Xander ,'Selfless'
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
I bet that if you started using the "correct" pronounciation, folks would be correcting _you_ left and right.
Like "forte" -- it's only supposed to be pronounced "for-TAY" when referring to music; when it's used to mean a strong point, it's supposed to be pronounced "fort."
And every time I've tried to use that pronounciation, I've gotten corrected.
m-w.com says:
In forte we have a word derived from French that in its "strong point" sense has no entirely satisfactory pronunciation. Usage writers have denigrated \'for-"tA\ and \'for-tE\ because they reflect the influence of the Italian-derived 2forte. Their recommended pronunciation \'fort\, however, does not exactly reflect French either: the French would write the word le fort and would rhyme it with English for. So you can take your choice, knowing that someone somewhere will dislike whichever variant you choose. All are standard, however. In British English \'fo-"tA\ and \'fot\ predominate; \'for-"tA\ and \for-'tA\ are probably the most frequent pronunciations in American English.
From MW
usage: In forte we have a word derived from French that in its "strong point" sense has no entirely satisfactory pronunciation. Usage writers have denigrated \'for-"tA\ and \'for-tE\ because they reflect the influence of the Italian-derived 2forte. Their recommended pronunciation \'fort\, however, does not exactly reflect French either: the French would write the word le fort and would rhyme it with English for. So you can take your choice, knowing that someone somewhere will dislike whichever variant you choose. All are standard, however. In British English \'fo-"tA\ and \'fot\ predominate; \'for-"tA\ and \for-'tA\ are probably the most frequent pronunciations in American English.
That's my favorite cross-post ever.
Jesse, holy mother of freakish X-posts.
You funny x-posting geeks!
Heh.
I honestly thougth that Jesse had just double posted. freaky!
Heh.
My surprise was diphtheria. I've never pronounced that right, and I'm not sure I've ever heard it right either.
I try to say "fort," just for the fight of it.
I can't get out of my side of the bed for books, and I'm out of shelf space. I may have too many.
I am Plei. In fact, I just had to move all the books beside the bed out to the hall so I could spray for fleas. Now I can't walk down the hall.
THIS MUST STOP. I think.