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> So how far back do you want to go for 'original' and 'correct'? As far back as the pronunciation guide from modern English dictionaries. https://www.merriam-
by 1_player 5y ago
> So how far back do you want to go for 'original' and 'correct'?
As far back as the pronunciation guide from modern English dictionaries. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aesthetic https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/aesthetic
Yours is a nitpick over the nature of æ that doesn't invalidate my point that most people mispronounce that word.
- amanaplanacanal 5y agoWell... dictionaries are attempting to document actual English usage, so if most people pronounce it differently I would suggest the dictionary is wrong, not the people pronouncing it differently. And that’s on top of the fact that languages change over time and regional accents and dialects can pronounce words very differently.
- jacobolus 5y agoThat dictionary documents es-, is-, and ēs- as common pronunciations (perhaps IPA vowels ɛ, ɪ, and iː), with the 'es-' form (short e sound) most common in the USA (this is the one I generally hear people use, with a vowel sound somewhere between IPA ɛ, e, ə, æ sounds and short enough that identifying the precise vowel can be tricky) and the ēs- form (long e sound) most common in the UK. Having multiple accepted pronunciations is different from “most people mispronounce this”. I don’t really understand what you are criticizing. Maybe you can put up an audio recording including what you consider the “correct” and “incorrect” pronunciations to be?
- fknorangesite 5y agoWhat does invalidate your point though is that you've got the cause and effect backwards: a dictionary is not the source of truth - native speakers are. A dictionary describes not prescribes. If a dictionary is in disagreement with native speakers, it is the dictionary that will change, not the other way around.