ERR

[Beverly Flanigan]

I still say 'err' to rhyme with 'Ur' of the Chaldees (and with 'purr'), but
not with 'Ur-' meaning 'proto' (I like Herb's suggestion of just using
'proto-', since few undergrads and grads know the German origin of the
prefix).  Then again, how many know the Ur of the Chaldees reference?  And
we rhyme it with 'err' (if we do) presumably only because of Sunday
school/Bible school training, right?  Who else would ever use the term?  In
any case, I pronounce three of the following four differently:  error, err,
Ur, Ur-.  And since Ur of the Chaldees is really not meaningful to me,
while the other three are, I'll kick it out.

At 09:26 AM 2/8/01 +0800, you wrote:
>This, just arrived on a jokes list, suggests that the "ur"
>pronunciation is still dominant.  The first two, at least, don't work
>on "air", and it's significant that none of them require the "air"
>version.
>==============
>To err is human; to purr, feline.
>
>To err is human; two curs, canine.
>
>To err is human; to do nothing, benign.
>
>To err is human; to quit, resign.
>
>To err is human; to howl about it, lupine.
>
>To err is human; to solve it, design.
>
>To err is human; to admit it, asinine.
>
>To err is human; to moo bovine.
>================
>larry


_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm