Pronunciations you had to unlearn

[Raphael]

I very recently learned that in English, the "o" in "leopard" is silent. To think that for all that time, my inner ear had a completely false idea of how the face eating quote would sound like when spoken out aloud!

[Lērisama]

I very recently learned that in English, the "o" in "leopard" is silent. To think that for all that time, my inner ear had a completely false idea of how the face eating quote would sound like when spoken out aloud!

The ⟨e⟩ is short¹ as well, which is odd. Interestingly this pronounciation of ⟨eo⟩ is also found in the word ⟨Leonard('s)⟩². Does anyone know whats going on here? I'd guess trisyllabic laxing and then … randomly dropping a schwa?

¹ In English spelling terminology, and coincidentally also in real life. It's the DRESS vowel /ɛ/.
² In the UK at least, it's much more likely that you come across something named St Leonard's than someone named Leonard.

Edit: forgot to double check my lexical set and got it wrong

[Travis B.]

I very recently learned that in English, the "o" in "leopard" is silent. To think that for all that time, my inner ear had a completely false idea of how the face eating quote would sound like when spoken out aloud!

The ⟨e⟩ is short¹ as well, which is odd. Interestingly this pronounciation of ⟨eo⟩ is also found in the word ⟨Leonard('s)⟩². Does anyone know whats going on here? I'd guess trisyllabic laxing and then … randomly dropping a schwa?

¹ In English spelling terminology, and coincidentally also in real life. It's the BED vowel /ɛ/.

I'm pretty sure the term is 'DRESS', not 'BED'.

² In the UK at least, it's much more likely that you come across something named St Leonard's than someone named Leonard.

I'd never even heard of a "St. Leonard's" until I saw your post.

[Travis B.]

I should also note that 'Leonard' is just the English equivalent to Scandinavian/German 'Lennart'.

[jal]

I should also note that 'Leonard' is just the English equivalent to Scandinavian/German 'Lennart'.

Or any of the other multitude of local varieties ("Leonardo", "Léonard", "Lennard" etc.). Apparently it's from Germanic "Leonhard", "brave lion".


JAL