Chitty chity bang bang
A lot of things would be nice. Itās historical. Pronunciation when? Where? By whom?
1 Like
Possibly, a proper pronunciation in the present would be most relatable.
However, with my dictionary, I can always look up the proper pronunciation. Lazy.
In some languages, mostly those with a strict phonetic tie between written and spoken form, one could perhaps dare define a correct pronunciation - and even there a number of local accents would make it frustrating.
English is not among those languages, par excellence: countless native speakers around the world pronounce it in their own way, the only proper one, and itās still a mystery to me how the hell they manage to understand each other.
OK, there are websites that accept the implicit challenge and claim to provide the ācorrectā pronunciation of English words either acoustically or graphically, and theyāre certainly good enough to tell you if āgeekā should be pronounced āÉ”iĖkā or ādŹiĖkā - however beyond that point relying on them blindly might not be the case, unless they tell you clearly what English they refer to.
Thatās bad enough for the present, but for a site centered on etymology things are still worse, much worse. Etymology has to deal a lot with the past, very often with a past that left us precious little to guess how words were uttered then: Chesar, Tzesar or Kesar? For all I know the topic is still being debated.
Thatās why I totally share Dougās point above, for his admirable conciseness as well as for the lot his few words say.
1 Like
Oh, excruciatingly lazy. Couldnāt get him off that couch with a stick of dynamite. Always thumbing a game console or swiping slack-jawed at his phone.