[pct-l] Pronunciation of Talus

[Bob]

Kmurray,

Delighted that you went to the trouble of checking.  I got into this because of being startled occasionally that I was pronouncing something one way from having read it, but not having heard it, and years later learning I had it all wrong.
"Talus" is one of them.  For a guy (who used to be) in the academic world, it can be downright embarrassing. :)

I think you may be misreading : \ˈtā-ləs, ˈta-\

I believe that is not indicating different pronunciations between the bone and the rocks, but is rather the standard way of indicating preferred pronunciation vs secondary pronunciation, i.e., Tay-las as the preferred.  If they had meant to differentiate pronunciations between the foot bone (which they earlier labeled #1), and the rocks (which they label #2), they would have spelled it out.  

To check further, I looked at http://dictionary.reference.com/, which gives many "Tay-lus" examples, several with the button to push for hearing a spoken recording, and the others with the "Tay-les" pronunciation simply spelled out.

Also, checking www.alphadictionary.com/index.shtml, one finds dozens of dictionaries that cite "Tay-les" as the preferred pronouciation.

I have yet to discover a dictionary which gives a pronunciation other than Tay-les as the #1 preferred pronunciation.  All of which came as a surprise to me, as I had asked numerous hiking friends how they pronounced it, with only one coming up with "tay-les."

The English Language is an evolving, changing organism, witness the increasing mixing-up of "well" and "good", likewise "me" and "I".  Eventually, Tah-lus may replace Tay-les, but for now...???   A rose by any other name smells just as sweet or, put another way, climbing over tay-les or tah-les can be just as difficult.  :)

Dr Bob


-----Original Message-----
From: pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net [mailto:pct-l-bounces at backcountry.net] On Behalf Of kmurray at pol.net
Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2009 1:59 PM
To: pct-l at backcountry.net
Subject: [pct-l] Pronunciation of Talus

Dr. Bob wrote:
"For years, I mis-pronounced "talus."  The dictionaries are uniform in
indicating "Tay-lus" as the preferred pronunciation.

Still learning... or at least trying."

NOPE.  You were correct in the first place.  Tay-lus is the correct
pronunciation of the bone in the foot.  Tal-lus is the correct
pronunciation of large scree.

They are spelled the same, but not pronounced the same.

 (as played by the audio of the online Merriam Webster Dictionary)

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


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