#4: Pronunciations

This post has, at best, a tenuous connection to theater and music, and I apologize for that. But I am often reminded of these pronunciations while listening to Robert W Schneider and Kevin David Thomas, the hosts of the podcast Behind the Curtain: Broadway’s Living Legends. (If you are interested in theater you should find it fascinating.)

1. OFTEN:

When I was young, one never heard the T pronounced in the word “often”; it rhymed with “soften.” But as I got older, more and more often I would hear the T pronounced in “often,” until it has gotten to the point that I don’t often hear “often” pronounced without the T.

I thought this was odd, and wondered if I had grown up somewhere with an unusual pronunciation. So I checked my 1969 edition of The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language and found that the only pronunciation listed is with a silent T. It appears that in 1969, the T was silent.

This not an issue in the normal course of things, but in The Pirates of Penzance if you pronounced the T you would lose the joke when they confuse the words “often” and “orphan”. Of course you would also lose the joke if you didn’t pronounce the words with a British accent, so there’s that.

2. NICHE:

When I was young, “niche” was always pronounced to rhyme with “itch.” But as I got older, it started to get all frenchified so it rhymed with “quiche.” (Sheesh!) In fact, by the time I wrote my first musical, Uncle Galahad, I had to specify the pronunciation so that in the song “I’m Rich!”, “niche” would actually rhyme with “rich.”

Now, I thought it odd that it had changed that much in such a short time, so I checked my 1969 edition of The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language and found that the only pronunciation listed rhymes with “rich.”

3. EXQUISITE:

When I was young, “exquisite” was almost always pronounced with the emphasis on the first syllable. Then, bit by bit, I started to hear people put the emphasis on the second syllable, and now that’s almost all you hear. I was curious enough about this that I checked my 1969 edition of The etc, etc, etc, and found that the only pronunciation listed has the emphasis on the first syllable.

I can’t think of a connection to either music or theater for this one, but you could see that if a songwriter were to put “exquisite” into a lyric, it would get really messed up if the singer put the emPHAsis on the wrong syLLAble (to coin a phrase).

Now, I realize that none of this amounts to much in the larger scheme of things. After all, languages are living things that change and grow, and we celebrate that. Nonetheless, I can’t help but think that this is another sign of the coming apocalypse.