If 'clique' is routinely pronounced CLEEK in the UK, then it should be a bonus answer and not a required one. With that said, I'd respectfully suggest that our Sporclemates across the pond not get on too high a horse over French-origin pronunciations in English, because it'd be a long fall. English has borrowed over a thousand words from the French. The longer the word has been in English use, the more likely it is that its pronunciation has been Anglicized. Words borrowed before the 17th century almost exclusively follow English phoentics (e.g., bonnet, sonnet.) Those after the 18th century almost exclusively retain the French pronunciation (buffet, depot)...and even then, it's what we naive Anglophones *think* is proper French; we're often humorously wrong such as with "lingerie". Words in between can go either or both ways, such as "niche". So, it's kind of silly to argue about what French words we English speakers are *supposed* to butcher, and which one's we're not.
(Incidentally, we American bumpkins aren't the only offenders: the word "claret" (from Fr. "clairet") is uniformly pronounced CLAR-IT in the UK, but here in the US it's a tossup as to whether you'll hear it that way or as CLAR-AY, which is how the French say it.) |
Rhymes Sharing No Letters
Rhymes with 'ART'
Rhymes with 'Late'
