Dumb survey, but what the Hell

[Cheeta]

Hey. To further prove I need to get out more I've got a wee question for those willing to offer an answer.

How do YOU say kilometer?

A). kill-oh-meter
B). kil-lah-mit-er
C). claw-mit-er

Just curious.

[Sigma]

Upon further review, I am going with (B).

[zacRWE]

B

[brandon]

B

[canadiankick97]

Also, B

[Krammerhead]

B

[Joe Concacaf]

both B and C

[beachesl]

KILL-oh-mee-ter A, is the traditional English pronunciation:

"Perhaps the longest-running battle over pronunciation at the CBC is the word kilometre. When Canada adopted the metric system of measurement in 1970 it established Metric Commission Canada to guide implementation. The commissioners included pronunciation of the various units of measurement as part of their mandate. The rule was simple: Units of measurement had primary stress on the first syllable; KILL-oh-gram, KILL-oh-watt, KILL-oh-pass-kal and KILL-oh-mee-ter. The suffix is spelled metre. Instruments of measurement on the other hand have primary stress on the second syllable: spee-DAW-meh-ter, bah-RAW-meh-ter, ther-MAW-meh-ter, etc. The suffix is spelled meter. But to this day many Canadians continue to pronounce kilometre as kih-LAW-meh-ter. This pronunciation defines it as an instrument of measurement, not a unit of measurement. Almost all dictionaries show kih-LAW-meh-ter as acceptable because its popular use has been documented enough times. But in such cases the CBC strongly advises its broadcasters to embrace the pronunciation used by educated Canadians — that is, those who have been trained in science and technology.

"More than once an editor has tried to argue that insisting on KILL-oh-mee-ter over kih-LAW-meh-ter — or any other "proper" language — amounts to linguistic elitism. "My listeners don't speak that way in their everyday lives", they say. Perhaps not, but is it the CBC's mandate to simply reflect cliched, popular jargon as our preferred method of communication? If one buys that argument then one is in danger of supporting the position that education in general is elitist. Again, should the CBC aim for the lowest common linguistic denominator or the highest common linguistic factor? For those who care passionately about the language the answer is plain: we have an obligation to try to speak as we would wish our children to be taught to speak."

:http://www.cbc.ca/news/indepth/words/c_b_c.html

Kill-Ah-matter B is the usual Canadian pronunciation (and mine), C is the drawl that trailer park types prefer tho. Most Americans that use the word overseas (not in North America) that I have heard(probably a minority of Americans tho), tend to use the English A pronunciation in my experience, as if they were stressing the first syllable to mentally note and emphhasize that they aren't referring to miles. Various dictionaries, British and American, say that Americans tend to use B, but that is probably because most Americans who use it have visited Canada by car and have learned it from the Canucks here.

[Free kick]

Instersting responses. I always use A.

[bettermirror]

B

[The Ref]

Thanks God soccer is still measured in yards.

[Blue and White Army]

B

[DJT]

B. But I agree with what beachesl posted, it should really be A... but then there are MANY examples of "errors" that common usage has made acceptable...

[Cheeta]

Kinda neat huh!

Well, I usualy use A but find myself drifting into B more and more which in part brought this whole question up.

Wee Elf uses B. And the Little One A and C. Her schooling is in French and she tells me A is French, and C is English. Needless to say, THAT got the topic rolling.

I was expecting to find the older lads using A. Not quite sure that's true here. I distictly remember the great pains are treachers went to ensure everyone said kill-oh-meter and not kil-lah-mitt-er.

[argh1]

It's certainlly Kill-law-mitir unless you use klicks as in "I was going 140 klicks and the R-C's caught me"

[Krammerhead]

quote:Originally posted by Cheeta

Kinda neat huh!

I was expecting to find the older lads using A. Not quite sure that's true here. I distictly remember the great pains are treachers went to ensure everyone said kill-oh-meter and not kil-lah-mitt-er.


Yeah, I remember the teachers back during the conversion drilling kill-oh-meter into our heads. But it just doesn't roll off the tongue very well.

[frostman]

Grown up kill o meter with the English parents, but I am actually being forced to conform to B in daily conversation. I really don't care, but I detest being corrected in either direction.

[Jeffery S.]

B, definitely.

[Kurosawa]

quote:Originally posted by Cheeta

Hey. To further prove I need to get out more I've got a wee question for those willing to offer an answer.

How do YOU say kilometer?

A). kill-oh-meter
B). kil-lah-mit-er
C). claw-mit-er

Just curious.
I'd go with D, Kilomètre.

[:p]

[redhat]

The correct answer is "A", as the first syllable is a latin
word "kilo".

But I use "B" as well in daily conversation. Toh-may-to, toh-MAH-to.

[Desigol]

Somewhere between A and B for Me!

[Jarrek]

quote:Thanks God soccer is still measured in yards.

Actually it's not. It all really depends on what country you live in but the in the official FIFA rulebook all measurements are in metric.

[beachesl]

quote:Originally posted by redhat

The correct answer is "A", as the first syllable is a latin
word "kilo".

But I use "B" as well in daily conversation. Toh-may-to, toh-MAH-to.


Well, if it is pronounced as a Latin word, it would be pronounced as:

D). Key-LOW-may-tahr

Reminds me of the drug term "Key-low", or "keys".

When confronted with the usefullness of Latin as a means of understanding how English is used, I share the approach which one of my fellow grade-school labourers in Latin, Winston Churchill, had (using proper Latin word placing rules):
"This is the sort of impertinence up with which I will not put." :)


To further quote Sir Winston in his imitably tongue-in-cheek manner:
"Naturally I am biassed in favour of boys learning English; and then I would let the clever ones learn Latin as an honour, and Greek as a treat."

[Andrew W]

Damn it, I guess I use C. Makes me feel like a heathen now.

I say Kil-law-mit-er