pronunciations--previously [no subject]

[Michael H Covarrubias]

Quoting Laurence Urdang <urdang at SBCGLOBAL.NET>:
>
> Give people literacy and the first
> thing they do is turn to spelling
> pronunciation.
>   Recently, I have heard albeit,
> alternative, and stalwart all pronounced
> with a first syllable rhyming with pal.

Is the [ae] vowel really a spelling pronunciation of 'al-'? Perhaps in some
dialects of northern Michigan and parts of Canada... The same dialects spoken by
my friends who think I'm being pretentious when I pronounce 'pasta' with an [a].

>   And whence comes homage, a word
> borrowed and assimilated as HOM-ij or
> OM-ij, from 12th- or 13th-century French,
> made to rhyme with fromage?  What
> pretentious crap!

I suppose AmE 'garage' could sound just as pretentious to some. We're surrounded
by Gallicisms. Shall we bid them all adi...goodbye?

Michael

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