So last semester my English prof would pronounce certain words in a strange way...I just used to chalk this up to his level of intelligence...He's obviously more educated than I am so who the hell am I to judge? It was Dr. Studer who taught me that. Somebody in my 210 class questioned a passage of Shakespeare's and she, in her special way, berated him and suggested that we should assume Shakespeare is smarter than us...Not the other way around. But I digress.
It was little things My English prof would say...Like pronouncing Circa...Not with a soft c sound, like an s, but he would pronounce it with a hard C sound, like James T. "Kirka".
Kirka? What the hell? Whatever...It's his class. I figured I should give him the benefit of the doubt. But it was weird...
This morning my English prof was talking about ego, and the super-ego...But he pronounced it eggo....Never heard that one before.
Made me think of waffles and syrup....
I wondered, is it bad form to put up your hand and ask about these odd and sometimes confusing pronunciations?
Thursday, January 20, 2005
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3 comments:
circa: Etymology: Latin, from circum around.
As nobody knows how Latin is actually supposed to be pronounced, it being a dead language and all, I don't know how we could say it's wrong to say "kirka". I have also been told in that Latin class that I dropped out of very quickly about 4 years ago, that there are two schools of thought as to how the c is pronounced, and that the newer idea is that it is actually pronounced like a k. At least that is what my prof told us.
On the other hand, you could argue that "circa" has long since been assimilated into the English language, and in that case, the online Merriam-Webster says:
Pronunciation: 's&r-k&
but Eggo? That is just fucking weird. And some francophile has replaced the apostrophy on this keyboard with èèèèèèèèèèèèèèèèèèèèèè
Good thing I do not like contractions all that much anyway.
Ahhh...the frenchies...screwing up keyboards! Catrin were you on campus? I didn't think you could change the keyboards to french on campus.
That is good news if you were on campus. In case you weren't sure I mean 'on campus'.
YoOu ever re-read something you have written and realize you're babbling? Am I the only one who notates this babble? My sentences end with the words on campus everytime in that last paragraph. It's like opening up fortune cookies and saying the words "in bed" at the end..on campus.
Kay, I'll just go now...
I hereby edit my above comment: It is "apostrophe", not "apostrophy", of course(shudder). Also, after "four years ago", there shouldn't be a comma. And god, why can't I just let this go.
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