Talk:werewolf

There seems to be some confusion about how the 'were-' stem is pronounced. Traditionally it was pronounced with a long e, as in 'weird', and Larousse lists that along with 'wur-', as in 'world'.

Merriam-Webster lists a third pronunciation, with a long a, which makes little sense etymologically, but is now frequently heard, and maybe more dominant in the US than elsewhere. Does anyone know when this pronunciation first appeared?


 * I looked it up. It was first listed in Webster 3, sometime in the '60s. Teh Rote 03:36, 10 June 2009 (UTC)


 * By "long a", I think you mean "a with macron", which represents a long e. In the U.S., it can rhyme with were, weir, or where. The one that rhymes with where is the most common. —Stephen 03:44, 10 June 2009 (UTC)


 * I wonder whether the word was used in the 1948 film Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein. I can't recall whether the lycanthropic character is called a werwolf in that film or just a "wolf man".  If the word is used in that film, it might set the date back further.  I know the "long-a" pronunciation was a common one by the early seventies, or else the joke in Young Frankenstein wouldn't have worked: "Werewolf?" "There wolf." --EncycloPetey 03:45, 10 June 2009 (UTC)