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#121905 02/02/04 12:45 PM
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dxb Offline OP
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I was listening to an audio cassette of a Raymond Chandler novel read by Elliott Gould. Gould was at his laid back best but I was surprised when he said something like “The sun shone that day…” and pronounced the word shone as ‘shown’ rather than to rhyme with ‘gone’. Is that the usual American sound for the word or is it perhaps either a regional or a Gould variation?


#121906 02/02/04 12:53 PM
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wwh Offline
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Dear dxb: I remember hearing a rather erudite clergyman
use that pronunciation many years ago,and he commented on it, but I can't remember what he said to justify his preference.


#121907 02/02/04 12:54 PM
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If I had heard someone say "The sun Sean that day," I would have been perplexed, wondering what the heck he meant. Here on the left bank shone rhymes with cone.



TEd
#121908 02/02/04 01:48 PM
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I'm with TEd. never heard it shawn...

that's what you do to a sheep...



formerly known as etaoin...
#121909 02/02/04 01:56 PM
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left bank

I love this and intend to start using it immediately!

And yeah, dixbie, like the fellas said.


#121910 02/02/04 02:34 PM
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here in flyover land it also sounds like shown, but then we learned a rubric that a final 'e' makes the previous vowel sound long (like in scone ;).


#121911 02/02/04 02:39 PM
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Long O is the onliest AHD4 recognizes.

http://www.bartleby.com/61/53/S0345300.html


#121912 02/02/04 03:09 PM
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dxb Offline OP
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That's interesting. Most of the on-line dictionaries are American but I found that M-W recognises the British pronunciation, and apparently it is heard in Canada too. Don't know what they say up top in the antipodes. This is the M-W entry and I have included the etymology for the heck of it:

Main Entry: 1 shine
Pronunciation: 'shIn
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): shone /'shOn, esp Canadian and British 'shän/; or shined; shin·ing
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English scInan; akin to Old High German skInan to shine and perhaps to Greek skia shadow



#121913 02/02/04 05:25 PM
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journeyman
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That is extraordinary. I never knew Americans pronounce "shone" as homophonous with "shown". Round here, it's pronounced "shon", and it's a sign of how rarely the word is used in speech that I've never heard an American say the word on TV or film.

Similarly there are two variant pronunciations of "scone".


#121914 02/02/04 05:26 PM
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journeyman
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akin to Old High German skInan to shine and perhaps to Greek skia shadow

Up is down, black is white and shine is shadow. Those wacky indo-europeans!


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