For whatever reason, I mentally pronounced
elixir as /ɪˈlɛksər/ for a while. Maybe it's similar to the phenomenon of pronouncing
Semitic as /sɪˈmɛtɪk/, which is something else I have had trouble with (when I'm consciously choosing which pronunciation to use, I say /sɪˈmɪtɪk/).
And I used to pronounce
Presbyterian as /ˌprɛsbɪˈteriən~ˌprɛspɪˈteriən/, probably influenced by all the words that end in
-arian /eriən/. I doubt I'm the only person who uses this pronunciation, but it doesn't seem to be common in dictionaries, so I currently aim for /ˌprɛzbɪˈtiriən/ instead. (Both /s/ and /z/ pronunciations are listed in dictionaries, but I've come to prefer /z/ because that way I can easily pronounce the following consonant as /b/ instead of as /p/—also, the analogy of
lesbian makes me feel like /zb/ is probably more regular.)
Salmoneus wrote: ↑Thu Nov 01, 2018 8:01 pm
-e words: indeed. For me, they were mostly the issue with names - took me a while to realise I was saying Mnemosyne wrong. [although unsurprisingly I always knew Psyche...]
The annoying thing is that the standard pronunciations of words/names ending in E aren't
quite according to etymology, just mostly. So "Calliope" is commonly heard with final /i/ (although apparently some people argue about whether a "silent e" pronunciation is "correct" for the instrument), but "Irene" is often two syllables, despite coming from Greek εἰρήνη. And (in my dialect at least) it would sound quite eccentric or pedantic to "pronounce the e" in
rationale, vice versa, or
bona fide(s), but it would equally sound incorrect to leave it "silent" in
simile or
sine qua non.
In the context of Greek mythology, though, I think it's a pretty reliable rule that E is pronounced as a distinct syllable at the end of female names (where it is typically from Greek η). I didn't realize for a while that this also applies to E in
Danae and
Pasiphae (although I knew about the disyllabic pronunciation of
Zoe, which provides a common example of E in hiatus after another vowel letter).
)
(Ironically, though, my first exposure to the song was actually Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and Judy Garland's parody.)
