Pronunciation of the Names of Years
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How do you pronounce the name of the first year of the 21st century? Do you call it "Two Thousand One"? (If you think that it's pronounced "Two Thousand" then you're really off base!)
If you believe that the year 2001 should be pronounced "Two Thousand One", then let me ask you this: How did you pronounce a year like 1984? Did you call it "One Thousand Nine Hundred Eight Four"? Or did you simply call it "Nineteen Eighty Four"?
And how about the first year of the 20th century? Was it called "One Thousand Nine Hundred One"? Or was it simply called "Nineteen Oh One"?
If 1901 was pronounced "Nineteen Oh One" then, to be consistent, 2001 should be pronounced "Twenty Oh One". (And similarly for 2002, 2003, etc.) Think about it...
However, there may be a somewhat legitimate argument to support this pronunciation inconsistancy: One might argue that we should always pronounce numbers "correctly" ... unless we can find a more compact way that requires strictly fewer syllables. Then, since the corresponding phrases ("Two Thousand One" vs. "Twenty Oh One", etc.) each have exactly the same number of syllables, we should therefore favor the "correct" pronunciations ("Two thousand One", etc.) when referring to those years.* Calling them in their "compact" forms ("Twenty Oh One", etc.) would not save us any syllables.
*My main objection to this argument is that, for the almost three thousand year period
(extending from the year one through the year 2999), the argument "corrects" the pronunciations of only
ten years (2000 - 2009). The rest of the years all require fewer
syllables when they are expressed in their "compact" forms. (Furthermore, nine of the ten "corrected"
pronunciations aren't any shorter than their "compact" forms would have been. Both have exactly the same
number of syllables.) Therefore it would be more correct (i.e., consistent) to pronounce all
years in their "compact" forms rather than letting
the single ten year period (2000 - 2009) be an exception to the rule.
It will be interesting to see what happens when the year 2010 comes around. Will it be called "Two Thousand Ten" (which requires four syllables)? Or will everybody revert back to the more compact pronunciation of "Twenty Ten" (which requires only three syllables)? Only time will tell...
(And speaking of "pronunciation" inconsistencies, how come the very word "pronunciation" is
missing an "o" ("pronounce" vs. "pronunciation")?)