In Spanish and Portuguese, it is "kilómetro" and "quilômetro" (Brazilian)/"quilómetro" (European), respectively, stressed where accented.
It's technically a ki-LO-meter sound rather than a ki-LOM-eter sound, but the same syllable is stressed. When reinforcing metric to my little sister, I emphasize the "kilo-meter" pronunciation. Funnily enough, I've seen some British, Canadian, and Australian people write "speedometre" instead of "speedometer", overcorrecting because they believe all -er endings are Americanisms, rather than realizing that "-meter" is the correct spelling to mean a measuring device in any dialect of English. My guess is that these people also use the "kilom-etre" pronunciation because it would rhyme with "speedometre". On Mon, Feb 17, 2014 at 12:37 PM, <ezra.steinb...@comcast.net> wrote: > Gene: > > I suspect this wrong pronunciation stems from an auditory analogy with > "thermometer". > > Not justified, of course ... just a plausible explanation. > > I can't think of another European language where the pronunciation would > be similar. > > -- Ezra > ------------------------------ > *From: *"eugene a mechtly" <mech...@illinois.edu> > *To: *"U.S. Metric Association" <usma@colostate.edu> > *Cc: *"eugene a mechtly" <mech...@illinois.edu> > *Sent: *Monday, February 17, 2014 10:19:48 AM > *Subject: *[USMA:53563] No Accent on "lom" in kilometer! > > > The CGPM does not publish an official "Guide for Pronouncing the Names and > Multiples of SI Units." > > Nevertheless, I am confident that members of the CIPM (and CGPM) would > reject an accent on the "lom" in the word kilometer. > > NBC commentators at the SUCHI Olympic events, *all* seem to have adopted > this bad practice of accenting the "lom." > > Who initiated this *deviation* from the established global practice of > enunciating both the prefix "kilo" and the stem "meter"? > > In spoken French and German there is no accented "lom" in kilometer! > > Is "lom" accented in any other languages which you might speak? > > Eugene Mechtly > > >
