_apricot, caramel_

[Wilson Gray]

My wife and I both pronounce this word as

(a) ['AprI,kat]

However, in my family, this word is pronounced

(b) ['EIprI,kat]

Somehow, over the years, I got the impression that the "proper'
pronunciation is (a). So, I've been using that one for dekkids. Now,
as I watch The Wizard of Oz on the tube, I hear the cast using
pronunciation (b). Having been relicensed, I shall now return to the
(b) of my youth.

According to my wife, the only pronunciation of which she was hitherto
aware is (a).

In like manner, my wife and I both use the trisyllabic pronunciation
of _caramel_. However, we *both* grew up using only a single
pronunciation the bisyllabic one, acquiring the "proper" pronunciation
only later in life.

Neither of us can recall what the motivation for this shift was. We
agree that the shift is mysterious, since, as is the case with the
initial vowel of _economic_, variation is standard. In fact, there was
once a commercial featuring Shaq and some other black guy. Shaq used
the trisyllabic pronunciation, the other guy used the bisyllabic one,
and there was nothing to indicate that there was any kind of
preference for either pronunciation. And there's currently a
commercial on (national?) TV in which the white reader uses the
bisyllabic pronunciation without hesitation.

IAC, perhaps this parallel shift, in our case, is a consequence of our
becoming familiar with the spelling and unconsciously deciding that
trisyllabic, therefore, *must* be "proper," lacking the 'nads to go
against writ*.

Youneverknow.

*In my youth, _writ_ was the Catholic word for _scripture_, e.g. "Holy
Writ" = "Holy Scripture."

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

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