"Clique": kleek? klick?

[sagehen]

>I learned "clique" through reading and assumed that it was pronounced
>"kleek." When I got to high school,
>I found "clique" to be in common use among black high-school kids with the
>pronunciation, "klick." The
>term was not used at the so-called "white" - 793 European-Americans, seven
>African-Americans - high school that
>I attended. Lacking any other evidence, I assumed that "klick" was the BE
>pronunciation and that my white
>schoolmates, had they any occasion to use the word, would say "kleek."
>
>However, the fact of the matter is that I've never heard "clique" pronounced
>other than as "klick" by any
>American of any race, creed, color, or social status anywhere, under any set
>of circumstances. Admittedly,
>"clique" is not a word of everyday utility, but, over a span of a
>half-century or so, I would expect to have heard
>"kleek" at least once. A minute ago, just for the hell of it, I asked my
>wife to pronounce "o-b-l-i-q-u-e." Her
>response: "obleek." Then I asked her to pronounce "c-l-i-q-u-e." Her
>response: "klick."
>
>OED2 gives "kleek" as the sole pronunciation and RHD and WNW give "kleek" as
>the preferred pronunciation.
>So, what's up? How say ye?
>--
>-Wilson Gray
~~~~~~~~~~~~
I've never said anything but "kleek," and I *think* that pronunciation was
general among my (white) school friends in Lincoln NE back in the '40s.  I
began to hear "klick" when I spent  year at a highschool in Winnetka IL
just after the war. It does seem to me now that "klick" is heard  more
often than "kleek."
OTOH, while I say "nitch" for /niche/ and always have,  the pronunciation
"neesh,"  which predominates in Canadian speech, now seems to be taking
over in the states.
A.Murie