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A Way with Words, a radio show and podcast about language and linguistics.

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pronunciation of ENVELOPE
johng423
129 Posts
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1
2009/10/20 - 12:52pm
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I've heard many people pronounce ENVELOPE as "onn-velope" instead of "enn-velope." Can you tell us anything about how that pronunciation got started? Is it considered acceptable or correct?

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2
2009/10/20 - 1:46pm
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I've heard both. I find myself using both. Merriam-Webster says its because it's from French and that it has had plenty of time to lose its French-sounding "en" so that both pronunciations have won "respectability." See:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/envelope

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3
2009/10/20 - 6:24pm
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I find it interesting that the verb form envelop creates an entirely different phonetic ambiguity in the first syllable: en- or in-
M-W envelop

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