[Ads-l] RES: cache - cachet confusible

[James A. Landau]

One Fri, 26 May 2017 10:58:44 Zone-0400 Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
 
<quote>
Another victim of this generalization may be “forte”:  This started out 
spelled and pronounced “fort”, sort of like the French nominalized 
adjectives it was borrowed from but later (19th c., apparently) began 
being spelled “forte”, and eventually the “for-tay” pronunciation arose, 
to the point that it’s now the primary one, according to the OED and AHD.
<end quote>

Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate Dictionay, page 493, has the following usage note:

"In forte we have a word derived from French that in its "strong point" sense has no entirely satisfactory pronunciation.  Usage writes have denigrated /'for tei/ and /'for tee/ because they reflect the influence of the Italian-derived forte [musical term].  Their recommended pronunciation /fort/, however, does not exactly reflect Frencheither: the Fren ch would write the word le fort and would rhyme it with English for.  So you can take your choice, knowing that someone somewhere will dislike whichever variant you choose.  All are standard, however.  In British English /'fo tei/ and /fot/ predominate; /'for tei/ and /for 'tei/ are prob. the most frequent pronunciations in American English".

   - Jim Landau

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