'kimono' pronun & use (was: "opening the kimono" (1979?, 1984))

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Mon, 20 Jun 2005 12:56:38 -0600, Victoria Neufeldt
<vneufeldt at MERRIAM-WEBSTER.COM> wrote:

>On Monday, June 20, 2005 5:06 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>>
>> Making allowances for regional phonology, that's the usual
>> pronunciation, isn't it?
>>
>> I've rarely heard anything other than / kI 'mo n@ /.
>
>Well, M-W's 11th Collegiate and New Oxford American have a "long-o"
>final syllable for the first pronun listed, with the schwa pron as the
>single alternate; American Heritage 4th and Webster's New World 4th
>list the schwa pron first, with the long o as an alternate pron of
>almost equal currency (i.e., in case anyone isn't clear on this, the
>two prons are separated by a comma, which is usual lexicographic style
>for "equal currency or slightly less common"; if the variant is
>significantly less common, it's normally preceded by "also" or
>"sometimes" or a regional label, etc.).  I can't access my Kenyon &
>Knott right now.  Also, in my pron and presumably Beverly's, the final
>syllable wasn't reduced completely to a schwa.
>
>Come to think of it, I can't remember when I last heard anyone say the
>word at all!  I don't use the word anymore for a housecoat, and rarely
>use 'housecoat'.  Now it's just 'bathrobe'.  And I've never owned a
>dressing gown.

This must be a generational thing, in terms of both pronunciation and use.
I'd wager that few AmE speakers who came of age in the '70s or later are
familiar with either the 'housecoat' sense or the /k at mon@/ pronunciation
(except perhaps from their parents).  My earliest "kimono" memories are
fixed around the 1980 miniseries _Shogun_, where it was /k at mono/.


--Ben Zimmer