Originally posted by arnie: ... what prompted you to look up pileated in the first place?
I was wondering what species of woodpecker Woody Woodpecker was supposed to be. Then, in an occurrence of synchronicity or morphic resonance or something, a pileated woodpecker showed up at our suet cake. I mentioned that I'd seen one to my amateur ornithologist brother-in-law, and we disagreed as to how to pronounce "pileated." I say, "pill-e-ated; he says, "pile-e-ated."
I'm surprised that others haven't read this, arnie - I thought it was quite funny.
It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. -J. Krishnamurti
My own personal favorite dictionary is the "Standard College Dictionary" of Harcourt, Brace & World, which seems to follow the latter idea. The following is their statement of policy: "A pronunciation is correct when it is normally and unaffectedly used by cultivated people. Strictly, any pronunciation is correct when it serves the purposes of communication and does not call unfavorable attention to the speaker... When two or more pronunciations are indicated for a word, the one that the editors believe most frequent in the northern and western sections of the United States is listed first, but other pronunciations are equally reputable. (The dictionary does not list socially substandard pronunciations, no matter how common they may be.)" "Pronunciations," by James B. McMillan, Standard College Dictionary, Harcourt, Brace & World.
I loved this! I wonder if they'd consider me to be "cultivated." Nah.
