The things you learn: alveolar

[pne]

So, apparently I've been pronouncing "alveolar" wrong all my life. Which is not so useful if you're talking about phonetics, since it's a fairly common word in that context.

I've been pronouncing it "al-vee-OH-ler" (just as I pronounce the alveoli in your longs "al-vee-OH-lie"), but apparently it's "al-VEE-a-ler, al-VEE-a-lie". Whodathunkit.

I was enlightened after reading the comments on this blog entry of John Wells's, especially those of Amy Stoller and Sili.

(And slightly relatedly, I keep having to remind myself that "rhotic" is not "rot-ic" but "rho-tic".)

Comments

[kake]

Interesting. Al-vee-OH-lie was the pronunciation I was taught in biology lessons at school.

[pne]

And I imagine it's what I was taught, too -- I mean, I can't imagine where else I would have got the pronunciation from other than from school, since I didn't really read about alveoli by myself...

Yet two online and one paper dictionary I consulted agreed that the stress was on the second syllable.

Bizarre.

[kake]

http://howjsay.com/ agrees too! Next time I see my sister (a teacher) I'll ask her what pronunciation is taught in her school.

alveoli

[pne]

Did you ever get the chance to ask?

Re: alveoli

[kake]

I forgot! I'll try to remember next time.