reputably = "reputedly"

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Aug 7, 2007, at 1:26 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

> It strikes me as being a mispronunciation in BE. "Presumably" is not
> in common use and probably is usually pronunced "prolly." For me,
> anyway, "supposably" is easier to say than "supposedly," so I use
> "supposably" when speaking to other MOT's.

1.  "reputably" and "supposably" might be widespread in BE, but they
are found with some frequency in other varieties of english as well.

2.  we've had discussions of the various cases of variation between "-
edly" and "-ably" (including "presumedly" for "presumably", the
opposite of "reputably" and "supposably") here before.  it seems
pretty clear that these are morphological re-shapings, involving two
word-formation patterns in competition, and not simply
"mispronunciations" (or, for that matter, inadvertent blends).

arnold

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