Why do people pronounce "dishevelled" as "dish-evelled?" Shouldn't it be "dis-hevelled?"
by 
Andy B
ANSWERS: 5
-
heh heh. Good one. Been trying to think but yeah - dishonest, disharmony all work on the principle you are talking about. I think it is (like a few other words) to do with ease of pronunciation... dis-hevelled is harder to say than dish-evelled (try it! Say each 10 times in a row - quickly!) and so as it's difficult, when spoken quickly you are more likely to actually drop the "h" altogether, giving "disevelled" i'm guessing "word nature" preferred "sh" to no "h" at all. Whaddya think? Like this question - definitely rated! :-)
-
It's not that simple actually. The word comes from dis (Latin for apart) and chevel (meaning hair in French) Put the two together and you get that shhhh sound:-)
-
I pronounce it di-SHEV-elled.
-
THANK YOU!! I have always said dis-heveled and been mocked for it yet it makes perfect sense to me: up-hevel, dishevel....
-
If "dishevelled" is derived from the French word "chevel" (pronounced shevel) then it should be spelled "deshevelled" because "de-" is a valid prefix, but the spelling of "dishevelled" uses the prefix "dis" which, when removed, leaves "hevelled." Do you see the logic in this?
RELATED QUESTIONS
Copyright 2023, Wired Ivy, LLC