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Mar 29, 1999

This week's theme
Words that go out of their way to not apply to themselves

This week's words
phonetic
abbreviation
monosyllabic
hemidemisemiquaver
descender
diminutive
opuscule

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Ever wondered why "shorter" is longer than "short"? No one said English was logical. If you've ever bumped into a pauper named Midas and wondered how inappropriately he was named, you'll understand this week's theme in AWAD: words that go out of their way to not apply to themselves.

phonetic

phonetic (fuh-NET-ik) adjective

1. Of or relating to phonetics.

2. Representing the sounds of speech with a set of distinct symbols, each designating a single sound.

3. Of, relating to, or being features of pronunciation that are not phonemically distinctive in a language, as aspiration of consonants or vowel length in English.

[New Latin phoneticus, representing speech sounds, from Greek phonetikos, vocal, from phonetos, to be spoken, from phonein, to produce a sound, from phone, sound, voice.]

"Before infants are even 1 year old, they can distinguish subtle phonetic sounds in all languages. For example, a baby can recognize two `D' sounds in Hindi that sound identical to an English-speaking adult."
No Subtleties in Baby Talk, ScienceNOW, 23 Jul 1997.

X-Bonus