The king is dead!

[W Brewer]

WG:  <Long live the king!>
WB: I have long contended that <long-lived> should be pronounced as
<long-l[eye]ved>, not <-l[ih]ved> ([ih] as in <give> (as in donate, not
jive)). My suspicion is that <long-lived> must "truly" (etymo-) be a
bahuvrihi compound, i.e. "possessed of a long life"; cf. wrong-headed,
addle-brained, strong-armed, single-handed. Voicing of the [f] in <life> +
<-ed> not abnormal. Therefore, the pronunciation <long-l[ih]ved> is
probably an alternate spelling pronunciation induced by the common
acclamation <Long live the king!>, except we haven't meant it since
1936-1952. Maybe, sort of morphologically internal double-maternity. Well,
maybe not. Incidentally, the cheapest cigarette brand in Taiwan is Longlife
(台灣長壽菸). Да здравствует царь!

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