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

[Steve K.]

On Tue, 13 Jun 2000, A. Vine wrote:

> Funny, Rob Kyff just had it in his column, and insisted that monosyllabic
> "forte" was the human strength and bisyllabic "forte" the musical term.

Truth be told, in my humble little rural upbringing, I had never
heard single-syllable forte until I started working in lexicography.

But then again, 'boughten' is in my lexicon (another item I didn't
realize was nonstandard until a few years ago), especially in phrases like
"store-boughten bread" (as opposed to homemade).

--- Steve K.