Template - Both are fine. I flutter between the two. AHD seems to support both.
Scythe - As above, “sithe,” to rhyme with “lithe.”
And, yes, scythe, sythe, and sithe all mean the same thing. I’ve only seen scythe in print, and a check with the dictionary seems to indicate that this is the one in common use.
I hate it when people pronounce salmon as ‘sell-men’. I don’t know why… one of those quirks in life i suppose. And I’ll go out of my way to correct them.
All together now: “Saa-men”
penchant = pen-SHent or peh-SHAnt. It’s a word I don’t ordinarily say in conversation, so how I pronounce it in my mind depends on where my mind is at the time!
enthusiast= en-THU-zee-est. I’ve never heard it pronounced any other way.
template = TEM-plate
scythe = sEYEth
…and salmon has always been SA-mun. Always has and always will!
I think some say “contra-VER-see-ul” but I say it as you, everton
Perhaps the French-influence pronunciation of penchant is a British thing, since your dictionary (UK, I assume) only has that pronunciation and my dictionary (US) only has the Anglicized one.
You pronounce the “th” in “scythe” unvoiced? Interesting.
As for the alternate spellings, I’ve never seen either of them either, but I don’t think they’re American in origin. They might just be outdated spellings.
Hmm, how weird. Takes all sorts I s’pose. I thought this thread was going to move towards the controversial pronunciation of controversy (it still might now). Personally I say CONtra-verse-ee, by the way, not con-TROV-er-see, but some of my fellow countrymen use the second version.
Yes, I’m using Collins Oxford. If I can think of any other French-sounding ones I’ve heard pronounced differently outside Britain I’ll post them, but I can’t just now.
