http://mr_malk.livejournal.com/ ([identity profile] mr-malk.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] undyingking 2008-07-23 10:19 am (UTC)

Acceptability for whom? I must admit, I wasn't even aware that the pronunciation of arctic was up for debate until I read this. I don't know if "ar-tik" started as a regional dialect (which is fair enough) or just sloppiness (which is not), but I (as a proud and unreconstructed linguistic pedant) have no truck with it.

(Artic... truck... no? Oh never mind)!

Oddly, I had a similar incident with a primary school teacher about the pronunciation of February as the anecdote in the article. I used to say Feb-yooery, but was so stung by her criticism that I mended my ways immediately and for good.

Mind you, where I grew up, Saturday was routinely pronounced "Sat-duh" (and even the "t" was only a glottal stop), so in some ways it's a wonder I can speak English at all.

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