XPost: alt.usage.english, alt.english.usage   
   From: snidely.too@gmail.com   
      
   Lo, on the 7/29/2024, Steve Hayes did proclaim ...   
   > On Tue, 30 Jul 2024 10:08:44 +1000, Peter Moylan    
   > wrote:   
   >   
   >> 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.   
   >   
   > I suppose whoever coined "biopic" was thinking of "biopsy" rather than   
   > "myopic". But I've also seen, in writing, people using "optics" in   
   > peculiar ways that suggest that they are not talking about lens   
   > construction.   
      
   I really doubt that they were thinking of anything but shortening   
   "biographical picture".   
      
   For your second point, it has the appearance of so.   
      
      
   /dps   
      
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