Gene,
This argument seems to arise every 3 years on this mailing list. Or it
has over the last 20 years, anyway. And it never accomplishes anything
except to let people voice their preferences. It never accomplishes
anything. That is because there is no "right" way or "wrong" way to
pronounce "kilometer" except to those who write dictionaries and thus
appoint themselves as experts.
I think your first statement is entirely correct.
I think your second statement is an unfounded supposition. Secondly, I
think it flies in the face of the reality that in some languages, the
unit names, when pronounced, would sound nothing at all like they do in
English or some of the Romance languages, or even the Teutonic or Slavic
languages. For example, the Greek name for what we call the "second" (of
time) is δευτερόλεπτο which transliterates to "deuterolepto". That is
why the SI symbols are inviolate. The symbol for "second" is the same as
it is for the δευτερόλεπτο, namely "s".
Not only are the spellings of SI units and prefixes subject to the whims
of various languages, so also the grammar and pronunciations.
Having said that, this argument devolves down to how we should pronounce
"kilometer" in English. We will never standardize that; people will
pronounce it how they wish to. To-MAY-to or to-MAH-to. I, for one, will
be happy as long as they don't pronounce it so that it sounds like "mile".
Now, let's figure out how to further metricate the US.
Jim
On 2014-02-17 12:19, mechtly, eugene a wrote:
The CGPM does not publish an official "Guide for Pronouncing the Names and Multiples
of SI Units."
Nevertheless, I am confident that members of the CIPM (and CGPM) would reject an accent
on the "lom" in the word kilometer.
NBC commentators at the SUCHI Olympic events, *all* seem to have adopted this bad
practice of accenting the "lom."
Who initiated this *deviation* from the established global practice of enunciating both the prefix
"kilo" and the stem "meter"?
In spoken French and German there is no accented "lom" in kilometer!
Is "lom" accented in any other languages which you might speak?
Eugene Mechtly
