How to say "either" and "neither"

[Jonathan Lighter]

As I may have mentioned elsewhere, _either_ avoidance seems to be the cool
thing on CNN.

E.g. "North Korea can't be far from the President's mind as well."

They say that sort of thing constantly. Fear of "mispronouncing" _either_?

(_Neither_ may be harder to avoid.)

JL


On Sat, Apr 27, 2013 at 8:14 PM, Tom Zurinskas <truespel at hotmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Tom Zurinskas <truespel at HOTMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: How to say "either" and "neither"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> "N"eye"ther (~niether) one of us wants to be the first to say goodbye?"
>  Oh, Gladys Knight; you wouldn't.
>
> I believe tradstreeng (string of letters in traditional spelling) "ei" is
> pronounced "eye" in German.
>
> Interestingly, if we are to be accepting of alternative pronunciations in
> a kind and charitable way, than we should also be accepting of alternative
> phonetic spelling systems, especially if they are superior to the present.
>
> Tom Zurinskas, Conn 20 yrs, Tenn 3, NJ 33, now Fl 9.
> See how English spelling links to sounds at http://justpaste.it/ayk
>
>
>
>
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> > Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject: Re: How to say "either" and "neither"
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > On Mon, Apr 22, 2013 at 11:00 AM, W Brewer <brewerwa at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > either [EYE-ther ~ EE-ther]: Probably c. 1962, Brother Regan (EE not
> AY)
> > > told us boys a joke about an Englishman & an American arguing over the
> > > pronunciation of <either>, so they asked an Irishman (or maybe
> Scotsman) to
> > > decide: <<[AY-ther] will do>> he says.
> > >
> >
> > FWIW, the distribution of (n)EE-ther and (n)EYE-ther is IMO, totally
> > random, like unto EE-conomic v. EK-conomic, in BE. E.g. I use EE-, but my
> > mother used EYE-. But plenty of people in my congeries also use EYE-. So,
> > it's not a generational thing and it doesn't have anything to do with
> > social status, either. You simply "go for what you know." It matters not.
> >
> > I had no idea that there was any controversy regarding the pronunciation
> of
> > these words amongst y'all. Is there also a controversy WRT EE-conomic v.
> > EK-conomic amongst y'all that I don't know about?
> >
> > --
> > -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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> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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