[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the July 1 episode of Jeopardy!]
It’s a standard debate amongst Jeopardy! followers: mispronunciations and the way they’re judged. It got here up throughout the July 1 episode, with contestant Matt Brooks.
The healthcare IT analyst from Fredericksburg, Virginia, and Zoe Strassfield, a park ranger & author from Water Mill, New York, confronted off with returning champion Cat Pisacano, a nurse from New York, New York (who had a one-day complete of $11,500). In the course of the Jeopardy! spherical, at a degree at which Brooks was main $6,200 to Pisacano’s $4,600 and Strassfield was within the pink with -$1,000, he rang in for the $400 clue in Taking You to College. It learn: “Anatomy: There are each false & true vocal cords on this hole, tubular construction, additionally known as the voice field.” His pronunciation of larynx (larnyx) led to host Ken Jennings slowly telling him, “Oh, sure, we’ll take that” earlier than repeating the phrase. The talk over that pronunciation dominated the feedback of the Reddit thread for this episode.
Nevertheless, as was additionally identified, it’s a pronunciation that had been accepted twice earlier than: the November 14, 1997 and March 27, 2006 video games. In truth, within the latter, host Alex Trebek known as it “a frequent pronunciation.” And within the former, participant Sahir Islam’s rating was adjusted earlier than Closing Jeopardy! following the verification that “’larynex’ is an appropriate pronunciation for ‘larynx.’”
And a few followers did agree or discover proof that it’s. “Googling reveals that it’s one of the crucial generally mispronounced phrases in English. I’m previous and by no means heard anybody use the mispronunciation – but it surely additionally not often comes up in dialog,” one famous, including, “So, the everlasting query is whether or not Jeopardy ought to settle for a standard mispronunciation. Arguably, following the spelling rule that spelling doesn’t matter if the pronunciation is similar – the reply can be no. And but, we have now this right this moment …”
Added one other viewer, “In American parlance I really feel prefer it’s extraordinarily frequent to listen to larynx pronounced like ‘larnyx’ – I’ve to think about that if a mispronunciation is frequent sufficient colloquially they could really feel compelled to simply accept it. So for that cause I didn’t really feel tremendous strongly about this ruling both manner.”
One fan understands the judges erring on the contestant’s aspect, noting another commonly-mispronounced phrases, together with “nuclear” and grouping “larynx” in with it. However that individual additionally notes the “irritating” a part of it “is that there doesn’t appear to be any clear, persistently enforced rule about stuff like that,” citing Austin Rogers’ pronunciation of sherbet and the judges ruling in opposition to Rob Russell for foliage.
“I’m inclined to say that if it’s an affordable pronunciation from the spelling of the phrase, it must be OK, as a result of which means the contestant has discovered it however maybe solely learn it, whereas if it’s not an affordable phonetic-adjacent pronunciation based mostly on the spelling, that must be fallacious,” one other wrote, agreeing that “the issue is the shortage of consistency” on the present.
“I really feel like ‘larinex’ is an affordable option to pronounce ‘larynx’ phonetically although,” one individual posted. “It’s simply saying the Y a bit in a different way and ‘nx’ is ‘nex.’”
The query of whether or not it could possibly be a regional pronunciation additionally got here up, however some followers can’t get previous their disbelief that Brooks’ reply was accepted.
“How on the planet did they settle for ‘larnyx’ as an accurate response for ‘larynx’? They are saying pronunciation doesn’t rely, however they routinely rely solutions fallacious when the spelling and pronunciation don’t go collectively – ‘larnyx’ is simply not a conceivable option to pronounce ‘larynx,’” in response to one viewer. “We have been anticipating them to return again and proper the rating on that and so they didn’t. It actually soured the entire sport for me.” One other agreed “that was unbelievable,” saying the way in which Brooks pronounced it made “a very totally different (nonsensical) phrase.”
One viewer known as it “mystifying” and famous, “It flies within the face of loads of the rulings I’ve seen (though, after all, I can’t consider a particular one now) which appeared extra minor.”
In different phrases, what appears to be a standard thread is a name for consistency with regards to ruling involving pronunciation. However what do you assume? What did you consider Matt Brooks’ pronunciation? Tell us within the feedback part, beneath.
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