homage/why

[Pafra & Scott Catledge]

I checked my pronunciation and found myself agreeing with you.  The probable
reason for the difference is the lack of meaning of the interjection.
-----Original Message-----
From: James E. Clapp <jeclapp at WANS.NET>
To: ADS-L at UGA.CC.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
Date: Monday, May 03, 1999 8:32 AM
Subject: Re: homage/why


>Mark_Mandel at DRAGONSYS.COM wrote:
>
>> I have a feeling that psFr /o'maZ/ originated in cinema or literary
>> criticism, referring rather specifically to a work or a bit in the
>> style of someone or alluding to someone's work, with respectful
>> rather than satirical intent. Anyone else?
>
>Me, I guess.  I've always heard and said "homij" or "omij" for all
>senses of _homage_ *except* as a count noun referring to a work
>designed to pay respect to another or employing another's techniques
>out of admiration:  "The third movement is an o'maZ to Mozart."
>
>I assumed that this was French, but looking it up now I am chagrined
>to see that the modern French word has a double m (_hommage_).  So
>this pronunciation would seem to be genuine pseudo-French.
>
>But Mark might be onto something:  This specialized meaning and its
>pronunciation might have come, for example, from the Cahiers du Cinema
>crowd.  It would make sense for American followers to adopt the
>specialized meaning and distinctive pronunciation and apply them to
>the English form of the word.  One would then have (1) "Woody Allen
>pays homage (homij or omij) to Ingmar Bergman in several of his
>films," but (2) "Woody Allen's 'Interiors' is an homage (o'maZ) to
>Bergman."  If this etymological theory is correct, then it would still
>be fair to call the pronunciation /o'maZ/ pseudo-French if it were
>used in sentence (1), but a little unfair in sentence (2), where a
>French-originated concept is given its genuine French pronunciation.
>
>Another word that I pronounce differently in different senses is
>_why_.  In my dialect, in all senses except as an interjection the
>word begins with an h sound; as an interjection it does not:  "Hwye
>didn't you kiss her?  Wye, it never occurred to me!"  Anyone else?