"Clique": kleek? klick?

[Rachel E. Shuttlesworth]

So for the past couple of months (:-)), I tutored a friend's third
grader a few hours each week. The friend's daughter is a student at
what some consider one of the "finer" private schools here in
Tuscaloosa, Alabama (BTW, the only one not affiliated with a
religion/church). One of the activities involved student-generated
spelling lists, where the students recall words from the week's
activities and the teachers write a list on the board to be used in a
spelling quiz. One week, the list on the blackboard contained a word
spelled "nitch", which the student defined as "an animal's place in the
environment." I was confused at first, then dismayed as I realized the
intended word was "niche". I said something to the teacher who decided
to "let it stand" so as not to confuse the kids.
Rachel
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr. Rachel E. Shuttlesworth
University of Alabama English Department
Box 870244 • Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0244
205.348.7616
rachel.e.shuttlesworth at ua.edu


Quoting "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Clique": kleek? klick?
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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>
> On Jan 3, 2006, at 2:55 PM, Alice Faber wrote:
>
> > Click, nitch, feesh here.
> >
> > FRITZ JUENGLING wrote:
> >> For me, it's:
> >> click
> >> nitch
> >> and fish (fiche)
>
> oh hell, cleek and feesh, but a division on "niche": nitch for the
> biological notion, mostly neesh otherwise.
>
> arnold
>