Subject: How DO you pronounce Guillemot?
Date: Apr 11 09:14:46 2003
From: Guttman, Burt - GuttmanB at evergreen.edu


There was a recent discussion on Birdchat about pronouncing bird names, and
I'll repeat here what I said there. It may be fun to talk about this, but
if you're looking for "correctness," you won't find it, and the argument is
fundamentally kind of silly. English derives from many distinct sources,
and the original words get changed in unpredictable ways. "Guillemot"
derives from French, but my dictionary says "gil-e-mot" without a trace of
the French. However, I hear people all the time giving the first syllable
the French "gee," and who is to be the authority that says they're wrong?
Furthermore, American English is divided by regionalisms and by class
distinctions. Think of tomayto/tomahto, potayto/potahto--and let's call the
whole thing off. Where I grew up in Minneapolis, I said was going to go
watch birds on Bassetts "Crick" but others would have said Bassetts "Creak."
"Pihleated" or "Pieleated"?--it doesn't matter: your choice, and others will
understand you. But they'd better not try to correct you, because there
ain't no "correct." And by the way, William Strunk, of the wonderful Strunk
and White book "The Elements of Style," always told his students, "If you
don't know how to pronounce a word, say it loud!"

Oooh, I just had a Varied Thrush hop by my window. And yesterday we had
about eight Wood Ducks on the lake and coming up to feed on and under the
large feeder. No Evening Grosbeaks yet, though. I'm still waiting.

Burt Guttman guttmanb at evergreen.edu
The Evergreen State College
Olympia, WA 98505 360-456-8447
Home: 7334 Holmes Island Road S.E., Olympia 98503

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