"... Surely thou art one of them: for thou are a Galilean, and thy speech agreeth thereto." (from Mark 14:70)
On Wednesday afternoon's "Jay Severin Show" on Boston's FMTalk 96.9, Jay Severin played a sound bite from Hillary Clinton (in which she calls Barak Obama "irresponsible and naive"). After playing the cut, to my surprise, Jay seized upon Hillary's pronunciation of the word "either". Hillary pronounced the word as "EEEther" (with a strong long E sound and no I sound). Severin then emphatically stated that the correct pronunciation of "either" is "I-ther" (with a strong long I sound and no E sound). Jay Severin explained that "either" has a Germanic root and that therefore the correct pronunciation is "I-ther".
I later asked my son Jon (who holds a B.A. in Writing from Emerson College) what the correct pronunciation of "either" is and Jon said, "Well, most people say 'EEEther' but the correct pronunciation is actually 'I-ther'. I then checked with a dictionary. In fact, it's a 1949 Random House Dictionary that I have, and it stated that the PREFERRED pronunciation is "EEEther" but that "I-ther" is an alternative and is the British pronunciation. Out of curiosity, I looked up the word "neither." The Random House dictionary also said that "nEEEther" is the PREFERRED pronunciation but that "n-I-ther" is an alternative and is the British pronunciation.
I'm just curious. How you pronounce it? Is it a big deal? If we say "I-ther" does that make us kind of highbrow? If we say "EEEther" does that make us kind of trailer trash?
On Wednesday afternoon's "Jay Severin Show" on Boston's FMTalk 96.9, Jay Severin played a sound bite from Hillary Clinton (in which she calls Barak Obama "irresponsible and naive"). After playing the cut, to my surprise, Jay seized upon Hillary's pronunciation of the word "either". Hillary pronounced the word as "EEEther" (with a strong long E sound and no I sound). Severin then emphatically stated that the correct pronunciation of "either" is "I-ther" (with a strong long I sound and no E sound). Jay Severin explained that "either" has a Germanic root and that therefore the correct pronunciation is "I-ther".
I later asked my son Jon (who holds a B.A. in Writing from Emerson College) what the correct pronunciation of "either" is and Jon said, "Well, most people say 'EEEther' but the correct pronunciation is actually 'I-ther'. I then checked with a dictionary. In fact, it's a 1949 Random House Dictionary that I have, and it stated that the PREFERRED pronunciation is "EEEther" but that "I-ther" is an alternative and is the British pronunciation. Out of curiosity, I looked up the word "neither." The Random House dictionary also said that "nEEEther" is the PREFERRED pronunciation but that "n-I-ther" is an alternative and is the British pronunciation.
I'm just curious. How you pronounce it? Is it a big deal? If we say "I-ther" does that make us kind of highbrow? If we say "EEEther" does that make us kind of trailer trash?
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