lilac

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Nov 1, 2007, at 2:03 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:

> It's ash for me. Not sure why this pronunciation is so surprising to
> some, given the pattern set by other "-ac" words ("sumac", "cognac",
> "ipecac", "cardiac", etc.) In fact, the only "-ac" word I can think of
> where I use a schwa is "Potomac".
>
> -- Ben Zimmer
>
>
> On 11/1/07, Charles Doyle <cdoyle at uga.edu> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Charles Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
>> Subject:      lilac
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ----------
>>
>> The only pronunciation recorded in the OED--and the first
>> pronunciation given in Webster's Third and all the "collegiate"-
>> sized dictionaries I have at hand--is [lail at k]. Until this
>> discussion, I would have supposed that speakers who use ash or [a]
>> in the last syllable were engaging in a spelling-pronunciation.
>> You learn something (almost) every day!

like ben, i was surprised at the predominance of the schwa
pronunciation in the dictionaries.  (for what it's worth, NOAD2 has
the pronunciations in the order: ash, a, schwa.)

i'm definitely an ash guy.

arnold

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