the pronunciation of "patio"

[Arnold Zwicky]

On Jul 20, 2009, at 7:39 PM, Doug G. Wilson wrote:
>
>
> I don't see a pronunciation of "patio" with /S/ or /s/ in English
> dictionaries at a glance.
>
> However, handy on-line French dictionaries (ATILF, Acad. Fran.) show
> "patio" pronounced both /patjo/ and /pasjo/, the latter close enough
> to
> Baum's presumed /paSiow/ I think.
>
> So maybe this is a Frenchified pronunciation.

this is an excellent idea -- and it wouldn't depend on the
pronunciation being based on an actual French pronunciation, since
English adopts many words from Spanish with "frenchified"
pronunciations based on spelling, rather than directly on French
pronunciations.

arnold

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