Wednesday, September 03, 2008

Chasm

The other day I heard an American newsreader on TV say the word chasm, and got a bit of a surprise. I thought the ch was pronounced as a k, but he pronounced it like the ch in chat.

Have I been pronouncing it wrong all these years? Also, if I have, how do you pronounce chaos?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's bizarre. I would say both with a K sound.

Lia said...

Funny, when I saw your post title, I started thinking the same question. I've heard chasm pronounced both ways, and I'm not sure which is right. But chaos is definitely a K sound.

Megane~kun said...

Oops, me again.

I've been reading your blog (comments and all) and found out that I've run out of entries! Didn't notice that I've already caught up.

Your life was so enjoyable I sincerely hope it'd go on forever, if you don't mind.

Reading your archives has been a daily thing for me, and now, I don't know what to do... I can't wait for more of your entries! I dread to find out that there would be, at most, 1 per day! Oh the horror!

On topic: I haven't tried saying 'chasm' before... Only run my eyes through them whenever I read, but haven't given though how to pronounce it.

Now that I think about it... I really don't know! *gasp*

Crafty Japan said...

Definitely both k sounds. In my expert opinion, that is ;)

Nil Zed said...

Megane~kun:

I not only want bad aunts life to go on forever, but have to pay close attention and remember she is bad aunt. I keep thinking she is my American friend, married to a Japanese man, teaching english, but in a different part of the country! When I read through most of the blog all at once, somewhere in there, I forgot it wasn't my friend. Now I have to pay attention not to ask my friend about things mentioned here!

Oh, and both K sounds, you aren't losing your English skills.

Anonymous said...

I would have said chasm can be said either way, but chaos is definitely k (except for my high school french teacher, who said 'shay-oss' - and she was welsh!)