Well, needless to say, this editor quickly revealed himself to be a COMPLETE PSYCHO for many other non-linguistic reasons, but I never quite got over his smart-arse comment.
Until today, when I had my revenge. Below, please read the words of My Personal Hero, Bryan Garner, on the correct pronunciation of the word. (BTW, I get tidbits like these daily by subscribing to Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day, sent out by Oxford.)
forte (= a person’s strong point) has long been thought to be preferably pronounced with one syllable, like “fort.” That’s because the word is originally French (in which “fort” means “strong,” corruptly made with a feminine “-e” suffix) and is so pronounced. But most speakers of American English use the two-syllable version (/FOR-tay/), probably under the influence of the Italian “forte,” a two-syllable word referring to a musical notation to play loudly. Though it might have been nice to keep the two words separate in pronunciation, that hasn’t happened — and the two-syllable version can no longer be condemned. What can be condemned is the pretentious pronunciation /for-TAY/ and the occasional use of an acute accent on the “-e.”
Take that, creepy editor from the past. Take that!
This entry was posted on Friday, May 4th, 2007 at 10:28 am and is filed under English usage. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.



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