DEE-fense

Philip E. Cleary pcleary at WANS.NET
Mon Dec 3 18:13:51 UTC 2001


Last night, I watched the WWI movie, "The Last (or Lost) Battalion," on A&E.
One of the American soldiers pronounced "defense" as "DEE-fense."

Is this pronunciation anachronistic? I was under the impression that
"DEE-fense" dates back only a few decades and arose from the spondaic
chanting of NY Giants fans.

Phil Cleary



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