# How do you say it? \[How to pronounce Cecil\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 28, 2023, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-it-how-to-pronounce-cecil/986236 "2023-06-28T15:08:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-it-how-to-pronounce-cecil/986236/81 "2023-06-29T21:31:03Z")
> [@colinfred](#): > > I’m British so always read it “Sess-ill”, even though I know that Zotti and most of the US pronounce it See-sill. I normally adapt the pronunciation of things to fit people, but See-sill just sounds ugly and wrong. Well, if Ed Zotti says See-sill, I would regard that as definitive. I had a colleague who pronounced his name sess-ill, but he was Canadian born. ---
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-it-how-to-pronounce-cecil/986236/82 "2023-06-29T22:32:23Z")
Years ago my dad, famous in family circles for purposeful mis-pronunciation and mangling of words and phrases at times, would say “hand me a pack of Pall-Malls” yet pronounce it something much closer to “Pell Mells”, I’d no idea until years after that that this is actually “correct”. I thought he was being silly again. Cecil B. DeMille’s pronunciation probably should be correct for everyone (except Cecil Adams). ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2023, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-it-how-to-pronounce-cecil/986236/83 "2023-06-30T00:35:56Z")
The correct pronunciation of a person’s name is however the person wants the name pronounced. /thread ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2023, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-it-how-to-pronounce-cecil/986236/84 "2023-06-30T00:44:34Z")
@Cecil_Adams tell us. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2023, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-it-how-to-pronounce-cecil/986236/85 "2023-06-30T01:03:59Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Like _See-Sill_, just like _Beany_ and _Cecil_ I would take this Cecil to be definitive. That’s Cecil the Sea-Sick Sea Serpent. So it has to be Sea-sill. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2023, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-it-how-to-pronounce-cecil/986236/86 "2023-06-30T01:32:56Z")
I favor SEE-sill, just like that your obedient serpent, Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2023, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-it-how-to-pronounce-cecil/986236/87 "2023-06-30T13:40:55Z")
This. I perceive no difference between the two. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2023, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-it-how-to-pronounce-cecil/986236/88 "2023-07-11T22:35:39Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > Almost certainly. And, to be a bit more serious, the funny thing about pronunciations is that you often hear what you expect to hear, and it can be difficult to perceive regional differences that are outside of your own dialect. For example, of those four audio samples, I hear three of them as having a “short o,” rather than a “schwa” sound, in the first syllable. Number three is the outlier for me. For me, it’s not even necessarily that I can’t hear it, but that I consider both to be variations on the same sound. The first syllable is not stressed, and unstressed ‘short o’ very often sounds like a schwa. It’s called unstressed vowel reduction. > **[Stress and vowel reduction in English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress_and_vowel_reduction_in_English)** > > Stress is a prominent feature of the English language, both at the level of the word (lexical stress) and at the level of the phrase or sentence (prosodic stress). Absence of stress on a syllable, or on a word in some cases, is frequently associated in English with vowel reduction – many such syllables are pronounced with a centralized vowel (schwa) or with certain other vowels that are described as being "reduced" (or sometimes with a syllabic consonant as the syllable nucleus rather than a vowe... ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2023, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-it-how-to-pronounce-cecil/986236/89 "2023-07-12T00:10:46Z")
I have it on good authority that Mrs. Adams pronounces it, “Jackass.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-it-how-to-pronounce-cecil/986236.md?page=4)