Finale

[David Bowie]

This morning on NPR news (i didn't get the reporter's name--it was
during the half-hourly 5-minute news summaries, and i was simultaneously
trying to quell an argument among children, so i don't even remember the
context) the reporter pronounced the word 'finale' as [fI'nAl] (where
[A] is the low back unrounded vowel).

As far as i can recall, i've only ever heard this word pronounced
[fI'nQ.li] (where [Q] is the short-a). A cursory online search of
dictionaries turns up [fI'nA.li], which i can imagine i may have heard
before and simply reprocessed to [fI'nQ.li], but no two-syllable ones.

So whence this two-syllable pronunciation? Nativization? A Britishism? A
pronunciation i wasn't aware of before?

--
David Bowie                               University of Central Florida
     Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
     house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
     chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.

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