Date: Mon, 14 Oct 1996 12:24:54 -0400

From: "Dale F.Coye" CoyeCFAT[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM

Subject: Re: oyez, oyes



Oyes, oyez was one of the words on a list I recently used for a

pronunciation survey of words from Shakespeare. Here's the results from a

fairly random sample of Shakespeare professors (It was given to them with

both spellings, asking them how they would pronounce it in a prose passage):



UK oh YAY-3 oh YEZ-8 oh YES-1 OH yez-1



US oh YAY-2 oh YEZ-2 oh YES-0 OH yez-7 OH yay-3



Reinterpretation of this old Anglo-Norman word as mod. French is evident in

both countries, but only one used the /s/. In Shakespeare it is stressed on

the first syllable.



Dale Coye

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Princeton, NJ