However, an English pronunciation would have a long e sound at the end, and so would the French. If a person does not want to sound affected and does not want to sound French, then the common AmE pronunciation still makes no sense. Since when did

"Lingerie" is a French word, but it's also an English ... from the pronunciation of the foreign word it's borrowed from. Quite true, but it does betray total ignorance and closed eyes to the culture of the rest of the world. Not

(Follow-up set to alt.usage.english only; sigh.lang dropped.) Wrong? No. "Lingerie" is a French word, but it's also an English word. The correct English pronunciation of an imported word is independent of the pronunciation it had in

Jess Askin types thus: I'm not a literato, but the ... break it into a double sh. The spelling is yoo-shsh-ye-n-k-o The pronunciation of the 'shch' really is (StS) in most dialects, though in some dialects it comes out as a ...

Well, that doesn't work for long, does it? Language changes over time and new words and usages keep creeping in. Sure, but that doesn't affect spelling and pronunciation. If you want constant information about what vocabulary to use, there

"Half the world's population will be speaking or learning English by 2015, researchers say." As no-one has commented on this yet, I will do it myself: Given the high number of people who now speak, and according to that article, will

One example of a problem in English is the number ... reader in disambiguating the intended meaning from other possible meanings. Balderdash! There's no problem in deciding which of a set of homonyms to use; use the one that means what ... or

As I said, there's one, but they write things the ... visit. Maids for the well-to-do used to come from there. Is there a national dictionary considered as orthodoxy? I guess not. There are dictionaries, but they don't give pronunciations,

There are no dialects of Latvian? As I said, there's one, but they write things the way they say them too. It's the part of the country that few from the rest of it visit. Maids for the well-to-do used to come from there. Is there a

Mike Lyle filted: his transliteration B So glad somebody expert moved first: I was beginning to doubt myself. I just figured it was some Russian quirk...they traditionally haven't gotten on well with the Germans, so it was only natural to