Was having dinner earlier on with a friend, and wanting the dessert, I called the waiter over and said, "We ordered our dessert earlier on, and could you come the dessert please?"... and the waiter nodded. Guess he understood what I was saying, even though I was going like "&*(#&*$" inside myself for such "England"-ness.
My friend then asked me:
Friend: If IDOL is pronounced "I"-"Dol", why is IDIOT pronounced "Ee"-"Diot"?
Me: Good point... don't know'leh! Ya'lah, why not "I"-"Diot". Hmm...
Can anyone enlighten?
4 comments:
hahaha! since this type of question is being brought up, can I 'tumpang' another question?
if 'Who' is pronounced as 'Hu',
Why is it we don't pronounce,
What as 'huat'
Where as 'huey'
When as 'huen'
Why as 'huay'
White as 'huait'
????
:P
I think we pronounce I-DOL because we always want to associate ourselves with something good and positive. For idiot, I don't think we want to be be associated with something not nice - so, we pronounce as ee-idiot.
Haha. I think so lah.
You may be sorry you asked. I can't resist etymology.
Idol is derived from Greek, eidolon (from eidos 'form'). Although we don't really know how Greek was pronounced 2000 years ago and more, the teaching of classic and New Testament Greek generally advises that "ei" is pronounced "eye" (although when I studied it in 2003 / 2004, I learned a new pronunciation of "ee", so I guess I should pronounced Idol as "ee-dol"...).
Idiot is also derived from Greek, idiotes "layman, ignorant person", from idios "own". So although English would appear to inherit the pronunciation directly from the Greek, for all we know they could have pronounced it EE-diot or Eye-diot, rather than Idiot!
Hi anonymous, I also don't know oh!
Hi gina, good one... :P
Hi elaine, am never sorry to be learning more. :) So I guess am not so wrong to go around saying "that eye-diot ee-dol"! :P
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