3 ms·

A reminder for me to practice pronouncing 'quark' like 'quart' - I think that original plan has been overun in practice and 'quark' is like 'lark', but I like t

A reminder for me to practice pronouncing 'quark' like 'quart' - I think that original plan has been overun in practice and 'quark' is like 'lark', but I like the occasional air of eccentric pretentiousness.

ars 15y ago
I still pronounce it like lark, and I don't intend to change.
- nknight 15y ago
  I'm utterly confused. I've never heard it pronounced like "lark". When/where has that been common?
  - Toucan 15y ago
    Star Trek:Deep Space 9 ?
    - nknight 15y ago
      Er, OK, I find that much closer to "quart" than "lark". Maybe we're dealing with some sort of accent/dialect issue here, and/or people are hearing something far more subtle than I am.
      - lmm 15y ago
        quart is (at least where I live) pronounced to rhyme with wort (or, I dunno, sort).
      - jonnathanson 15y ago
        I think it's a regional/accent thing. I'm on the West Coast, and I've always used (and heard) the DS9-style intonation of the word (which, to my ear, sounds a lot more like "quart" than "lark"). Midwesterners and New Englanders are probably more likely to hear and use the "lark" pronunciation in the word. (And the James Joyce explanation needs to take into account that Joyce, being Irish, would have pronounced and rhymed things a bit differently from an American).
        rprospero 15y ago
        Midwesterner (Indiana) here. I've never heard anyone use the "lark" pronunciation.
- kbutler 15y ago
  quart rhymes with wart (and not with art, bart, cart, dart, fart, mart, part, or tart) quark rhymes with ark, bark, dark, hark, lark, mark, nark, park, stark. Idaho/Utah, though I developed various pronunciations from early reading rather than hearing.
Angostura 15y ago
From Murray-Gellman's The Quark & The Jaguar: The Quark and the Jaguar:[45] “ In 1963, when I assigned the name "quark" to the fundamental constituents of the nucleon, I had the sound first, without the spelling, which could have been "kwork". Then, in one of my occasional perusals of Finnegans Wake, by James Joyce, I came across the word "quark" in the phrase "Three quarks for Muster Mark". Since "quark" (meaning, for one thing, the cry of the gull) was clearly intended to rhyme with "Mark", as well as "bark" and other such words, I had to find an excuse to pronounce it as "kwork". But the book represents the dream of a publican named Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker. Words in the text are typically drawn from several sources at once, like the "portmanteau" words in "Through the Looking-Glass". From time to time, phrases occur in the book that are partially determined by calls for drinks at the bar. I argued, therefore, that perhaps one of the multiple sources of the cry "Three quarks for Muster Mark" might be "Three quarts for Mister Mark", in which case the pronunciation "kwork" would not be totally unjustified. In any case, the number three fitted perfectly the way quarks occur in nature. " Personally, I think he should have stuck with Kwork if he wanted that pronounciation.

ars 15y ago

I still pronounce it like lark, and I don't intend to change.

nknight 15y ago
I'm utterly confused. I've never heard it pronounced like "lark". When/where has that been common?
- Toucan 15y ago
  Star Trek:Deep Space 9 ?
  - nknight 15y ago
    Er, OK, I find that much closer to "quart" than "lark". Maybe we're dealing with some sort of accent/dialect issue here, and/or people are hearing something far more subtle than I am.
    - lmm 15y ago
      quart is (at least where I live) pronounced to rhyme with wort (or, I dunno, sort).
    - jonnathanson 15y ago
      I think it's a regional/accent thing. I'm on the West Coast, and I've always used (and heard) the DS9-style intonation of the word (which, to my ear, sounds a lot more like "quart" than "lark"). Midwesterners and New Englanders are probably more likely to hear and use the "lark" pronunciation in the word. (And the James Joyce explanation needs to take into account that Joyce, being Irish, would have pronounced and rhymed things a bit differently from an American).
      - rprospero 15y ago
        Midwesterner (Indiana) here. I've never heard anyone use the "lark" pronunciation.
kbutler 15y ago
quart rhymes with wart (and not with art, bart, cart, dart, fart, mart, part, or tart) quark rhymes with ark, bark, dark, hark, lark, mark, nark, park, stark. Idaho/Utah, though I developed various pronunciations from early reading rather than hearing.

Angostura 15y ago

From Murray-Gellman's The Quark & The Jaguar: The Quark and the Jaguar:[45] “ In 1963, when I assigned the name "quark" to the fundamental constituents of the nucleon, I had the sound first, without the spelling, which could have been "kwork". Then, in one of my occasional perusals of Finnegans Wake, by James Joyce, I came across the word "quark" in the phrase "Three quarks for Muster Mark". Since "quark" (meaning, for one thing, the cry of the gull) was clearly intended to rhyme with "Mark", as well as "bark" and other such words, I had to find an excuse to pronounce it as "kwork". But the book represents the dream of a publican named Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker. Words in the text are typically drawn from several sources at once, like the "portmanteau" words in "Through the Looking-Glass". From time to time, phrases occur in the book that are partially determined by calls for drinks at the bar. I argued, therefore, that perhaps one of the multiple sources of the cry "Three quarks for Muster Mark" might be "Three quarts for Mister Mark", in which case the pronunciation "kwork" would not be totally unjustified. In any case, the number three fitted perfectly the way quarks occur in nature. " Personally, I think he should have stuck with Kwork if he wanted that pronounciation.