Say it right

[Juan Martinez]

I don't claim to speak Greek, but then, who does? Except for the Greeks, of course. But, I once did know a number of Greek people and I believe that "yee-ros" is correct except that you should have a little bit of phlegm in the back of your throat when you say the "yee". Just a little, mind you. (In Greek, I believe there is also a "y" sound, as in "Yanni" (which is "John" in Greek) and it should be distinguishable from the "gy" in "gyro". That's my theory, anyway.) Or, at least, that you've got just a little something or other caught in your throat when you say it. Same goes for the "gli" in Italian.

Now, let's try to explain to a non-English speaker why "phlegm" is pronounced the way it is.

Best to all.

Juan

[Juan Martinez]

By the way: despite my obviously non-English name, I am definitely an English speaker.

Juan

[Tom Edgerton]

While we're discussing it, "mediums" has never been, is not now, nor (hopefully) ever will be the plural of medium. It's "media."

The only time you will ever see "mediums" is when a crowd of them are reading your palm.

I know this officially makes me a pedantic crank, but there are too many of us using the terms not to get them right.

[Leslie Ficcaglia]

I don't recall having seen the plural as "media" in this context so I assumed that it took the same added "s" as the crystal-gazers. Checking Webster's Ninth Collegiate Dictionary, the plural of medium is given as, first, mediums and second, media, which indicates that the simple addition of the s is currently the preferred form.

The only definitions for which this source cites "media" as the plural are "a channel or system of communication, information, or entertainment" and "a nutrient system for the artificial cultivation of cell or organisms, esp. bacteria."

My art library's in my studio so I don't have it handy for checking, but I suspect this may create a lively debate. And who can blame people for saying "mediums" when even major dictionaries promote that usage?

[Michael Fournier]

I do not mix my paint with media. I use one of the available "mediums." Of course I use it as it comes from the tube with no medium most of the time.

[Steven Sweeney]

Media-tion

Talk about divided loyalties. It's been over 30 years since Latin, but I can still rattle off those endings for all the noun declensions, male, feminine, and neuter, which is both a blessing and a curse. What an orderly, logical, beautiful language, and no wonder it underlies what we know as the Romance languages (one of which we're communicating in right now). [I know -- misplaced preposition. That's a different thread, and also the subject of some funny jokes.]

But times change and language evolves. When I hear that there (are?) media in my studio, I half expect to be greeted by Ted Koppel investigating, perhaps, the great painting-from-projections scandal.

A further complication is our use of "medium" in at least two senses in the studio. "Medium" indicates the nature of our pigmented material, reflecting the way those pigments are bound. So we ask artists what medium they work in, and they say oils, or watercolors, or pastels. The usage I've most often seen in this sense is to refer to those various materials as painting "media". (In the same vein, we speak of "mixed media".)

"Medium" also refers to the materials we add to those painting media to disperse them, or dry them, or make them flow more easily. Arguably inconsistent is again the usage I find more prevalent, to refer to the plural of those materials as "mediums". At the very least, this keeps Mr. Koppel's nose out of my private methodologies. And if I refer to the properties "of" (genitive case) those materials, I don't have to wretch over whether "mediorum" is indicated.

I don't have any trouble saying "radii" or even "octopi", but that's just because I can never sort out whether to double the final "s" before adding the suffix. But I wouldn't want to see a sportswriter commenting on various cities' debates on building new stadia (or worse, stadii) for their teams. Whether that's reasonable I leave to the foci groups.

As for those palm-reading mediums, no way, under any declension. I don't harbor deep dark personal secrets (such as affection for Latin) for nothing.

[Michele Rushworth]

I thought the medium was the message.

[Enzie Shahmiri]

I stumble on "Giclee." How on earth do you say that one?

[Michael Fournier]

Steve, LOL.

[Steven Sweeney]

I thought the medium was the message.

And the media is/are the messenger/s.

Now that that's settled, what are we going to do about "hopefully"?