Ap-nee-uh or Ay-nee-uh

This is bothering me.

A-pnea, literally without breath.

So why is the P not silent, why is the A short, and why is the P in the first syllable?

Today must be a "slow news day"

Interesting question, and I applaud your thorough inquisitiveness. Your are, as far as I can tell, correct.

I, myself, have wondered why the aviation and nautical navigational aid LORAN was always pronounced... loRAN rather than LOran (akin to RAdar SOnar)

Continuing, caffeine is always oddly pronounced caFEINE rather than the more logical CAFEine; and, of course, ChoLESterol, rather than choleSTEROL.

Many more such examples exist.

Sometimes, when a scientific term advances into the public vernacular, we should allow popular pronunciation to tache itch oan weigh, eh?


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cnaumann wrote:This is bothering me.

A-pnea, literally without breath.

So why is the P not silent, why is the A short, and why is the P in the first syllable?

WHERE did you come up with THAT? Latin dictionary?

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/apnea

ap·nea

\'ap-nē-ə\

Variants of APNEA
ap·nea or chiefly British ap·noea


Den

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No, it's actually Greek (as in ancient), like pneumonia, etc. If it were Latin, the 'p' wouldn't be there, but it's not Latin. They spell the word Apnoea in England, closer to the original, and in a dictionary the 'e' and 'a' would be joined. So there.

There is also "dyspnea" which means difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. The "P" is pronounced. But they probably have some relationship to pneumo as prefix indicating the lungs, as in pneumonia and pneumothorax. In those, the "P" is not pronounced. Fascinating.

Julie wrote:No, it's actually Greek (as in ancient), like pneumonia, etc. If it were Latin, the 'p' wouldn't be there, but it's not Latin. They spell the word Apnoea in England, closer to the original, and in a dictionary the 'e' and 'a' would be joined. So there.

I know. But, from that link I posted.......

Origin of APNEA
New Latin, from a- + -pnea
First Known Use: circa 1719


Den

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cnaumann wrote:

So why is the P not silent, why is the A short, and why is the P in the first syllable?

If you are going to go that far, why did you not type it άπνοια?

Apnea comes from the Greek word άπνοια.

The pronunciation of English apnea and Greek άπνοια are identical.



ChicagoGramps

Kind of reminds me of transformational grammar--one of the weirdest classes I ever took.

Words with root "pneumo"

http://wordinfo.info/unit/2768/page:1

I don't see many non-silent p's... maybe "amphipneust"

cnaumann wrote:This is bothering me.

A-pnea, literally without breath.

So why is the P not silent, why is the A short, and why is the P in the first syllable?

I don't understand why you would ask this question. Have you ever seen a word where a "p" that is not at the beginning of the word is silent? There are no such words.

The only words with silent "p" are words that begin with "ps" or "pn". Examples are "psychiatry" or "pneumatic".

sc0ttt wrote:I don't see many non-silent p's... maybe "amphipneust"

No, there is not a silent "p" in that word - see rule above.

ChicagoGranny wrote:
Apnea comes from the Greek word άπνοια.

The pronunciation of English apnea and Greek άπνοια are identical.

You got it right Pops.

ButtermilkBuoy wrote:

A-pnea, literally without breath.

So why is the P not silent, why is the A short, and why is the P in the first syllable?

I don't understand why you would ask this question. Have you ever seen a word where a "p" that is not at the beginning of the word is silent? There are no such words.

The only words with silent "p" are words that begin with "ps" or "pn". Examples are "psychiatry" or "pneumatic".

Yes, I have seen words that have a silent 'p' in the middle of them.

For example: Hyperpnea

MW says it is better to keep the 'p' silent, but will forgive you if you say '-perp-'.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hyperpnea

So OP, why were you thinking the "P" would/should be silent?

I can't make that compute. In what other similarly constructed English words is a "P" silent?

There are many compounds from Greek words having consonant clusters that English doesn't allow at the beginning of a words but allows in the middle. Since we preserve the spelling we end up with a silent letter. Thus we don't pronounce the g in gnostic but we pronounce it in agnostic. We don't pronounce the p pterodactyl but we pronounce it in apterous (wingless). Apnea is consistent with the pattern. The p is silent in pneumonia but not in apnea.

In Texas we pronounce the "p"... so what's the question?

Sheriff