As one who, like Mark, survived the 70s (the period when the flaids were created), I can confirm that there was an awful lot of plaid around --at least, that's the way I remember it; I was pretty young at the time. There's still a lot of it--flannel shirts, scarfs, bathrobes, pygamas, etc.--but you really don't see plaid pants any more.Ahribar wrote:Well, in that case, it's Mark's fault for choosing such a silly example word. I'd never heard it used once in my life.Mark's Flaidish page wrote:(ai) is always /?/ and (au) is always /o/.
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Flaid /fl?d/ rhymes with 'plaid', not 'played'.
I, too, pronounced "flaid" as /flejd/ for a long time (and "Flaidish" as /flejdiS/--that one's harder to shake), but once Mark explained the real pronunciation, I was able to switch without too much trouble.
p@,
Glenn