"Business takes Vi[z]a"

[Joel S. Berson]

At 8/18/2008 11:10 AM, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
>On Aug 18, 2008, at 7:30 AM, Doug Harris wrote:
>
>>Joel --
>>FYI:
>>Here ya go:
>>http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=alicia
>
>... a site that apparently provides a single "correct" pronunciation
>for each word.

Reminded me a bit of the audiologist's test:  "Now you will say
...".  (It doesn't use "cot" and "caught", I suppose, just "cat".)

>    in this case, a 4-syllable "conservative"
>pronunciation (that sticks close to the spelling, giving one vowel for
>each vowel letter; and with stressed [I] rather than [i], perhaps by
>trisyllabic laxing).  the two 4-syllable pronunciations sound old-
>fashioned or british to me, but maybe that's just because i don't hear
>them very often.
>
>in the real world, there are four pronunciations, distributed socially
>and geographically i don't know how.  all four are phonologically well-
>formed for just about everyone, so they're all available.

What does DARE say about "Alicia"?  (Probably nothing, but are there
any similar common nouns?)  And surely there can be only one
pronunciation for "Liza" since Ms. Minnelli came out.

Joel

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