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A really great show. Now where is my 12 days of Christmas bonus? I can hardly wait.

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Apr 11, 2022·edited Apr 11, 2022

Could someone point me towards some reference material? I'd like to learn more about the language mentioned in the last moments of this episode. It's described as having only two living speakers and two dialects. Perhaps I'm hearing it wrong but it sounds like Gothhillese to me. Anyone have anything on this?

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My personally preferred pronunciation of omicron is OH-mi-kron. / ˈoʊ mɪ ˌkran /

1) The first syllable vowel sound “oh” as in “Oh my.” 2) The second syllable “mi” with the vowel sound “i” in “miss” (but half the time this second vowel sound comes out of my mouth as a schwa “ə”). 3) The third syllable vowel sound “ah” as in “father.” The stress pattern here is with the primary stress on the first syllable and secondary stress on the third. So my second and third syllable vowel pronunciations and stress pattern accord with Professor McWhorter, with only the initial vowel sound differing.

Who’s right? Both of us. Those criticizing Professor McWhorter’s pronunciation only need look at the word “ominous” to find their criticisms unfounded.

How about other pronunciations? Well, scholars can’t objectively and definitively say that utterances like “ohMEEkron” and “ohMYkron”are errors. But I can say that I find them particularly laughable and ridiculous just as a personal bias.

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Loved the episode, as always. One remark though:

The Hebrew words for "monkeys" and "freezing" are pronounced with hard "k" sounds, with "q" sometimes chosen for the transliteration. That is, they are pronounced "kofim" and "kof'im".

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