Quiet...

[GSCole]

Recently, a salesman from Lebanon, PA, in talking about an air
conditioning system that his company installs, described the system as
being 'quiet'.  He pronounced the word as:  coy-ette    [ed.: please
excuse my lack of training in phonetics, and the appropriate IPA
symbols].

He used the same pronunciation several times, with my wife finally
asking him what the word meant.  He'd used a number of technical terms,
in reference to proprietary components of the air conditioning system,
and there was the contextual possibility that he meant something other
than 'quiet'.

He seemed to be surprised with our pronunciation of the word, and tried
to use our pronunciation in further conversation.  Needless to say, it
was not our intent to change his pronunciation.  Other words/phrases
that he used were typical of what we've heard for the area.  The
particular pronunciation of quiet was a new one for us.

George S. Cole   gscole at ark.ship.edu
Shippensburg University