etymology - Why do some people pronounce "antisemitic" as "antisimetic"?


Not a question of grammar but one of pronunciation. I notice many educated Americans mispronounce the word "antisemitic". The word is derived from "semite" which I pronounce to rhyme with "she might" or "Sem might". I hear more often than not a transposition of the vowel sounds which results in "an-ti-sim-et-ic" (with /ɪmɛ/) rather than the correct "an-ti-sem-it-ic" (with /ɛmɪ/). (This pronunciation is listed in the Merriam-Webster entry for "anti-Semitic".)


That is, the second syllable of semitic i.e. SEM is pronounced as though it is written SIM and the third syllable IT is pronounced as though it was written ET. The word is not written SIMETIC but that is the way it is pronounced by some. A Jewish friend of mine also mispronounced the word until I asked him to pronounce it in syllable while looking at the spelling. Why do some of us, I wonder, when we add the prefix anti- mess up the pronunciation of the rest of the word?




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