"novel" once again

[Charles Doyle]

While composing an excellent limerick in response to Jonathan's (which I won't post; unlike some folks, I do possess a modicum of shame)--specifically, while working on a rhyme for "novel"--I was reminded of an incident in my Shakespeare class earlier this week.

Amid a deeply-moving consideration of King Lear's epiphanies out on the heath, several students actually snickered at my pronunciation of "hovel"!  I rhyme the word with "shovel," but every single one of my undergraduate students pronounces it to rhyme with "novel."  I pursued the matter for a bit, and the same distinction obtains with the pronunciation of "grovel."  The dictionaries do record both pronunciations of "hovel" and "grovel" (just one each for "novel" and "shovel").  I wonder if my students' pronunciations represent a trend that's left me behind?

Of course, I settled the issue in class by decreeing that the words must be pronounced the way they are spelled . . . .

--Charlie
__________________________________________

---- Original message ----
>Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2006 12:14:44 -0700
>From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>Subject: Re: "novel" once again
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

>
>In this matter of "truthilization,"
>  We still must eschew obfuscation :
>  The _novel_ abusers
>  Are misinformed losers
>  Who mix up "fact," "tale," and "narration."
>
>  JL

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