chic'

[Herb Stahlke]

I don't remember exactly when Chic jeans first came on the market, but I
think it was late 80s or early 90s.  My oldest boy was in high school then
and I mentioned the pronunciation to him.  He was surprised that I
mentioned it because he assumed it was pronounced "chick."  At that time
"chic" was pronounced "chick" more generally by teenagers.  I don't know
how far that pronunciation spread.

The significance of the apostrophe is possibly that the writer assumes the
"chick" pronunciation, knows how the French word is pronounced, and uses
the apostrophe to mark "chic'" for the "chick" pronunciation.


On Sun, Aug 25, 2013 at 11:46 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: chic'
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> What is the significance of the apostrophe?
>
> But why is this not simply "chic" = "stylish" mispronounced?  Is
> there, like "Miss Chick Jeans" (which I confess I had never heard
> of), a brand named "(Miss) Chick Furniture"?  Something like "chick
> movies"?
>
> Joel
>
> At 8/24/2013 09:27 PM, Herb Stahlke wrote:
> >I found the following in a comment on a Washington Post article this
> >evening:
> >
> >sell the wood to one of those recycled wood places that will turn into
> >chic' furniture
> >
> >I've heard "chic" pronounced "chick" ever since the jeans by that name
> were
> >on the market, and clearly the pronunciation must have been around longer
> >than that.  But this is the first time I've seen this spelling reanalysis.
> >Unfortunately a Google search wasn't useful.
> >
> >Herb
> >
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