Etcetera

[Dennis R. Preston]

I think there is a much more likely phonological explanation. In
English (perhaps universally) coronal stops (like /t/) do not like
being placed before other consonants. In English, for example, only a
few names (Atkins, Edsel), borrowed words (pizza) show such an
ordering. When this happens, the historical result is almost always
assimilation, since "et cetera" is a loan (and assimilation seems
unlikely), the coronal is simply done away with and replaced by a
velar (a much more frequent, non-assimilated sequence, e.g., actor,
acme).

dInIs

Peter's first pronunciation is indeed common everywhere; for the second, I
hear a repeat of [I/Ek].  I suspect it's a reanalysis of a word whose Latin
origin few now understand: the 'et' is not thought of as a separate word
with its own pron.; instead, the phrase is reinterpreted as one word--a
"funny" foreignism that is simply passed on through time (in fact, note the
"one word" spelling in the subject line, with no space).  And I suspect the
Montreal French teacher just passed on the same pron. she'd heard; the
phrase is just as foreign to French speakers as it is to English, after all.
Interestingly, the abbreviation is also often respelled to reflect, in
part, the new pron.:  ect.

I'll admit I don't like it (sorry), but it's another example of the kind of
reanalysis we've talked about often on this list--though another example
doesn't come to me right now.

At 09:57 AM 7/30/2003 -0700, you wrote:
>I don't think it's regional--I seem to have heard it everywhere, and from
>people being interviewed in various parts of the country.  It's often
>[Ik'sEtr@] or, for emphasis, [Ik'sEtrIk'sEtr@].
>
>Peter Mc.
>
>--On Wednesday, July 30, 2003 10:59 AM -0400 sagehen
><sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM> wrote:
>
>>Is the commonly-heard pronunciation of "etcetera" as "exetera" or "ek
>>setera" a regional or dialectal thing (like "axe" for "ask") or simply a
>>misapprehension of the letter order?  Could it be related to the Italian
>>/eccetera/?
>>A. Murie
>
>
>
>*****************************************************************
>Peter A. McGraw       Linfield College        McMinnville, Oregon
>******************* pmcgraw at linfield.edu ************************

--
Dennis R. Preston
Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics & Germanic, Slavic,
      Asian & African Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027
e-mail: preston at msu.edu
phone: (517) 353-9290