The Proper Pronunciation of Certiorari

[Tom Zurinskas]

In thefreedictonary.com for certiorari I hear
~sersheree  UK  (almost like surgery)~sershee'urrairee  icon
and below in truespel are > ser-shee-or-RAHR-ee  ~sershee'orraaree
> sert-zee-or-RAHR-ee   ~sertzee'orraaree
> ser-shee-or-RARE-eye  ~sershee'orrairie
> ser-shee-or-RARE-ee   ~sershee'orrairee
> ser-shee-or-ARR-eye    ~sershee'orrarie
> ser-shee-ARR-ee     ~sershee"aree

Tom Zurinskas, Conn 20 yrs, Tenn 3, NJ 33, now FL 12.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:       "Baker, John" <JBAKER at STRADLEY.COM>
> Subject:      The Proper Pronunciation of Certiorari
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
>                 "Certiorari" refers to the Supreme Court's writ of certiora=
> ri, a key step in the consideration of the large majority of cases that the=
>  court considers.  It is central to Supreme Court practice and part of the =
> vocabulary of every American lawyer.  But how should the word be pronounced=
> ?  It is Law Latin and was never used in classical periods, and there is ge=
> neral agreement that an anglicized pronunciation is appropriate, but the ag=
> reement stops there.
> 
>                 It turns out that the Supreme Court Justices themselves hav=
> e no agreement on this point.  A recent article in The Green Bag, which cal=
> ls itself "an entertaining journal of law," counts a variety of pronunciati=
> ons used by Justices in formal settings, where they presumably had time to =
> think about the pronunciation they wanted to use:
> 
> ser-shee-or-RAHR-ee
> sert-zee-or-RAHR-ee
> ser-shee-or-RARE-eye
> ser-shee-or-RARE-ee
> ser-shee-or-ARR-eye
> ser-shee-ARR-ee
> 
>                 On its face, this might seem to suggest that common pronunc=
> iations are superfluous, if a word's pronunciation can be as variable as sp=
> ellings were five centuries ago.  But there is another approach taken by tw=
> o Justices, who always pronounce it "cert" (i.e., "sert") in informal conte=
> xts and "review" in more formal settings.  Apparently they, at least, feel =
> discomfort with a word that does not have a standard pronunciation.
> 
>                 The article is at http://www.greenbag.org/v17n3/v17n3_artic=
> les_duane.pdf.
> 
> 
> John Baker
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
 		 	   		  
------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org