"Fung guy"

Victor aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM
Wed Jul 29 22:37:21 UTC 2009


He's such a fun guy, he grows on you...\

    VS-)

Wilson Gray wrote:
> When I was an underling at the (former?) Botany Research Laboratory at
> Washington University in Saint Louis in 1955, it was considered a gas
> when the Americans tricked a Chinese visiting scholar from Taiwan into
> thinking that "fungi" [f^ndSai], the plural of "fungus," was
> pronounced [f^Ngai]. However, it now seems to be the case that *native
> speakers* of American English are  fully persuaded that [f^NgaI],
> which I first heard as a joke, really *is* the correct pronunciation
> of "fungi."
>
> Please note that I am *not* claiming that the new pronunciation
> *originated* at Wash U. in 1955. I am merely noting an oddity of
> coincidence..
> --
> -Wilson
> =

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



More information about the Ads-l mailing list