ToTN

[Laurence Horn]

>  >not exactly out of nowhere, since purists have been alternately
>>complaining for centuries (documented in Dennis Baron's book, if
>>memory serves) about lazy speakers who persist in lopping the
>>beginnings and ends of helpless words (like Wilson's people,
>>complaining about "till" or "bus") or about idle speakers who add
>>unnecessary, redundant, and superfluous syllables to perfectly good
>>words (the ones who complain about "unto" and "until").  Of course,
>>both sects have typically have operated in blithe ignorance of the
>>actual histories of the words involved.
>>
>>LH
>~~~~~~~~~~~~
>Um. Does this mean I *shouldn't* write to my local npr station to ask their
>announcers/news reporters to notice that "preventive" does not have four
>syllables?
>AM
>
Well, they'd probably note (at least I would if I were they) that
while "preventive" does indeed have just three syllables,
"preventative" has four.

LH

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org