Thursday, December 4, 2014

Either Pronunciation

Well, I guess I'll quit trying to force the pronunciation of "either" to be with an "e" sound to start.  The controversy involving Americans and British need not begin Revolutionary War II.  That having been said, however, how many of you remember your teachers' discussing "either . . . or" and "neither . . . nor" and using the "i" sound to start "either" and "neither"?  A very small percentage, I feel sure.  I believe the late comedic genius--and grammar expert, no less--George Carlin put it this way:  "Why do you think the "e" pronunciation is given first in most dictionaries?!"

I'll remind readers, by the way, that I'm making a concerted effort to eliminate the word "nor" from the English language.  I can no longer find one logical, proper use of that word.

4 comments:

  1. "Nor" is also used in computing as the opposite of an "OR Gate" called a "NOR Gate."

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  2. Cool, as in nor’easter!

    ReplyDelete