From: Doug Ewell (dewell@adelphia.net)
Date: Tue May 18 2004 - 10:34:48 CDT
Staying out of this thread probably won't help it go away, so...
John Cowan <cowan at ccil dot org> wrote:
> The derived adjective "quixotic", however, is pronounced in native
> fashion [kwIksOtIk].
This seems fair. Even if there is a Spanish adjective "quixótico" -- I
found only one Google hit for it in Spanish, but many in Portuguese --
it is not clear whether the English "quixotic" is derived from it or
whether the two developed independently. Merriam-Webster Online seems
to think it came directly from "Quixote."
In any case, the change in ending from "-ico" to "-ic" appears to
justify anglicizing the pronunciation of the whole word.
Pet peeve: hearing "Quixote" pronounced [kiho'ti], and similarly in
other Spanish words (e.g. "tamale", "guacamole"), where the English
pronunciation of terminal 'e' as [i] overrides the otherwise Spanish
pronunciation.
-Doug Ewell
Fullerton, California
http://users.adelphia.net/~dewell/
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