05-10-2013, 12:19 PM
81
Re: On-velope? Or enn-velope?
Originally Posted by Mollie
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I think the clue is in the spelling. If it begins with an e then it's envelope, not onvelope. If the word ends with an e then the previous vowel is lengthened, therefore scone, not scon.Supposing the word was envelop. Would you say onvelop? Of course not! However, if the word was entourage, then it would be pronouced ontourage, but only because it's a French word and which would be correct!
If it were entrance, would you say ontrance? It gets dafter the more you think about it! 
And as mentioned earlier on the thread, the word envelope was borrowed into English from French during the early 18th century, and the first syllable acquired the pronunciation (on) as an approximation to the nasalized French pronunciation. Gradually the word became anglicized further and is now most commonly pronounced (n-v-lp). The earlier pronunciation is still used by many people.
05-10-2013, 12:29 PM
83
Re: On-velope? Or enn-velope?
On-velope for me! But I have a Dutch mother who, when i was born didn't speak English very well, and my pronunciation has always caused amusement to others....for example I pronounce oven like often and wonder like wander!!! My teacher way back at school found it highly amusing when I described the seven wonders of the world....it sounded like some very long walks
07-10-2013, 05:41 PM
88
Re: On-velope? Or enn-velope?
Now just to throw the cat amongst the pigeons on this debate, my Ipad has an inbuilt Oxford dictionary function, which itself has a function which vocalises words to show correct pronunciation. So, out of curiosity I entered 'scone' and was given several options which basically came down to the place, the stone, and the pastry. And the 'apparent' correct pronunciation of the place is, drum roll please, 'scoon', which actually when you say it out loud makes sense as it gives the word a Scottish lilt.
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