"Surely you're not serious about 'vacuum' [...] Anyhow, they pronounced it in 3 syllables, VAC-u-um, whereas our consonant 'w' doesn't even make one syllable."
Actually, I was 3/4-serious but hadn't gotten quite serious enough to Google the answer yet. I had a guess ... that turned out to be wrong (or at least not quite right, call it 'incomplete'?) -- I figured it was pronunciation-based ... that if we were speaking Welsh, it might have gotten turned into 'vacwm', but not in English because 'w' doesn't make that particular sound in English. I didn't know that 'vacuum' was three syllables in Latin! (Hey, I studied Greek instead.) That means my terribly vague, admittedly cop-out second guess -- "It has something to do with the etymology" -- was right, but was such a broad target that I probably don't get any points for it.
"you have heard Sassafrass's Futhark Song"
Well I have now (and thank you for that -- I loved it). Wow, it's been way too long since I've gotten to Arisia.
The one good thing about ignorance is that it's curable
Actually, I was 3/4-serious but hadn't gotten quite serious enough to Google the answer yet. I had a guess ... that turned out to be wrong (or at least not quite right, call it 'incomplete'?) -- I figured it was pronunciation-based ... that if we were speaking Welsh, it might have gotten turned into 'vacwm', but not in English because 'w' doesn't make that particular sound in English. I didn't know that 'vacuum' was three syllables in Latin! (Hey, I studied Greek instead.) That means my terribly vague, admittedly cop-out second guess -- "It has something to do with the etymology" -- was right, but was such a broad target that I probably don't get any points for it.
"you have heard Sassafrass's Futhark Song"
Well I have now (and thank you for that -- I loved it). Wow, it's been way too long since I've gotten to Arisia.
Thanks for the education!
Re: The one good thing about ignorance is that it's curable