Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Ghoti
So now, we can describe the problem. The word mic, as a colloquial form of microphone, appears to violate an obvious spelling rule of English. It appears that every other one-syllable word in English which ends in “ic” is pronounced /ik/, not /i:k/: Bic, hic (the transcription of the sound a drunk makes), pic (short for picture), sic, tic, Vic. This is actually a more general rule, which I'll call the long vowel “e” rule; in English, most of the time, if what we usually call a “long” vowel appears in the last syllable of a word, and is followed by a consonant, the word ends in "e", and if the vowel is “short”, there's no final “e”: bit vs. bite, win vs. wine, quit vs. quite.
This link for my lovely and talented copy editor, Bunny.
“I plead the Fifth … ”
And for those readers who tend towards … shall we say … prudence … do not talk to the police, a two-part video on the importance of the Fifth Amendment. Part one is from a criminal defense attorney, and part two is from a police officer, who fully agrees with the criminal defense attorney!
Interesting scenarios …
