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Why do we say it -

Old 01-31-20, 10:43 PM
  #51  
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Originally Posted by Daniel4
How about produce and produce?
I like resign (quit) and resign (reenlist). Same spelling, different pronunciation, and opposite meanings.
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Old 02-01-20, 07:36 AM
  #52  
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Originally Posted by livedarklions
I like resign (quit) and resign (reenlist). Same spelling, different pronunciation, and opposite meanings.
Re-sign is the correct spelling
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Old 02-01-20, 12:23 PM
  #53  
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Originally Posted by livedarklions
Basically, it's a hybrid between Germanic and Romance language, with borrowed "rules" getting applied in weird and inconsistent ways. Bicycle is a borrowed French word, and kept a Frenchish pronunciation, motorcycle didn't get into English that way, so kept the English pronunciation of cycle.
Surely the word motorcycle came from bicycle. Someone put a motor on a bicycle.
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Old 02-01-20, 12:43 PM
  #54  
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If we were adhering to the French pronunciation we'd say Bee-sickle not Bye-sickle. Also, although I'm not the one to correct anyone on French it sounds to me like they're saying bee-see-klet not bee-sick-let.
So that's not it.

While we're on the tangent, motocyclette sounds the same as bicyclette so at least it that part makes sense in French.
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Old 02-01-20, 01:39 PM
  #55  
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Originally Posted by dedhed
Re-sign is the correct spelling

You're almost certainly correct, but I have seen the unhyphenated reenlist sense of the word pop up in major publications, so I'm not sure that all style manuals agree.
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Old 02-01-20, 01:43 PM
  #56  
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Originally Posted by wphamilton
Surely the word motorcycle came from bicycle. Someone put a motor on a bicycle.

So? I've never heard anyone pronounce "esickle", it's always "esighkull". I realize "ebike" is more common, but if you really want smoke to come out of your ears, why is motorcycle always shortened to "bike"?
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Old 02-01-20, 04:09 PM
  #57  
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Originally Posted by livedarklions
So? I've never heard anyone pronounce "esickle", it's always "esighkull". I realize "ebike" is more common, but if you really want smoke to come out of your ears, why is motorcycle always shortened to "bike"?
So, I thought you said the pronunciation derived from the French bicylette but it doesn't sound like it, so I'm doubting you.

I haven't actually ever heard anyone say e-cycle out loud, but I'd probably also say e-sigh-kul also. Everything-cycle is that way except bicycle - maybe we're all saying it wrong, all this time.

I never refer to my "bike" unless the other person already knows I'm a sicklist because they always want to know how many cc's. I'm sticking with sicklest now, it has to be right when we're riding bisickles.

Which is another question: if you were to shorten bicycle to cycle would you say it sickle or cycle? Ever say "I'm going to 'cycle to the store?" I do ... and I say sigh-kul.
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Old 02-01-20, 04:59 PM
  #58  
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Originally Posted by wphamilton
So, I thought you said the pronunciation derived from the French bicylette but it doesn't sound like it, so I'm doubting you.

I haven't actually ever heard anyone say e-cycle out loud, but I'd probably also say e-sigh-kul also. Everything-cycle is that way except bicycle - maybe we're all saying it wrong, all this time.

I never refer to my "bike" unless the other person already knows I'm a sicklist because they always want to know how many cc's. I'm sticking with sicklest now, it has to be right when we're riding bisickles.

Which is another question: if you were to shorten bicycle to cycle would you say it sickle or cycle? Ever say "I'm going to 'cycle to the store?" I do ... and I say sigh-kul.

Cyclical is often pronounced with the short i sound. Otherwise, I only know of tricycle and bicycle.

Sorry, but we're trying to explain one syllable of the word. Given that we can come up with dozens of counter-examples for every alleged pronunciation rule, and those examples include "ecycle", I just don't think anything but a historical explanation is plausible. Obviously, we are guessing at this point, but it seems a rather large coincidence that the word was imported from France and has a syllable in it that sounds closer to the French pronunciation of the root word than the English. Neither ecycle nor motorcycle were imported words, and they didn't carry over the semi-French pronunciation when the new compounds were coined.

If you know anything about vowel shifts, the change from bee to bi in the English pronunciation is quite normal, but a shift from sighcle to sickle would probably never happen in English.

You "cycle" to the store? I just ride or bike, two perfectly good one-syllable words.

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Old 02-06-20, 06:34 AM
  #59  
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Well sure, a cyclist engages the act of cycling, which is to cycle. So I cycle to the store.

But since I've decided that it should be sicklist, I'll be changing that now to "sickle to the store".
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Old 02-06-20, 06:40 AM
  #60  
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SICKlists fare best when they are treated as drivers of vHICKils.

-mr. bill
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Old 02-06-20, 06:48 AM
  #61  
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Originally Posted by livedarklions
I like resign (quit) and resign (reenlist). Same spelling, different pronunciation, and opposite meanings.
Table, verb. Same pronunciation as the noun, but the verb is exactly opposite meaning depending on who is speaking.

-mr bill
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Old 02-06-20, 09:21 AM
  #62  
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Originally Posted by mr_bill
Table, verb. Same pronunciation as the noun, but the verb is exactly opposite meaning depending on who is speaking.

-mr bill
Cleave, verb. Cling to or cut apart. Classic example of a contronym.

https://www.grammarly.com/blog/10-verbs-contronyms/
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Old 02-06-20, 01:19 PM
  #63  
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Wait...what? Y'all pronounce it differently????
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Old 02-06-20, 02:26 PM
  #64  
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Here's one for Canadians, route and router.
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Old 02-06-20, 02:33 PM
  #65  
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Originally Posted by Daniel4
Here's one for Canadians, route and router.

In U.S., route can rhyme with trout or be pronounced like root, but it's always pronounced to rhyme with trouter (if that's a word).

What's the pronunciation in Canada?
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Old 02-07-20, 05:07 PM
  #66  
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Why is it that if you blow in a dog's face they turn away, but they love hanging their head out of the car window at 45 miles per hour?
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Old 02-08-20, 06:16 PM
  #67  
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Originally Posted by drlogik
Why is it that if you blow in a dog's face they turn away, but they love hanging their head out of the car window at 45 miles per hour?
Have you tried asking them?
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