Arnold Zwicky's Blog

On the spelling of this word with the letter E (rather than I) and its pronunciation with [ɛ] (rather than [ɪ]), both recently noticeable in my country because of the great increase in anti-Semitic rhetoric and actions here: worth systematic investigation.

A few examples, with minimal commentary, beginning with Amy Schumer on Kanye West, in this YouTube video:

(#1) In the video, she pronounces the word twice, both times with [ɛ]; in the cover image above, it’s spelled with the letter E, but everywhere in the text the word gets its standard spelling, with the letter I

Next, a visual from a Daily Mail (UK) story on the Goyim Defense League, “Hate group called Goyim Defense League is blamed for flooding six states with thousands of anti-Semitic flyers that claim COVID response is masterminded by Jewish leaders including heads of CDC, Pfizer and BlackRock”

(#2) The word is spelled with the letter I throughout the story

Then an editorial cartoon, by Chip Bok for the Tampa Bay Times 11/8/22:

(#3) Here we have only text, no speech; but it’s surely significant that the paper’s reporting on anti-Semitism has the word spelled with the letter I throughout

Then a WBNS-TV (Columbus OH) news report (YouTube here) that displays the header:

Racist, anti-semetic phrases found spray painted in Ohio State resident hall

though of course the tape has [ɪ] throughout, and all the other text has the letter I.

Finally, in much the same vein, a website entry with the header:

Ye’s recent Twitter anti-Semetic escapade ought to be condemned in full

while the body of the posting begins:

Last week, rapper Kanye West posted anti-Semitic comments on his social media platforms. The statements posted on his accounts are vile, and there is no excuse for Kanye West’s behavior in promoting these fringe conspiracy theories. NBC News reported that because of his disgusting anti-Semitic post, Twitter and Instagram temporarily froze his comments.

and continues with the standard spelling throughout.

What I do. Now, one of my functions is to notice and record stuff — I’m famous for the little notebook and pen in my shirt pocket — to accumulate examples, to characterize the phenomena as best I can and point them out to others (who might be able to study them systematically, using resources and tools not available to me), and (insofar as I can) to say why they’re of interest.

Occasionally, I’m able to provide answers. But I generate far more questions than I could possibly try to answer on my own. So mostly I’m a source of research topics, not results. As at the top of this posting:

On the spelling of this word with the letter E (rather than I) and its pronunciation with [ɛ] (rather than [ɪ]), both recently noticeable in my country because of the great increase in anti-Semitic rhetoric and actions here: worth systematic investigation.

At this point, I searched to see if Ben Zimmer had looked at the phenomenon — it’s the sort of topic that catches his interest, and he’s superb at untangling things for a general audience, smoothly deploying his background knowledge, resources, and tools for clarification. (Meanwhile, behind the screen, the lexicographers and sociolinguists roll up their sleeves to embark on the hard task of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data.)

Ben had also noticed anti-Semetic lately (in speech specifically) but had not in fact written on it. He wondered if the Recency Illusion might be at play, and suggested the possibility of some influence from cosmetic, hermetic, and the like.

Ah, I had very carefully framed what I’d said to him

In the past few weeks, I’ve seen a fair amount of anti-Semetic as a spelling for anti-Semitic and pronunciations of the word with accented [ɛ], separately and together.

That is, I said I’d recently noticed the usages, not that they were recent; as to the actual age of the usages, I have no idea.

But then Ben begins to speculate on the source of the usages, suggesting words in –etic [ɛtɪk] as models. Another possibility is a speech error analysis, in which the e [ɛ] of Semitic perseveres into the following syllable. And more complex accounts of the details: say, some speakers have [ɛ] as a variant of [ɪ] in this one word, for whatever reason, and that is then is sometimes carried over into the spelling. And probably more.

Further complications: these motivating considerations are not mutually exclusive, and might sometimes reinforce one another. And then it’s quite likely that what’s going for one speaker is different from what’s going on for another. And finally, as always, once the variants are in the mix, they can propagate from one speaker to another, without regard to their original motivation.

So a systematic investigation of the phenomena will be a truly hard task. And a fair amount of the data will be inscrutable: we won’t be able to say what’s going on in this specific instance on this specific occasion — only what the larger-scale effects look like.

I’ve already gone further in this matter that I usually do; I’m perfectly comfortable reporting on what I’ve seen, and leaving the real work for others. Don’t go telling me that if I reported it, I’m responsible for analyzing it — because I’m a Famous Linguist, I get this every so often — that will only make me truculent, and angry, and despairing (because I have great trouble finding time in my life for almost anything these days).

This entry was posted on November 24, 2022 at 4:45 pm and is filed under Spelling, Variation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.