Plural of "process"

[Wilson Gray]

My exprience is the same as Jon's, to the extent that I, too, began to
doubt myself: "Maybe I've been using the BE pronunciation all this
time, without realizing it," etc. But not for long. As another of my
Jesuit teachers used to say, "I've made only one mistake in my life,
and that was thinking that I had made a mistake." ;-) And, for the
record, none of us students ever caught him making a mistake. Eerie!

-Wilson

On 5/22/06, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Plural of "process"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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:
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> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Charles Doyle
> Subject: Plural of "process"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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