What is the correct way of pronouncing the i
in "short-lived"?
Particularly, I'm looking for whether it's a short or long sound for this vowel. I've heard it both ways.
What is the correct way of pronouncing the i
in "short-lived"?
Particularly, I'm looking for whether it's a short or long sound for this vowel. I've heard it both ways.
Both short and long i are acceptable. AHD gives the following usage note:
The pronunciation (-laɪvd) is etymologically correct since the compound is derived from the noun life, rather than from the verb live. But the pronunciation (-lɪvd) is by now so common that it cannot be considered an error. In the most recent survey 43 percent of the Usage Panel preferred (-lɪvd), 39 percent preferred (-laɪvd), and 18 percent found both pronunciations equally acceptable.
Wiktionary agrees with that usage. Other dictionaries (Wordnik, Dictionary.com) list both pronunciations without comment.
Personally, I almost always use the short i like in 'give'.
(I'd give the two pronunciations slightly different connotations, something like short-i = it was around for a short time and it's already dead/gone, long-i = it's still around but won't be for long.)
Evidence for the long I pronunciation is in Gilbert & Sullivan's “Pirates of Penzance”:
To gain a brief advantage you've contrived,
But your proud triumph will not be long-lived
Since, as far as I know contrived was never pronounced with a short I. It was written over a hundred years ago and in song, but Gilbert was a clever rhymer and most of his work sounds like (fairly) normal speech apart from the invented words (like piratical).
Adding my $.02 after these many months:
I, for one, pronounce these expressions with a long i. My argument is that if something has a long life it is long-lived. The vocalization of the f sound to make it v doesn't mean we need to consider the word to be derived from the verb "live"; instead it is from the noun life. We don't use a short 8 when we we say a cat has nine lives, we use the long version.
Think of the parallel with knife. If someone is attacked with a sharp knife, you would say it was a "sharp-knived attack." If a cat truly had nine lives, it would be nine-lived (long i).
That said, I'm sure the other usage will eventually rid the world of us "long-lived" (with a long i) speakers, since we are only long-lived and not immortal.
I checked a couple dictionaries which list both the long and short i
as correct pronunciations. Anecdotally, I've typically heard the short i
, and that's how I pronounce it.
Geographic/cultural. Canadians/UK say lived with a short I. Americans, in general, say lived with a long i. I use it as one of the key words separating Americans from Canadians.
I favor the long i version based on the progression short life, short "lifed", short-lifed, short-lived (laivd). My original thought was to compare this with such compounds as even-handed, long-winded, etc., but having read the comments favoring short-lived with a short i I am more ready to accept the short i as a reasonable variation.
I am not yet convinced of the long-I version. And, incidentally, the argument that long-lived is related to life doesn't wash for me. It may be related, but so is the simple word live, which has the long I as an adjective (as in "live bait" or a "live broadcast"), but short I as a verb ("We all live in this house."). If I live a long time, I am probably long-lived (short I).
The "knife" example doesn't help either, as this word always sports a long I (knife/knives/knifed/knived).
"Short" is an adjective. Adjectives describe nouns, not verbs. Therefore, the "lived" in "short-lived" must be referring to the noun "life" as opposed to the verb "live." If one were to pronounce the i in the short fashion, implying a verb instead of a noun, one ought to say "shortly-lived." As far as any arguments concerning phrases such us "fall short," or "rest easy," I'll say that just because a phrase is in common usage, that doesn't make its grammar correct. On the other hand, language itself and its evolution certainly precede any official rule-making about what's correct and what's not, so one could argue that if a certain utterance is indeed in common usage, we ought to consider it an acceptable option. Of course, that would mean sanctioning such awful grammar as the over-corrected "and I" phenomenon, as in, "One of my students gave Adam and I a gift certificate to an amazing restaurant. We had the most amazing food. It was truly amazing."