[thelist] Email vs. E-mail vs. email vs. e-mail

Lachlan Cannon luminosity at members.evolt.org
Wed May 22 04:14:00 CDT 2002


Miriam Frost said:

> I believe that "e-mail" is preferred in more academic or journalistic
> arenas because in according to most English pronunciation rules, an
> initial "e" followed by a consonant is pronounced as a schwa, an
> unaccented vowel.* Hence:
> emetic
> emancipate
> emanate
> etcetera
> (Naturally, there's an exception we're all familiar with: evolt.org --
> which, because of the missing hyphen, I regularly mispronounced until
> Dan corrected me... and then I corrected his spelling.)
>
> Until it's pronounced uh-male, not eee-male, I suggest the hyphen
> rules....

FWIW I agree that hyphen belongs there, but you're agruing the wrong
reasons, Miriam. The point you argue is so so dependant on the local accent.
For example, you say that emancipate isn't ee because it has no hyphen. i
pronounce the word ee man sip ate. Someone from New Zealand might pronounce
it uh mun sup ate. Same word different pronunciation...

I think the hyphen is there merely because it's a joined word, eg
electonic-mail. Although one wonders then why it's ok to lose the lectronic
but keep the e, but anyway...

Lach
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