Brian J. White wrote in USMA 26803
I'm just saying that pronunciation of kil-O-meter vs kil-ah-meter is
a total non-issue.
There are pronunciation differences in English all over the world.
Tomayto, tomahto. Same thing.
The great thing is, they're all tomatoes. heh..right?
That was my point. Let's not fight pronunciation and focus on
metric usage. I disagree that the pronunciation is apathy or
disinterest. It's just that US English has changed some things
around...not unlike behaviour vs behavior, color vs colour,
kilometre vs kilometer, center vs centre, etc.etc.
The pronunciation goes with it.
Now....I too would prefer that the US would have left English alone
and had NOT changed those words and slight pronunciation
differences. Thing is though, we have...and we WON'T change that.
We aren't the Getting US English Back In Line With Commonwealth
English group are we?
I agree with Brian that the pronunciation of kilometre is not a
matterr of importance and is not a subject that should be discussed
with the general public. Stress and spelling of unit names are
subjects on which the Conf�rence G�n�rale des Poids et Mesures makes
no rules, but confines its pronoucements to the spelling of the
metric symbols. Usage varies among languages as to pronuciation and
spelling of unit names. For example the Romance languages accent the
second syllable of the unit mame:
Synbol Spanish Italian
------ ----------- -----------
km ki LOM etro chi lOM etro
cm cen TIM etro cen TIM etro
mm mi LIM etro mil LIM etro
The northern European languages pronounce the unit names as if the
prefix is a separate word from the base unit; e.g. kilo-meter.
In French I have been told "Il n'y pas de accent tonique dans la
langue fran�aise".
In English the frequent mispronunciation of kilometre is probably due
to a false analogy with barometer, thermometer, manometer, etc. The
latter are all instruments, while kilometre is a unit of measurement.
It may be that American misusage has been influenced by the common
boundary between the two countries as the kilometre is probably the
only metric unit that American tourists meet in Mexico.
--
Joseph B. Reid
17 Glebe Road West
Toronto M5P 1C8 Telephone 416-486-6071
