Heard on The Judges: "compromise"

[Laurence Horn]

At 12:23 PM -0500 12/16/08, Mark Mandel wrote:
>But is it JUST a spelling pronunciation, or is it a reinterpretation of the
>word as meaning "promising to each other" -- which would be closer to the
>meaning of "marriage", if less likely?

Not to mention the possible reinterpretation of the *first* syllable
of the reanalyzed term.
;-)



>On Tue, Dec 16, 2008 at 11:20 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:
>
>>  Anymore, when we notice a spelling pronunciation of this type (I
>>  guess it's in the "MAYZ-l'd" for _misled_ category) we should be
>>  reassured that folks are still reading...
>>
>>  LH
>>
>>  At 10:03 AM -0500 12/16/08, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>  >Judge Penny [pInI], forty-four-year-old, black female speaker from
>>  Georgia:
>>  >
>>  >"Do you know what a marriage [m&:G] is [iIz]?
>>  >
>>  >Forty-four-year-old, Latino female college graduate married to a white
>>  >aerospace engineer:
>>  >
>>  >"Yes. It's two people compromising "com PROMising" ["kam 'pram at sIN]."
>>  >
>>  >
>>  >I've never heard this pronunciation before. Which is not to say that,
>>  >at one time, I wouldn't have used it, myself. It's only that, as fate
>>  >would have it, I never had occasion to speak this word during the time
>>  >when I would have said, "com PROMising."
>>  >
>>  >-Wilson
>>
>>
>
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