forte (was: Re: Accents in Am. English)

[Steve K.]

On Tue, 13 Jun 2000, Lynne Murphy wrote:

> New Oxford has the pronuncation 'fort-ay' first, and AHD has it last, so
> perhaps the American shift toward 'forte' is built on the assumption that the
> British know best.

A sneak preview of things to com: this order of pronunciations has
been switched for the 4th edition of the AHD, with 'for-tay' coming first
now.

A strong majority of our Usage Panel (74%) preferred the two-syllable
pronunciation, for what it's worth.

(We switched the 'status' prons, too, for the 4th, with STAT-us first and
STAY-tus second.)

--- Steve K.