babel babble

[Wilson Gray]

It's the same for me. Ca.1943, I had an album of 78's containing the
Bible for kiddies. The album described the building of the Tower of
Babble and the consequences thereof, when God got the jaws and said
something like, "Let us go down and confound their speech, lest they
succeed in reaching heaven." And, suddenly, the conversating that had
been going on in the background turned into, well, babble.

I've heard the "Babe-l" pronunciation, but only rarely. Like, the
topic seldom comes up in conversation.

-Wilson

On 12/14/06, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: babel babble
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I was officially taught by a professional schoolteacher (no later than 1961) that the word "babble" comes from the "Tower of Babel" (pronounced "babble").
>
>   So for me it's always been The Tower of Babble. "Baybel" sounds almost like an affectation.
>
>   JL
>
> Michael H Covarrubias <mcovarru at PURDUE.EDU> wrote:
>   ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Michael H Covarrubias
> Subject: babel babble
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> When announcing the Golden Globe nominations Matt Perry pronounced the movie
> "Babel" as "babble."
>
> OED doesn't list this pronunciation though M-W and American Heritage give it
> second listing.
>
> AHD includes the meaning of confusion and noise as a different entry (not
> capitalized) with the 'babble' pronunciation listed first. It traces the
> etymology to the place name.
>
> The OED lists this meaning under the Babel, obviously with the same single
> pronunciation.
>
> Is this is a persistent false-friend pronunciation: an apparent belief that
> Babel is related etymologically to 'babble'?
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> English Language & Linguistics
> Purdue University
> mcovarru at purdue.edu
>
> web.ics.purdue.edu/~mcovarru
>
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--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Sam'l Clemens

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