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

[James Eric Lawson]

> But does the PIN/PEN merger operate before /t/?  Or after (as opposed to
> before) nasals?

Formally, no, my personal experience aside. Subjectively, yes, although
the merger would be pit/pet, or mitt/met if you prefer.

My background includes a strong Irish influence (grandparents off the
boat), first 3 years in Southern then 2 in Northern Illinois, followed
by 3 in western Oklahoma, followed by too many in southern Minnesota,
then some in western Washington.

The claim rests on my inexpert appraisal of the influences on my own
tendency to self-correct anti-semetic to anti-semitic mid-articulation.

> 
> On Sat, Dec 3, 2022 at 12:39 PM James Eric Lawson <jel at nventure.com> wrote:
> 
>> 'Pathetic', I say hopefully. Yet in my experience, the PIN/PEN merger
>> seems the stronger and more likely influence.
>>
>> On 12/3/22 08:03, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>> 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
>>>>
>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>> --
>> James Eric Lawson
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
> 
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> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

-- 
James Eric Lawson

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