Correct Pronunciation of ...
Gyan Doshi
Hello
How would one pronounce Cryptonomicon ?
(the title of the Stephenson book)
I'm basically interested in the last 3 syllables. Actually
the last 2.
I'm voting for an 'e' sound or like --pit--,
whereas someone else sticks to the diphthong 'ai' like in --mind--
A search through the OED shows 'synonymicon' pronounced according
to what I think it should be.
Thanks
Gyan
Gyan Doshi
Kristina Killgrove wrote:
> > How would one pronounce Cryptonomicon ?
> > (the title of the Stephenson book)
> >
> > I'm voting for an 'e' sound or like --pit--,
> > whereas someone else sticks to the diphthong 'ai' like in --mind--
>
> I'd pronounce it your way, but that's based on Bruce Campbell's
> pronunciation of "Necronomicon" in Army of Darkness and Evil Dead. ;)
I'm supposing there must be some informal linguistic guidelines on
how to pronounce newly-coined words. (based on
accentuation,stress..etc)
Gyan
Kristina Killgrove
> How would one pronounce Cryptonomicon ?
> (the title of the Stephenson book)
>
> I'm voting for an 'e' sound or like --pit--,
> whereas someone else sticks to the diphthong 'ai' like in --mind--
I'd pronounce it your way, but that's based on Bruce Campbell's
pronunciation of "Necronomicon" in Army of Darkness and Evil Dead. ;)
-KK
--
Kristina Killgrove
Department of Anthropology
East Carolina University
kris...@killgrove.org
Richard Fontana
>
> Hello
>
> How would one pronounce Cryptonomicon ?
> (the title of the Stephenson book)
I'd say /krIp t@ 'nA m@ ,kAn/. I would assume the title is a take-off on
"Necronomicon", which IIRC is the name of a Satanic or occult text of some
sort. I've only heard the last part of that said as /'nA m@ ,kAn/
> I'm basically interested in the last 3 syllables. Actually
> the last 2.
>
> I'm voting for an 'e' sound or like --pit--,
> whereas someone else sticks to the diphthong 'ai' like in --mind--
You mean the penultimate (that means "next to last") syllable? You're right
and someone else is wrong, but in American English at least unstressed /I/
is essentially the same as a schwa except in unnaturally slow pronunciation.
(BrE might be different. Also, my /A/s above correspond to /A./ in BrE and
Underpondian dialects.) Note that your "someone else" must be stressing the
penultimate syllable, as if it were like "icon". That's unquestionably
wrong.
Richard Fontana
Not exactly. If you're talking about a word that first appears in print, as
in this book title, then literate native speakers will apply their intuition
as literate native speakers in deciding how it should be pronounced. I
guess someone could try to formulate all the linguistic guidelines that
literate native speakers use intuitively, but it would be a difficult task.
In this particular case it's easy. He didn't make up "Cryptonomicon" out of
thin air. There was an existing title "Necronomicon" and there were
existing words with the "crypto-" prefix.
Most newly coined words are first used orally, I would think, so it's not as
much of an issue (some people might still be first introduced to the word in
print, but an established pronunciation will already exist based on the oral
usage).
But there isn't always universal agreement in any case. Think of the word
"genomics": I think I've heard about two or three different prevailing
pronunciations of it.
Don Aitken
<rfon...@wesleyan.edu> wrote:
>On 28 Jun 2001 Gyan Doshi <gy...@purdue.edu> wrote:
>
>>
>> Hello
>>
>> How would one pronounce Cryptonomicon ?
>> (the title of the Stephenson book)
>
>I'd say /krIp t@ 'nA m@ ,kAn/. I would assume the title is a take-off on
>"Necronomicon", which IIRC is the name of a Satanic or occult text of some
>sort. I've only heard the last part of that said as /'nA m@ ,kAn/
>
Actually "The Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul al-Hazred". See the
works of H.P.Lovecraft, passim. (I've always wanted to get "passim"
into a Usenet post).
--
Don Aitken
Aaron Davies
> Hello
>
> How would one pronounce Cryptonomicon ?
> (the title of the Stephenson book)
>
> I'm basically interested in the last 3 syllables. Actually
> the last 2.
>
> I'm voting for an 'e' sound or like --pit--,
> whereas someone else sticks to the diphthong 'ai' like in --mind--
I'd go your way, simply because it's easier to say. I might even go all
the way an make it a schwa, which is what tends to happen to all the
vowels in unstressed syllables anyway.
The only defence I can see for the other version would be the extremely
abberant pronounciation "CRYPT-o-no-MI-con", which sounds vaguely
Japanese somehow.
--
__ __
/ ) / )
/--/ __. __ ________ / / __. , __o _ _
/ (_(_/|_/ (_(_) / / <_ /__/_(_/|_\/ <__</_/_)_
Steve Hayes
wrote:
>On 28 Jun 2001 Gyan Doshi <gy...@purdue.edu> wrote:
>
>>
>> Hello
>>
>> How would one pronounce Cryptonomicon ?
>> (the title of the Stephenson book)
>
>I'd say /krIp t@ 'nA m@ ,kAn/. I would assume the title is a take-off on
>"Necronomicon", which IIRC is the name of a Satanic or occult text of some
>sort. I've only heard the last part of that said as /'nA m@ ,kAn/
It's a fictional work made up by H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937), author of horror
stories.
See
for more information.
I use the "cot" vowel in Necronomicon, but I don't know what Lovecraft himself
used.
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/steve.htm
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk
Bob Cunningham
said:
[ . . . ]
>I use the "cot" vowel in Necronomicon, but I don't know what Lovecraft himself
>used.
I use the "cot" vowel in "caught", and the "caught" vowel in "cot".
Harvey V
<malgran...@bigfoot.com> said:
> [ . . . ]
>
> I use the "cot" vowel in "caught", and the "caught" vowel in "cot".
>
Ditto. (But we're not *really* revisiting cot/caught, are we?)
Harvey
Matti Lamprhey
> haye...@yahoo.com (Steve Hayes) said:
>
> >I use the "cot" vowel in Necronomicon, but I don't know what Lovecraft
> >himself used.
>
> I use the "cot" vowel in "caught", and the "caught" vowel in "cot".
Me too. But can't we make this topic more interesting by varying the
examples? I suggest we refer to "snot" and "snort" in future.
Matti
Robert Lipton
We're ALWAYS revisiting cot/caught, goddamnit.
Bob
Richard Fontana
> On Thu, 28 Jun 2001 21:28:35 GMT, Richard Fontana
> <rfon...@wesleyan.edu> wrote:
>
>>On 28 Jun 2001 Gyan Doshi <gy...@purdue.edu> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Hello
>>>
>>> How would one pronounce Cryptonomicon ?
>>> (the title of the Stephenson book)
>>
>>I'd say /krIp t@ 'nA m@ ,kAn/. I would assume the title is a take-off
>>on "Necronomicon", which IIRC is the name of a Satanic or occult text
>>of some sort. I've only heard the last part of that said as /'nA m@
>>,kAn/
>
> It's a fictional work made up by H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937), author of
> horror stories.
>
> See
>
> http://www.hplovecraft.com
>
> for more information.
>
> I use the "cot" vowel in Necronomicon, but I don't know what Lovecraft
> himself used.
Yes, I should clarify to the original poster that I also use the "cot" vowel
for the second 'o' in "Necronomicon" (and for the third 'o'), in case he
doesn't understand my use of ASCII IPA.
Richard Fontana
> "Bob Cunningham" <malgran...@bigfoot.com> wrote...
>> haye...@yahoo.com (Steve Hayes) said:
>>
>> >I use the "cot" vowel in Necronomicon, but I don't know what Lovecraft
>> >himself used.
>>
>> I use the "cot" vowel in "caught", and the "caught" vowel in "cot".
>
> Me too.
How did that happen?
Matti Lamprhey
> "Matti Lamprhey" <matti-...@totally-official.com> wrote:
> > "Bob Cunningham" <malgran...@bigfoot.com> wrote...
> >>
> >
> > Me too.
>
> How did that happen?
It's a long story, and many shaggy dogs are deeply involved. How long have
you got?
Matti
Bob Cunningham
>Harvey
Do we ever leave it?