Timeline for What is the correct pronunciation of "February"? [closed]
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
16 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 5, 2012 at 4:21 | history | closed |
user11550 J.R. Matt E. Эллен tchrist♦ Robert Cartaino |
general reference | |
| May 4, 2012 at 16:31 | answer | added | Alex B. | timeline score: 2 | |
| May 4, 2012 at 16:26 | comment | added | Mark Beadles | I see! Evidently February is pronounced "Shibboleth" ;) | |
| May 4, 2012 at 16:01 | comment | added | tchrist♦ | @MarkBeadles Oh, my parents and grandparents certainly enforced the rule. We weren’t supposed to sound like we were uneddicated. | |
| May 4, 2012 at 15:59 | comment | added | tchrist♦ | @Mitch Everyone in my family, and perhaps also from my region, has always said the r in February. But I come from a family of educators with careful diction in the Inland North, so this may have influenced it. | |
| May 4, 2012 at 15:42 | comment | added | Mark Beadles | @Mitch Maybe you are "supposed to" but I'm not. As far as I know there is nobody enforcing this rule, and it is honored largely in the breach. | |
| May 4, 2012 at 14:39 | comment | added | GEdgar | I remember long ago, when Walter Cronkite did the CBS evening news, probably in the 1960s, he put a little postscript at the end of his broadcast one day. A newly-revised dictionary had listed the "you" pronunciation of February along with the usual pronunciation. He (W. C.) had never liked the "correct" pronunciation with R, so from now on (with the dictionary's authority) he intended to use the "you" pronunciation. | |
| May 4, 2012 at 13:20 | comment | added | Mitch | One is 'supposed' to say it with '-RU-', but people hardly ever do (except maybe newscasters). And really, it's kinda hard to tell which one someone is using in natural flowing speech. 'Liberry' for 'library', on the other hand, is pretty obviously 'wrong'. | |
| May 4, 2012 at 8:39 | comment | added | J.R. | @BarrieEngland: there may not be a single 'correct' way to pronounce anything (except maybe ˈɛnɪˌθɪŋ), but there are several 'incorrect' ways. (For example, I wouldn't pronounce February as "MARCH".) | |
| May 4, 2012 at 8:35 | comment | added | J.R. | @DavidWallace: interesting take. In the US, at least, the silent "R" pronunciation is extensive, to the point where I don't think it sounds uneducated here. | |
| May 4, 2012 at 8:32 | answer | added | J.R. | timeline score: 8 | |
| May 4, 2012 at 6:55 | comment | added | user16269 | Lots of people drop the first R. To many people's ears, this makes them sound uneducated. If you are learning English, you would be well advised to pronounce both of the Rs. | |
| May 4, 2012 at 6:42 | comment | added | Barrie England | There is no 'correct' pronunciation of anything. | |
| May 4, 2012 at 6:09 | comment | added | nohat | Lots of words have silent letters. Do you have some special reason to believe that the dictionaries you have consulted might be mistaken? | |
| May 4, 2012 at 6:05 | history | edited | user11550 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
edited title
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| May 4, 2012 at 6:03 | history | asked | Carol Hardin | CC BY-SA 3.0 |