Plural of "process"

[Jonathan Lighter]

I have often heard persons with doctorates say "processeez" seriously in ordinary conversation over the past twenty or more years.  So often, in fact, that I began to think I was the crazy one.

  JL

Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Charles Doyle
Subject: Plural of "process"
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Well, possibly--except (as far as I am aware) no one
pluralizes "recess" as /ri s@ siz/. Perhaps a significant
difference from "process" lies in the existence of the
competing pronounciation of the noun "recess" with the
second syllable stressed.

Charlie


---- Original message ----

>Date: Sat, 20 May 2006 23:34:52 -0400
>From: "Mark A. Mandel"
>Subject: Re: Fake Latin plural . . .
>------------------------------------------------------------

>Charles Doyle writes:
>
>And then there's the plural of "process" pronounced
>/pro s@ siz/ (with secondary stress on the final syllable),
>which I used to associate with the speech of pretentious
>pseudo-intellectuals, but now it sounds almost normal (maybe
>I am becoming one of those!).
>
> <<<<<
>
>That one at least has something of an excuse: three
sibilants in a row separated only by lax front vowels tend
to blur into a barely modulated hiss. Tensing the vowel of
the last syllable makes it much more pronounceable, in my
opinion (and mouth).
>
>-- Mark

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