Friday, January 01, 2010
Pronouncing 2010
One good thing about this number: it's finally forced people to revert to normal pronunciation of years.
In 2009 nearly everyone said Two Thousand And Nine. That was abnormal. (Admittedly, Twenty Nine would be impossibly ambiguous, but Twenty Oh Nine would have been clear.)
By comparison, very few people said 1909 as One Thousand Nine Hundred And Nine, or Nineteen Hundred And Nine; it was Nineteen Nine or Nineteen Oh Nine.
Now I'm hearing Twenty Ten, which is a return to normal usage.
= = = = =
Later thought: No, it really isn't a return to normal usage until the century drops entirely. This probably won't happen until we get a multi-syllable year, maybe next year. For some vaguely phonetic reason, it doesn't feel right to say only one syllable for a year. The Class of '10? For Sale Nice '10 Chevy? Doesn't work. Might work with '11, or might not start until '21.
Interesting illustration in one sentence: Phil Lebeau on CNBC, talking about prospects for the auto industry: "Twenty ten will certainly be better than two thousand nine." Natural transition without conscious thought. ¶ 6:11 AM
In 2009 nearly everyone said Two Thousand And Nine. That was abnormal. (Admittedly, Twenty Nine would be impossibly ambiguous, but Twenty Oh Nine would have been clear.)
By comparison, very few people said 1909 as One Thousand Nine Hundred And Nine, or Nineteen Hundred And Nine; it was Nineteen Nine or Nineteen Oh Nine.
Now I'm hearing Twenty Ten, which is a return to normal usage.
= = = = =
Later thought: No, it really isn't a return to normal usage until the century drops entirely. This probably won't happen until we get a multi-syllable year, maybe next year. For some vaguely phonetic reason, it doesn't feel right to say only one syllable for a year. The Class of '10? For Sale Nice '10 Chevy? Doesn't work. Might work with '11, or might not start until '21.
Interesting illustration in one sentence: Phil Lebeau on CNBC, talking about prospects for the auto industry: "Twenty ten will certainly be better than two thousand nine." Natural transition without conscious thought. ¶ 6:11 AM
