"SKEE" OR "SHEE"?

Evening Post, Issue 36, 12 February 1935, Page 14

"SKEE" OR "SHEE"?

AN ENGLISH OPINION

PLEA FOR, UNIFORMITY

I No less an authority than the.editor, lof the journal of the Ski Club-of; Great Britain (Mr. G. Seligman) gives; his views on the "skee"1 versus "shec" controversy : in an article which is republished in the latest bulletin of the Ruapehu.Ski Club. In a personal letter to the club/Mr. Seligman makes a plea: to- all- English-speaking people for .uniformity of pronunciation, "because 'skee' is a horrible sounding wordi and, moreover, 'shee' has been the official pronunciation of the S.C.G.B. for over thirty years. '"In any case," Mr. Seligman adds, "these two_ reasons, apart from some cogent philological niceties, seem to me adequate, and I have published an article to this .effect in the little journal which I edit over here. I have sent a copy to the editor of the Australian and New Zealand Ski Book, and a rather more tactful communication to Canada and the U.S.A., tfie ringleaders, lor publication in their respect tive national journals, so it is really a world-wide appeal I am making." In the course of thcarticle in question Mr. Seligman says that the "maze of complicated philological logic" which the argument on pronunciation has produced "seems particularly -purposeless in a language whose pronunciation is so illogical philologically, as English. Surely it is a far stronger argument to say that the British pioneers who brought skiing south from its home in Norway brought the Norwegian word pronounced 'shee' with them, and that for over thirty uninterrupted years the S.C.G.B. has been the 'Shee' Club of. Great, Britain and that this, is, therefore, the official pronunciation in this country. "Be these things as they may, we plead for uniformity." If the adherents of phonetic spelling in North America and Langham Place (8.8.C.?) gain the day, we do sincerely appeal to them to be consistent. If the word is 'skee,' write it s-k-e-e, but you simply cannot'prpnounce it 'skee' if it is written s-k-i—you must call it 'sky.'"