Date: Tue, 12 Sep 1995 15:11:54 EDT
From: Undetermined origin c/o LISTSERV maintainer
owner-LISTSERV[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UGA.CC.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: pronunciation of oxymoron, jewelry, etc.
D. M. Lance makes some interesting points, but I want to add that while
we may subconsciously be aware of an alternate form to the one we're using
when we say things like "nucular," that awareness may be buried very deeply.
I was not being facetious when I asked how people pronounce "jewelry":
I've only ever heard it as three syllables. On the other hand, many
native speakers are aware that there are people out there who will correct
some of our pronunciations, and may thus alter our speech to avoid this
(including avoiding certain words altogether if there's an alternative
that we're confident of our pronunciation of).
Vicki Rosenzweig
vr%acmcr.uucp[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]murphy.com
New York, NY