Heard on [adult swim]: "clique" > [klik]

[Arnold Zwicky]

On May 19, 2009, at 10:01 PM, Wilson Gray wrote:

>
> Spoken by a character in an animated cartoon:
>
> "They're all members of the Venture _clique [klik]_."
>
>
> I don't think that I've ever heard "clique" pronounced as other than
> [klIk] before.

[i] was the original.  the OED has only [i], NOAD2 and AHD4 have it as
the first alternative. MWDEU:

   The only dispute over _clique_ seems to be the appropriateness of
the anglicized pronunciation [with [I]] for this word imported from
the French in the 18th century [OED first cite in 1711].  By now the
anglicized pronunciation must be judged acceptable, even if it is less
frequent than [the pronunciation with [i]].

.....

_Garner's Modern American Usage_  (p. 155) accepts both
pronunciations, but says that the one with [i] is "the preference of
most cultivated speakers".  this sort of sniffiness against anglicized
pronunciations is not uncommon.

i don't know when the [I] pronunciation first appeared, or what its
current frequency is in what groups (though my impression is that it's
very widespread among the young in the U.S.).

arnold

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