Re: How do I pronounce this word:

Most of the American English professors I know (and I am one) pronounce
it to rhyme with "riddle" despite the long "I" in "idyllic." WWWebster
considers this a British pronunciation; but if you're discussing "The
Idylls of the King" in a college lit class, the "riddle" sound is
probably the one to go with, even in the U.S.

English profs teaching English lit often pick up British
pronunciations. However, the OED cites both pronunciations, with the
long-I version first. Looks like there's a lot of variation.

On my computer at least, the two recorded examples for the word in
WWWebster are identical (long "I"). Is this just a problem with my
browser, or do others hear the same thing?

Paul Brians

Peter Jason wrote:
Idyll

Does it rhyme with "idle" or "riddle"?

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: How do I pronounce this word:
    ... considers this a British pronunciation; ... Idylls of the King" in a college lit class, ... However, the OED cites both pronunciations, with the ...
    (alt.usage.english)
  • Re: [en] Sassenach - Aussprache
    ... It does not give pronunciations of words used ... | The pronunciations in this dictionary reflect spoken AMERICAN ... Regional and local American English pronunciations are ... | speech in southeast England and conventionally used as a model ...
    (de.etc.sprache.misc)
  • Re: Trig test
    ... know anything about proper pronunciations. ... now who is this criticising Wiki on English pronunciation? ... I listen to Englishpeople speak. ... Arwell, the BBC's speeling... ...
    (uk.rec.sheds)
  • Re: Hindi, Hindusthani and Sanskrtam as the unifier of Bharatiya sprachbund (language union)
    ... variety of pronunciations, some of which may be words, and some ... _Phonology of English_, and when it comes to the phonology of English, ... On reading this, words like 'pudding' and 'herring' immediately come to mind, and it is only 23 pages later that we are told that such words are being treated as if they have an -ing suffix. ... This seems to me to be awfully close to Peter's concept of a special kind of "phonetic" morpheme which need not be a morpheme as commonly understood. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: All languages are equally fit
    ... dictionary on my shelf seems to show pronunciations for the Welsh ... most entries; German has them only for unusually pronounced words; and ... Swedish, Finnish and Spanish seem to show none at all. ... Finnish-English ones seem to have pronunciations for all the English ...
    (sci.lang)