Judaize

[Mark Mandel]

On Mon, Nov 9, 2009 at 8:44 AM, David Barnhart <dbarnhart at highlands.com>
wrote:
>
> I was struck very early this morning with the seeming contrast between the
> spelling of Judaize and the pronunciation /-i:-/ variant.

That is,  /'dZu:.di.aIz/, yes? MW Online uses e with macron for the 2nd
vowel, but in this context its quantity has to be short.

> The variant is recognized by MW3 and NOAD and AHD and RHU.   Other
variants
> are schwa and /-ei-/.   WBD has only /-i:-/.   ACD has only /-i-/,
probably
> corresponding to schwa.  OED has only /-ei-/.
>
> My question is this: where did the /-i:-/ variant come from?

/eI/ -> /i/ seems like a normal qualitative reduction under destressing, vs.
only /ei/ when stressed in "Judaic". MW and OED have the same sets of vowels
in "Judaism".

m a m

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