On 0, will trillich <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: [snip] > all that remains is determining the 'right' sylLAble (and finding > the etymological heritage of each and every word). :)
You have hit the nail right, squarely on the head here. A word's
pronunciation depends entirely on its history. Since English is a
horrid combination of French, middle German and Latin, with some Norse
and (a little bit of) Spanish thrown in for good measure, how a word
is pronounced depends entirely on which language its roots are in.
The "caliope" example is in fact a bit misleading, since it is not
spelt that way. The word is in fact calliope, and its pronunciation
is cal-LEYE-op-ee; the extra 'l' affecting the pronunciation is a
(fairly) regular pattern in English, especially in the parts derived
from Latin or French (mostly from Latin anyway). I think.
IANALinguist.
Tom
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