Kilometres

[Little Jack Horner]

Whilst we are talking about mispronunciations (were we?), may I talk about “kilometres?”

www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/kilometre says “There are two possible pronunciations for kilometre: one with the stress on the ki- and the other with the stress on the -lo-. The first is traditionally considered correct, with a stress pattern similar to other units of measurement such as centimetre. The second pronunciation, which originated in US English and is now also very common in British English, is still regarded as incorrect by some people, especially in British English.”

In fact, I think it is now usual in British English but I am one of those who consider it incorrect. We don’t use the pronunciation with kilocycles, kilobytes, kilograms, kilocalories, kilohertz or anything else of that I can bring to mind, so why kil-OMM-eters? Just wondering.

[Verbivore]

May 20, 2014 22:17:50 GMT Little Jack Horner said:

Whilst we are talking about mispronunciations (were we?), may I talk about “kilometres?”

www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/kilometre says “There are two possible pronunciations for kilometre: one with the stress on the ki- and the other with the stress on the -lo-. The first is traditionally considered correct, with a stress pattern similar to other units of measurement such as centimetre. The second pronunciation, which originated in US English and is now also very common in British English, is still regarded as incorrect by some people, especially in British English.”

In fact, I think it is now usual in British English but I am one of those who consider it incorrect. We don’t use the pronunciation with kilocycles, kilobytes, kilograms, kilocalories, kilohertz or anything else of that I can bring to mind, so why kil-OMM-eters? Just wondering.

Well, LJH, we can at least agree on that one.

The pronunciation kiLOMetre was popularised almost overnight in Oz when the then-prime minister, Gough Whitlam, publicly declared kiLOMetre to be "the" pronunciation after he'd been challenged on it by a reporter.

I remain a KEElometre person.

[Dave Miller]

I think the ~OMMetre pronunciation happens because people pattern it on words like speedOMMeter, hydrOMMeter and so on. In that case, a kilOMMetre sounds like something to measure a death rate.

I try (and no doubt fail) to stick with KILL-o-meter.

[Verbivore]

During our move to full SI measurements, Oz developed the spoken shorthands kays and kli(c)ks. At the time I was working in the car rental business (Avis Hertz Whom?), and all my colleagues spoke of kli(c)ks and kays.

I am inclined, in casual speech, to employ the singular kay: "How far to go now?" "About 30 kay."

[Dave Miller]

In the UK, we don't yet use kilometres as the usual expression for driven distance, but we do use lots of SI units for other things (and, strangely, do tend to use mm and m for measuring shorter lengths, such as the sizes of paper, furniture and carpets).

We do use "kay" as a spoken shorthand, but it means simply "thousand", without the immediate association with kilometres. For example:

He invested thirty kay in that business (and we'd assume "pounds")
The car has done only fifty kay (and we'd assume "miles")
The radio was fine, once I'd changed the resistor to one point two kay (and we'd assume "ohms")

[Alan Palmer]

The radio was fine, once I'd changed the resistor to one point two kay (and we'd assume "ohms")

Speak for yourself. I'd take note of the first phrase and allow the rest to go ever my head.

[Boulevardier]

I'm with Dave - I've always assumed that the mispronunciation of kilometres came from incorrect association with words like gasometer, and speedometer. The Yanks have also hugely confused things with their incurable mis-spelling (meter) of metre. I have grown up immersed in kilohms, kilocycles (not Hertz) and kilovolts, where pronunciation was less corrupted - as some of us say back here in Old Blighty, "ohm is where the heart is"

Trouble is, such mispronunciation as "kilometers" is infectious when you're surrounded by it, and I find myself doing it too. . O me misere!

[hubertus]

May 21, 2014 16:21:25 GMT Boulevardier said:

I'm with Dave - I've always assumed that the mispronunciation of kilometres came from incorrect association with words like gasometer, and speedometer. The Yanks have also hugely confused things with their incurable mis-spelling (meter) of metre. I have grown up immersed in kilohms, kilocycles (not Hertz) and kilovolts, where pronunciation was less corrupted - as some of us say back here in Old Blighty, "ohm is where the heart is"

Trouble is, such mispronunciation as "kilometers" is infectious when you're surrounded by it, and I find myself doing it too. . O me misere!

So how do you pronounce kilohms? Is there a double vowel to render it in a similar way to megaohms? Or is the second vowel in the coupling swallowed?

I quite like the US spelling of meter for metre, though admittedly the UK spelling at least distinguishes the measurer from the thing measured.

[Boulevardier]

Kilohms is just pronounced as it's written - one "o" vowel sound, and it's "megohms" - same thing - one of the vowels is cavalierly shown the door. But in "milli-ohms" or "micro-ohms" both vowels are pronounced. All comes down to pronouncibilty. Us geeks were using these prefixes decades before anyone else had heard of them. I was rather fond of the "mho" unit for electrical conductivity - opposite of resistance (geddit?). That was displaced by the yawningly pedestrian "siemens" when international standardised units were imposed (can't have any anglo-saxon humour in an international system, can we?). The "henry" is another nice one.

[Little Jack Horner]

"can't have any anglo-saxon humour in an international system, can we?"

This has absolutely nothing to do with the matter under consideration but I feel the need to share a bit of public humour which pleases me.

Near the top of a steep hill on a road near where I once lived there were two large yellow bins standing side by side. They contained grit and sand for motorists to use in icy and snowy conditions. These had been provided by the local government highways department and were manufactured with deeply embossed inscriptions. The word on the left hand bin read "grit" and the one to the right read "determination".

Sorry to intrude yet more of my silliness.  

[Boulevardier]

Or, to intrude further, the anglo-saxon thoroughness of the notice board, shown in a photograph in the Daily Telegraph many years ago, reading: "Do not throw stones, or this notice, over the cliff"

[Verbivore]

On the ~metre / ~meter theme:

Although I encounter the ~re / ~er phenomenon in my work daily, it's been rarely, until quite recently, that I've found the US spelling caliber for calibre in Oz material.

As far as I can trace it, that seems to have appeared, en masse, shortly after the arrival on Oz shores of the Dodge Caliber motor car (a somewhat low-calibre job IMHO.)

[Boulevardier]

I think "caliber" may be edging into UK English as well - name of a canned beer, I think.

[Alan Palmer]

May 21, 2014 22:43:25 GMT Boulevardier said:

I think "caliber" may be edging into UK English as well - name of a canned beer, I think.

I assume you are thinking of that well-known contradiction in terms, Kaliber alcohol-free beer.