Thanks to Joe for his exhaustive summary on the correct pronunciation of
kilometer. My only quibble is with his with his hypothesis on the origin of
the aberrant American pronunciation. Since it was first noted in Webster's
dictionary of the 1820s, it could not have come from Spanish or Mexican or
Italian influence, since those countries did not metricate until the 1860s.
Also, there was very little contact between the Mexicans and the Eastern
Americans (where the pronunciation was first noted) until the 1840s and 50s.
It seems more likely that the pronunciation originated because Americans saw
the word written before they heard it pronounced, and assumed it was
pronounced like thermometer. Unfortunately, it is now being perpetuated on
another generation because U.S. textbooks, teacher's guides, and Standards
no longer mention pronunciation at all, and U.S. dictionaries, while they
give both pronunciations, list the American one first.
We require all our science teachers, as Department policy, to stress the
first syllable. This year, I have heard of only one student who seriously
objected. When the teacher jovially asked him if he also favored
"kil-LOG-rums" for kg and "kil-OW-whats" for kW, he said that kilometer was
"an exception." When she asked him why it was an exception, or who decided
it was an exception, he couldn't say. I don't know if she convinced him or
not. I will give him and her Joe's summary.
-----Original Message-----
From: Of Joseph B. Reid
There have been several mentions on this list of the correct pronunciation
of 'kilometre', or 'kilometer' if you prefer. Since our discussions are
now tending to minor details, I thought the list could bear with me if I
posted my findings in agreement with and support of the postings I have
mentioned.
When I was studying physics in the 30's, I was taught that
names of physical units had the stress on the first syllable, while
names of meters for measuring devices took the stress on the second
syllable. I can illustrate this with the following examples.
Here are some -metre and kilo- words:
micrometre
centimetre
decimetre
dekametre
hectometre
kilogram kilowatt kilometre kilovolt kilopascal kilohertz
megametre
On the other hand, try the pronunciation of the following -meter
words: thermometer, hydrometer, hygrometer, speedometer, manometer,
spectrometer, radiometer, and so on. Note the distinction between
micrometre, a unit of length, and micrometer, an instrument.
The best concise statement on the problem that I have come across
is by the prestigious American Society for Testing and Materials, which
states: "The first syllable of every prefix is accented to assure that
the prefix will retain its identity. Therefore, the preferred
pronunciation of kilometre places the accent on the first syllable, not
the second."
I lived in Canada from 1913 to 1935 and in England from 1935 to
1947. I never heard of a kiLOMetre until the American Army arrived in
Britain. I think the Americans picked up that pronunciation from the
Mexicans, the only metric people bordering on the United States. In
Spanish they say kil�metro, with the accent on the "o" an essential part of
the spelling. They also say and write cent�metro and mil�metro, again
with the accent on the second syllable. Similarly the Italians write
chil�metro, cent�metro, and mill�metro, which they also pronounce with
the accent on the second syllable. None of the north European languages,
including French, accent the second syllable of these words.
My 1905 edition of Funk and Wagnall's Standard Dictionary of the
English Language gives only KILometre. So did the Shorter Oxford
Dictionary until recently when it recognized the existence of kiLOMetre
but marked it as "disputed".
Among the organizations that support KILometre are the Standards
Council of Canada, the Canadian Standards Association, the Council of
Ministers of Education, the CBC, the (U.S.) National Institute of Science
and Technology (formerly National Bureau of Standards) Metric Style
Guide for the News Media, 1976, the (defunct) U.S. Metric Board, the
American National Metric Council, the American Society for Testing and
Materials, and the U.S. Metric Association. Professor Richard Norman of
Barnard College, to whom CBS refers questions of pronunciation, in 1976
issued instructions to CBS personnel that kilometre should be accented on
the first syllable.
I think that all the above shows that the weight of authority, as
distinct from present popular usage, is for KILometre.; ki LOMetre is an
unfortunate recent evolution.
A report dated July 1982 from the Metric Section of the [Australian]
Department of Science and Technoloogy contained the following treatment of
the subject:
"The main subject of the spelling and pronunciation debate is the word
'kilometre'.
"It is sometimes argued that the word belongs to the series of words like
thermometer, speedometer, odometer, chronometer, micrometer, gasometer,
altimeter, inclinometer, hygrometer and like words. But these are all
measuring devices or meters like the gas meter. They are the o'clock words
meaning something-or-other (on the) meter. It is not one of these. It
ends in ...re and is not a measuring instrument.
"Others think it is also thought to belong to the group of words like
diameter, perimeter, pentameter and hexameter. But these these are simply
words ending in ...er which have no other special relationship to each
other and to which the usual rules of English pronunciation may reasonably
be applied. Kilometre ends in ...re and is therefore not one of these.
"'Kilometre' belongs to a special group of its own - the group of double
words consisting of a prefix and a unit of measurement, which together make
up the bulk of the metric system of words. The rules for metric word
building are therefore the rules for metric word pronunciation also.
"Metric words other than the basic words themselves are made up of the name
of the particular unit of measurement, eg.metre, litre, gram, watt, etc.
jointed to a prefix which tells how many of these units there are. For
example, kilo means one thousand, centi means one hundredth, milli means
one thousandth, so that kilometre means one thousand metres and millimetre
means one thousandth of a metre.
"Metric words are not permanent combinations but are intended to be broken
up as required, for example one kilometre is one thousand metres or 1
million millimetres and separation is always between the prefix and the
unit name.
"Correct pronunciation of metric words is therefore obtained by dividing
the word between the prefix and the unit and pronouncing each part with
equal stress as if they were hyphenated words, eg.
kilometre = kilo - metre
"Correct pronunciation is only important in as far as it is an indication
that the user understands the system whereas syllabization into
kil/om/et/re with emphasis on the second syllable clearly indicates that he
does not."
Further mention of the subject can be found at;
http://cbc.ca/news/indepth/words/c_b_c.html
and
http://lamar.colostate.edu/~hillger/correct.htm
