[Ads-l] "theatre"/"theater" rhyming with "heater"

[Neal Whitman]

This may be a case of Recency/Frequency Illusion, but I have been 
hearing several podcasters and maybe radio reporters pronounce "theatre" 
with just two syllables, so that it rhymes with "heater". At first I 
assumed that I was hearing a pronunciation with a really reduced schwa 
syllable, and that if the speakers were to speak the word slowly, it 
would be audible. But now I've heard enough examples that I'm beginning 
to wonder if the pronunciation is as intended. I don't see this 
pronunciation listed on m-w.com. Have any of you heard it, or said it?

A search of the ADS archives brings up a lot of posts about something 
called "The African Theatre," but nothing on this as far as I've been 
able to tell.

A search of alt.usage.english, I'm disappointed to find out, is now much 
more difficult because the group has become flooded with irrelevant, 
trolly, inflammatory posts that are probably part of someone's info 
warfare campaign.

Neal


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