Why do the English pronounce ski as schee (soft consonant)? The dictionary says its from OE scid, but would that be pronounced with a soft “c”? I guess it would in England.
To be honest, I think the English DO pronounce it “ski”.
It’s the Germans that pronounce it “shee”
Just to note, its pronounced that way in German, and spelled the same way as in English. (ski = schee) So it would seem it’s us Americans that changed it (what do Canadians, Aussies, or other English-speaking countries say?).
I also know that it was common in older German words for the s + consonant to have a sound like engl. sh + consonant at the start of a word (st is the only one I know of that’s still around (as in Stadt))
They don’t.
The German word is spelled “Schi”, with the verb being “schifahren”. No k’s involved.
Barbitu8 said:
Gee, I guess when we went down to the pub for “beer and skittles” I must have been saying it wrong…?
They don’t. **
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I’d be happier with your reply if it was, “We don’t.”
I thought the verb was schilaufen, not -fahren. Of course, it’s been years since I took German.
The Norwegian word is spelled “ski”, and pronounced “shee” (or “schee” if you insist). My English etymological dictionary says the word is a 19th century borrowing from Norwegian into English, which means the English word was likely pronounced “shee” to begin with as well.
Well, at least some people who speak German write it as skilaufen, see here.
Coldfire, maybe down in your area they use Schi, but I’ve never seen it written that way. Perhaps they even do say ‘fahren’, but that seems it’d apply more to cross-country rather than alpine/downhill skiing. (seems like there’d be less downhill in that area too, right?)
Or maybe schneefahren is the word they’re using.
There was an Old English word scid (meaning “plank” or “snowshoe,” I think) and it was pronounced “shid” and it is related to ski. But ski is not directly from scid, it is a relatively recent borrowing from Norwegian.
In general Norwegian and Swedish words beginning with “sk-” were originally pronounced hard. However, during the centuries the pronounciation shifted so we now have a soft “sh-”. When the English language borrowed them the pronounciation at the time stuck giving us word pairs like skipper/ship (not to mention equipment, which passed through French en route to English) and skirt/shirt.
OK then. We don’t.
Russell
Anyone who pronounces it “scheeing” is full of skit.
(The above joke is stolen from an episode of MST3K, when, during the short film before the main feature, the announcer pronounced the name of this new sport that was taking America by storm as “scheeing”.)
*Originally posted by Max Torque *
Anyone who pronounces it “scheeing” is full of skit.(The above joke is stolen from an episode of MST3K, when, during the short film before the main feature, the announcer pronounced the name of this new sport that was taking America by storm as “scheeing”.)
Reminds me of a Dorothy Parker anecdote. She was speaking with an actor who had just finished a long tour in England and had picked up a few of their pronunciations. The actor repeated “shedule” a few times and she said, “You know, I think you’re full of skit.”