re: #59 darthstar

<

Her only problem was when we read Steinbeck’s “The Pearl” and I tried to explain that the kid Coyote was pronounced KAI-OAT-EE and not KOI-OAT…she was a bit of a literalist on vowel pronunciation rules.

Actually you were both right. Koi-oat is how it is pronounced in most of the US. In the southwest, it is pronounced kai-oat-ee, which is actually Spanish pronunciation, but generalized into English with the cowboy, probably in the late 19th century. There are a whole bunch of Spanish words that have become a part of English in that way. Rodeo is another. Is it Ro-dee-oh, or ro-day-oh? Depending on what part of the country you live in, both are correct.