The excellent blog Linguism presents an interesting reminiscence about the BBC Pronunciation Unit, which started out in 1926 as the Advisory Committee on Spoken English (with Robert Bridges as Chairman and George Bernard Shaw as Deputy Chairman!); the whole thing is interesting, but this passage particularly struck me:
The Committee was suspended at the outbreak of the Second World War, and replaced (originally ‘for the duration’, but so far the War has apparently not ended!) by the Pronunciation Unit, staffed by two Scottish maiden ladies: G.M.(‘Elizabeth’) Miller, and Elspeth Anderson (‘Andy’), and a clerk. Despite an increasing workload – more radio and TV networks, more daily hours of broadcasting – this remained the entire staff until 1957, when a third linguist was appointed. I never met either Elizabeth or Andy, but their influence was still felt when I joined the Unit in 1979, when I succeeded yet another Scot, Mrs Hazel Wright, as head of the Unit, with the title Pronunciation Adviser. One of Elizabeth’s last successes was the publication by OUP of the BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of British Names (1971), and I was the editor of the second edition which came out in 1983 (paperback 1990). This is now out of print, and neither the BBC nor OUP seems interested in a third edition, which I feel is a shame, as there is no equivalent available.
The 1971 edition of the BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of British Names is one of my treasured and much-consulted reference works, and I am both delighted to know that “G.M. Miller” was known as Elizabeth and saddened to learn that there will be no new edition.
IIRC, Shaw was pushing the American pronunciation of “canine” (cay-nine) as applied to teeth, until it was discovered that he had an American dentist!
And thus I discover, upon consulting my Daniel Jones, that in the UK they say CAN-ine (first syllable like the word can) when talking about teeth. You learn something every day.
Daniel Jones is long dead… (RIP). I have never in my life heard an English (or Scottish, Welsh, Irish, or Manx) person pronounce ‘canine’ with the first syllable like ‘can’. The Shorter OED gives both, but gives the ‘cane’ pronunciation first.
My dentist says CAN-ine, but everyone else says CANE-ine (Britain).
“Pronuciation Unit”–sounds ready for spoofdom.
“Pronunciation Unit”: not to be confused with “unit of pronunciation” 😉
John Cowan (above) mentioned George Bernard Shaw pushing the American pronunciation of “canine” (CAY-nine) to the BBC. The source for this story is Alistair Cooke, who retold it on several occasions and in his book Memories of the Great and the Good. Cooke, as a young journalist, was invited to the BBC committee because of his experience with American pronunciation. At a meeting in 1935, with Shaw as chairman, the committee unanimously voted for CAN-ine, except for Cooke, who offered CAY-nine as the American pronunciation; Shaw then said that must be right because it was what his dentist said:
Shaw then “willingly registered the general preference” but with a note on the American pronunciation.
In 2013, John Wells reported on a visit to a dental technician:
This must be a preservation of a pronunciation that is long obsolete outside the specialty. Ca-NINE was the only pronunciation given by Johnson, and still the first pronunciation in the OED1 (1888) and Century (1895). One of the OED’s quotations even demonstrates it:
OED2 pushed that one to last place, behind CAY-nine and CAN-ine; OED online (not yet revised) has dropped it from the current pronunciations. Probably the only current dictionary that shows it is Wiktionary, which has it marked rare.
“Canine” appears in a list published in American Speech (1936) of about 50 words whose pronunciation in the major dictionaries was lagging behind common educated speech, as observed by a professor at CCNY. Many of those words are familiar from previous discussions here!
One of the OED’s quotations even demonstrates it
How? I see no indication of the pronounced vowels or the meter.
The meter may be more obvious with the surrounding lines:
For as the Dog,
(Whose fatal Bite convey’d th’ infectious Bane)
Raving he foams, and howls, and barks, and bites.
Like Agitations in his boiling Blood
Present like Species to his troubled Mind;
His Nature, and his Actions all canine.
So as (old Homer sung) th’ Associates wild
Of wand’ring Ithacus, by Circe’s Charms
To Swine transform’d, ran gruntling thro’ the Groves,
Dreadful Example to a wicked World!
This only demonstrates the stress and not the vowel of the second syllable, but Walker (1791) also gives kəˈnaɪn as the only pronunciation.
Ah, indeed.
A rare example of keeping the stress on the syllable that’s stressed in the Latin original, even if it ends up at the end of the word. English is remarkably averse to that. No wonder it couldn’t stay.
I had a dentist who insisted on calling those teeth “cuspids.” “We’re not dogs,” he’d say. I thought this was general among dentists.
Cuspid and bicuspid seem to be the norm among American dentists. I have heard them use canine occasionally, but I don’t think ever premolar.
The American Dental Association apparently prefers “canine” in official use; the Universal Tooth Designation System (which defines tooth numbers 1–32) uses “canine”, not “cuspid”. The search function at the Journal of the ADA automatically matches “cuspid” and “canine” to each other, but as best I can tell, “cuspid” was once the norm in article titles, but since 1980 it’s been only “canine”. Of course, journal style doesn’t control what dentists say in clinical practice.
I advocate for eyeteeth.
Yẽn-sɩlenga “pointy tooth” in Mooré; sɩlenga “pointed, sharp” has the same stem as sɩlem “craftiness, wiles, stealth, astuteness”, which gives another angle on the term “wisdom tooth.”
Eckzähne. Though dentists like to speak in numbers and say Dreier…
Boringly, just llygad-ddant “eye-tooth” in Welsh. Or dant llygad on Tuesdays.
FWIW, it’s hjørnetand in Danish. Followed by premolars (or små kindtænder). The three next molars which only come in as permanent teeth, are popularly the six-year, twelve-year and wisdom teeth. (The first permanent molar comes in long before the canine teeth are replaced, and before tooth hygiene is dependable, so it’s often the site of various problems. One of mine has had two (count them, 2) root canals and three ceramic crowns).