Pontius "Pie Late"; prolific

Jonathan Lighter wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM
Sat Apr 7 14:52:55 UTC 2007


As I understand it, the exercise was created by a man whose surname was/ is pronounced in English as  / paI'lati /.  Not connected with Pontius.

  JL

Doug Harris <cats22 at FRONTIERNET.NET> wrote:
  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Doug Harris
Subject: Re: Pontius "Pie Late"; prolific
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Dr Gray --
One might also wonder how, when an 's' is added to Pilate, we get the
exercise of an entire extra syllable. (And like your musing, mine, too,
is rhetorical -- not least because I abhor fad exercise and diet programs
a la 'Pilates'.)
(the other) doug
----
OTOH, why in hell *isn't* Pilate pronounced "Pie Late"? (In truth, I
don't really care. The question is merely rhetorical.)

-Wilson

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