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<blockquote data-quote="Cognomen's Cassowary" data-source="post: 7267040" data-attributes="member: 6801445">According to the OED both long- and short-&quot;i&quot; versions of &quot;minotaur&quot; are present in both the UK and North America. As to the final syllable . . . a lot of American dialects, particularly from Ohio westward, have lost the distinction between open &quot;o&quot; and low back &quot;a.&quot; The classic example is that we pronounce &quot;caught&quot; and &quot;cot&quot; the same. So it's not that we are pronouncing &quot;-taur&quot; differently to you per se; it's that we don't register the difference as a meaningful one. If I say &quot;caught&quot; or &quot;minotaur&quot; with the open &quot;o,&quot; it sounds like I am affecting a New York accent, not that I am saying the word with a fundamentally different vowel.The accent, by the way, is always on the first syllable. &quot;MIN-uh-tawr&quot; or &quot;MAYN-uh-tawr&quot; roughly.Your &quot;satyr&quot; looks like a spelling pronunciation rather than the standard UK way of saying it. I don't find a version with a long &quot;e&quot; in the second syllable attested in any dictionary. It's either &quot;SAT-ər&quot; (UK and some Americans) or &quot;SEY-tər&quot; (more common in North America). The Brits sometimes have trouble remembering the &quot;r&quot; at the end, as they often do. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink&nbsp; &nbsp; ;)"&nbsp; data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />The classic example of spelling pronunciation in nerd culture, of course, is &quot;CHIM-ər-uh&quot; for &quot;chimera,&quot; but it seems to be a particular problem in a group that gains a lot of vocabulary by reading but doesn't always look things up in a dictionary.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Cognomen's Cassowary, post: 7267040, member: 6801445"] According to the OED both long- and short-"i" versions of "minotaur" are present in both the UK and North America. As to the final syllable . . . a lot of American dialects, particularly from Ohio westward, have lost the distinction between open "o" and low back "a." The classic example is that we pronounce "caught" and "cot" the same. So it's not that we are pronouncing "-taur" differently to you [I]per se[/I]; it's that we don't register the difference as a meaningful one. If I say "caught" or "minotaur" with the open "o," it sounds like I am affecting a New York accent, not that I am saying the word with a fundamentally different vowel. The accent, by the way, is always on the first syllable. "MIN-uh-tawr" or "MAYN-uh-tawr" roughly. Your "satyr" looks like a spelling pronunciation rather than the standard UK way of saying it. I don't find a version with a long "e" in the second syllable attested in any dictionary. It's either "SAT-ər" (UK and some Americans) or "SEY-tər" (more common in North America). The Brits sometimes have trouble remembering the "r" at the end, as they often do. ;) The classic example of spelling pronunciation in nerd culture, of course, is "CHIM-ər-uh" for "chimera," but it seems to be a particular problem in a group that gains a lot of vocabulary by reading but doesn't always look things up in a dictionary. [/QUOTE]

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