sheik

[Mark Odegard]

>From: David Bergdahl <bergdahl at OAK.CATS.OHIOU.EDU>

>What about the "shake" as opposed to the "sheek" pronunciation?  I don't
>remember when the phonetic pronunciation started being heard.

Neither do I remember, but I also remember that the word 'sheik' got the
'shake' pronunciation somewhere in the 60s, 'bout when I start remembering
such things.

Then, later, I learned that 'Bombay' and 'Pompeii' are homophones in Arabic.
And we all got confused about how the various organs spelled the Libyan
dictator's 'last' name. This was about the time the US press added the 'c'
to Israeli PM Begin's first name, Menehem to Menechem. Do you of my age
remember when you mind said menna-hem, and the last name was like the
synonym of 'start'?

The answer to David's question, I think, is that we average monolingual AmE
speakers have become more attuned to more correct representations of other
language's pronunciations. But as single items. Remember, again if you go
back that far, when we all learned that Pinochet's last name was to be done
as in Spanish (with a hard final T), and then, some 30 years later, had to
remember this rule all over again?

Valentino's movie is still sheek, but the Arabic office/honorific is shake.

During the Gulf War, there were some *very* bad puns about
sheik-and-bake-her.
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