Much ado about diction

• Author: Paula S. 'Susie' Kent
• Pages: 6-6

MUCH ADO ABOUT DICTIO N

In Bryan A. Ga rner’s “How Do You

Say It?” October, page 24, I don’t

agree with a lot of the supposed ly

standar d pronunciations. However,

this “test” w as particularly chal-

lenging for a person brought up in

four countries who missed se veral

years of gramm ar school teaching

in English as the prim ary language

and whose pronunc iation was ini-

tially taught by English a nd Irish

teachers in school and Midwest ern

U.S. parents at home. As a result, I

really haven’t a clue. Particula rly dif-

fi cult is deciding wh ich “syLabul” to

emphasiz e.

Paula S. “Susie” Kent

North Stonington, Connecticut

Regarding the pronunciation of

“coup de grace” and “concierge,”

the fi nal con sonant in each case

(“c” and “g,” respectively) is in

fact pronounc ed in French,

so those who omit them are

mispronounci ng the words

in two language s. A similar

mistake is of ten made when pro-

nouncing “salade nicoise”—yes, the

fi nal “s” is pronounced.

John E. Thompson

Bethesda, Maryland

I’m surprised you don’t remem-

ber where the four-syllable pronun-

ciation of the word interesting came

from: Rowan & Mart in’s Laugh-In!

On that seminal ’60s T V show, Arte

Johnson’s German soldier charac-

ter would rise out of the bushes at

odd times and comment

on the show by saying his

catchphrase, “Verrry

in-te-res-ti ng!”

(Millennials, G oogle it.

Very funny in its time.)

Rick Goldberg

West Sacramento,

Californ ia

ON BEING CIVIL

Regarding “Civi lity Reboot,”

October, page 22, in our increasi ngly

tribal cultu re, incivility is perhaps

the norm. Campus speech code s are

enforced by a full-blown di versity

faculty. They earn their hef ty sala-

ries “censor ing” incivilit y. The more

incivility t he better for these bureau-

crats. They promote more incivil-

ity by running st aged tribunals that

deny “due process”—like the hearings

of Brett Kavanaugh—to the ac cused.

Jack Toliver

Saint George, Utah

CLARIFICATION

In “A New Deal,” October,

page 59, the list of law-

yer types under the dues

categories is par tial, not

comprehensi ve.

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