[Ads-l] Pronunciation of "(anti)semitic"

[Laurence Horn]

On sympathetic analogical reformations:

Arnold’s blogpost mentions that Ben suggested that the prior existence of -etic adjectives might be influencing the shift to “anti-semetic", presumably in the way that (as we’ve discussed ages ago on the list) the much-maligned “nucular” pronunciation of “nuclear” (as in the title of Geoff Nunberg’s book _Going Nucular_) was/is partly a product of a set of -Vcular adjectives like “jocular”, “(bin)ocular”, “spectacular”, “particular”, “vehicular”, “secular”, etc. etc.,  and the virtual non-existence of -Vclear ones other than “cochlear” and “nuclear” itself.  So what would the -etic influencers be? I’m thinking “diabetic” might be a role. Or perhaps (although it doesn’t allude to a disorder) “athletic” or “sympathetic". Or, dare I suggest, “phonetic". Others (“ascetic”, “copacetic”) are probably too rare or abstruse to play a role.  Here’s a list of rhymes: 

https://tinyurl.com/bdft32w2 <https://tinyurl.com/bdft32w2>

Of course “(anti-)semitic” does rhyme with “clitic”.  And (at least in the US) with “Hasidic”, 

LH

> On Dec 2, 2022, at 7:28 PM, Charles C Doyle <cdoyle at UGA.EDU> wrote:
> 
> More often than not, it seems (most recently tonight by Johathan Karl on ABC World News), the pronunciation of the word "antisemitic" has been manifesting the penultimate vowel as [E] rather than the historical and orthographic [I].
> 
> --Charlie
> 
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org


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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org