/ nu 'man Ik /

[Michael H Covarrubias]

I put this word in a recent final exam hoping to drive home the point of odd
spelling/pronunciation correspondence as a good clue to borrowing and
etymological information.

Half of them (out of 30) transcribed it just as you show.

I've heard it for years.

michael

Quoting Jonathan Lighter:

> One of the nationally-famed Fox News
> anchors unmistakably pronounces
> "mnemonic"  (That's 'FNC,' in case
> you need a mnemonic.') as / nu'man Ik /.
> That makes it a homophone of
> "pneumonic," which usually designates a
> type of plague infection.
>
>   Probably not a big deal. Ignore this message.
>
>   JL

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