In today’s comics section, Mallard Fillmore lectures his reading audience on the topic of the word “Forte.” He says that when used to mean “strong suit” (“Music’s not my forte…”) it should be pronounced “fort,” not “fortay.”
I’ve never heard this usage before. I’ve always heard it pronounced “fortay” with the stress on the second syllable. In music, I’ve always heard it pronounced “fortay” with the stress on the first syllable.
Am I an ignorant dufus? Have I been saying it wrong? (Of course, I only say it when I want to affect a joking tone of “putting on airs” so it doesn’t really matter…)
This may be an IMHO question, but I was hoping for a factual answer of some sort.
This has cropped up before, and it’s certainly an IMHO issue. The only place I’ve ever heard of any pronunciation other than ‘for-tay’ is on these boards. Other people will swear blind that this usage is unbearably pretentious.
I agree the word is kind of pretentious, but then, I only ever hear it used when the speaker is sort of jokingly affecting a bit of pretense in the first place.
It’s just that I’d never heard it pronounced “fort.”
From now on, I shall continue to pronounce it with two syllables, but shall have arguments at the ready for this usage should anyone be silly enough to challenge me. (Like say, a talking duck.)
Forte comes from the french word fort, which is pronounced “for”. So he has a point. The english pronunciation seems to have been borrowed from italian.
Just remember that neither proposed pronunciation matches the French, and the spelling doesn’t either. Clearly the Italian musical term (a cognate of the French word) has influenced usage in English. But to say that one is the original (and therefore “correct”) French pronunciation is false. I’d go with the prevailing usage; to do otherwise really does strike me as pretentious and silly.
Forte is a term used in fencing, referring to the strong part of the blade. Like many other fencing terms, it undoubtedly came from French. I’ve never met a fencer who pronounced it in any way but “FOR-tay.” Of course, most of the fencers I know are from Texas.
According to the OED, the correct pronunciation is now fortay or fortei. “Fort” is listed as a former pronunciation.
The origin, of course, is meaningless. The word is pronouced the way people pronounce it, and if it once was pronounced “fort,” but is no longer, that’s no more the correct pronunciation as pronouncing the “p” in “pneumonia” just because it once was pronounced that way.
George Carlin made the exact same rant in his book, Brain Droppings. Is Bruce Tinsley getting that desperate for ideas that he has to start plagiarizing?
In Bierce’s day, this was correct. But now it’s those who complain about descriptive grammar who are taking on the role. The OED is clearly documenting the change from “fort” to “fortay” as a pronunciation, whereas others are trying their damndest to hold back the change.
