rhymes with urinal

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:25 PM +0100 10/13/10, Michael Quinion wrote:
>Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>
>>  CNN's Karl Penhaul is covering the rescue of the miners in Chile. He "holds
>>  a bachelor's degree with honors from Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh,
>>  Scotland and a master's degree in Latin American Politics from The London
>>  School of Economics."
>>
>>  But that didn't stop him from saying that the miners will be checked, among
>>  other things, for / IntEst 'ai n at l / ailments.
>>
>>  Yes, that's  intest-EYE-nal. The OED does not list it as a possibility.
>
>It's given in John Wells's Longman Pronunciation Dictionary as an
>alternative pronunciation. I've used it myself.
>
The OED does, however, list both pronunciations for "doctrinal",
which in some sense "should" be parallel to "intestinal".

LH

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