On Language - Let Me Make an Enuncement

By Billy K. Baker — 

You won’t find “enuncement,” in my favorite dictionary, and Microsoft Word vigorously complains when I use it. Yet, somehow the word seems to fit what I have in mind. Maybe I’ve just invented a new word. Probably not, but if future scholars see fit to use it, I won’t exact royalties.

The reason I chose the new word (or non-word) is because I wonder about the enunciation of Arctic. I tend to omit the first “c.” That is, I usually pronounce the word as “Artic.” Many people do the same. Maybe that’s how you say Arctic, if ever you do.

Antarctica gets the same treatment, or is that mistreatment? Personally, I’m suspicious of someone who pronounces the word as if it were spelled “Antarktica.” They’re either snobbish, suffer a speech defect, or are foreign. (Many foreigners speak better English than I do. It’s embarrassing.) Regardless, give me good old “Antartica” any day.

Why do we tend to drop the first “c” when saying Arctic or Antarctica? Is it laziness? Sloppy pronunciation? I’m not sure. Certainly, if you just say the word “arc” you won’t neglect its “c.”

So, we might guess the trouble with saying Arctic is its letter “t”—that the tongue just doesn’t like going from “c” to “t” and, thus, blithely skips the “c.” Sounds plausible. Yet, I doubt you dropped the “c” in the word “exact,” above.

It’s a puzzle, an oddity, a matter so troublesome I may console myself by spending Christmas in Connecticut.

Speaking of Christmas, why don’t we enunciate the “h” when saying “Christmas”? The same is true of other words, like: architect, anchor and schematic. To put it in psychological terms, “h” must have an inferiority complex.

Being an alert scholar, you’ve no doubt noticed that “h” faded away after following a "c." Maybe that’s because “c” wants to show some dominance, having been neglected in Antarctica.

Of course, “c” isn’t the only letter that overwhelms “h.” The letter “w” does, too. As proof we have: what, when, where and which. Which leads us to wonder: why, oh why, is “h” so shy?

We might propose a rule claiming that whenever “h” follows “w,” we don’t enunciate it. Disappointingly, that rule is flaunted by “who,” along with derivatives like whoever and whodunit.

All in all, though, “h” clearly likes to avoid the limelight. As further evidence, note that “h” also hides itself behind “r,” as in rhetorical, rheumatic or rhythm (and don’t monkey around with Rhesus).

If we give it thorough straightforward thought, we find that “h” often kidnaps “g” when going into hiding, as in: right, sight, fight, delight and—a double whammy—highlight.

All this suggests “h” might someday disappear entirely. British people may have led the way long ago … by sinking the “h” in London’s Thames River.

To sum up: What the “H” is going on with “h” anyway?