XPost: alt.usage.english, alt.english.usage   
   From: peter@pmoylan.org   
      
   On 29/07/24 21:40, Phil wrote:   
   > On 29/07/2024 12:25, Peter Moylan wrote:   
   >> On 29/07/24 19:25, Steve Hayes wrote:   
   >>> On Mon, 29 Jul 2024 17:08:29 +1000, Peter Moylan   
   >>>  wrote:   
   >>>   
   >>>> There used to be a low-calorie Australian beer called Dietale.   
   >>>> My uncles used to pronounce it as if it were an Italian word.   
   >>>   
   >>> So did I when I first saw it.   
   >>>   
   >>> I've discovered that "biopic" is pronounced "BI-o-pic", but I   
   >>> still tend to pronounce it as "bi-Opic".   
   >>   
   >> So do I. So, I imagine, do many people, because the word looks as   
   >> if it's supposed tp rhyme with myopic.   
   >   
   > Yes, I'm one of those many. I also firmly believe it's possible to   
   > misle people, having encountered 'misled' in print at a tender age. A   
   > poster here a while back also brought us 'skipants'.   
   >   
   > I have the same confusion, in my head, with Dutch 'tegelijk', which   
   > I'm prone to think rhymes with 'degelijk'.   
      
   I won't comment on the Dutch examples, because I'm not sure what rhymes   
   with what. But in English, at least, anyone who invents a new word needs   
   to have a good feel for the spelling rules, which among other things   
   indicate how to pronounce the word.   
      
   Some people will claim that English has no consistent spelling rules,   
   but it does. (With, admittedly, some exceptions.) When faced with an   
   unknown word, most English speakers will agree on how to pronounce it.   
   The basic rule is "if it looks similar to a known word, then it probably   
   has a similar pronunciation".   
      
   It was a mistake to coin a word ending in -pic. We don't have many such   
   words, but for all the ones I can think of there is a simple   
   pronunciation rule: the stress falls on the penultimate syllable.   
      
   Some years ago there was an attempt in AUE to introduce a new word:   
   ellefescent. (Named for a regular known as LFS.) That coining was done   
   by people with a feel for the language. The pronunciation was obvious,   
   and the spelling didn't misle anyone.   
      
   --   
   Peter Moylan       peter@pmoylan.org    http://www.pmoylan.org   
   Newcastle, NSW   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)