A pronunciation thing

[Calthrop]

I start threads once in a while, about general English-language matters which bother me, if only to a slight degree. (This one perhaps prompted in part, by the current "evolution-of-the-English-language" thread.)

The noun "sloth" -- probably most used nowadays, in respect of lovable animals peculiar to Latin America, with a way of hanging upside-down from tree branches; otherwise, with meaning akin to "laziness" -- one of the venerable Seven Deadly Sins.

Do you pronounce this word to rhyme with "broth"; or with "oath"? I myself am in the "oath" camp -- likely, I think, largely due to a precedent encountered in youth: to me, the "oath" version sounds right, and the "broth" one, wrong. Have the impression, though, that the "broth" usage is overall, the more widespread of the two. Would be interested to hear which pronunciation people are in the habit of using; and why so, if there is a "why"; and how strongly or otherwise they feel, concerning right / wrong pronunciation of the word.

 

[Trackman]

'Broth' because that's the way I have always pronounced it.
Sir David Attenborough uses 'oath' - just checked on you-tube

 

[NorthOxonian]

I use both. "oath" for the deadly sin; "broth" for the animal. No idea why I'm that way round, and I don't feel too strongly about it, but that's how I say them.

 

[pdeaves]

Sir David Attenborough uses 'oath' - just checked on you-tube

Same here. Sprog uses the 'broth' version; don't know where he got that!

 

[nw1]

Different depending on the meaning I think.

The animal - "oath"
The archaic word for laziness - "broth"

 

[Calthrop]

I use both. "oath" for the deadly sin; "broth" for the animal. No idea why I'm that way round, and I don't feel too strongly about it, but that's how I say them.

Different depending on the meaning I think.

The animal - "oath"
The archaic word for laziness - "broth"

This is interesting -- you two gentlemen are "crosswise", as it were, on this business !

'Broth' because that's the way I have always pronounced it.
Sir David Attenborough uses 'oath' - just checked on you-tube

I'd assume that Attenborough focuses on the animal, rather than on human behaviour displeasing to the Almighty...

Would reckon that my preference for the "oath" pronunciation (for both animal, and misdemeanour) stems, as per my OP, from the -- well, "characterful" -- chap who taught us Latin at the minor public school which I attended, some sixty years ago. As with a number of the masters there (though short of any realms of gross abuse of pupils) -- it was widely felt that this guy belonged properly, in a mental hospital; but he certainly had, and relished, a feel for language and the spoken word -- came out with some wonderful stuff. For him, the s-word functioned in its "laziness" sense (forever lambasting his pupils for that fault) -- I'd think that South American "critters" were on his radar very little, if at all. In this chap's resounding and declamatory bass voice, "sloth as in 'oath' " sounded wonderfully accusatory and contemptuous -- and the animal gets its name from humans' characterising its behaviour, as lazy (though for sloths, doing things the way they do seems to work well enough) -- in whatever way I'd tackled the word before encountering, aged about thirteen, this master (I forget how I'd reckoned its pronunciation pre-then): his way with it, "turned me on" lifelong, to the "oath" pronunciation; the "broth" one strikes me, personally, as highly insipid. Just one person's "take"...

 

[Haywain]

I tend to use the 'oath' pronunciation, and I believe the etymology goes back the same way as slow. This would suggest that's also why the animal has the name and would have the same pronunciation.

 

[HST274]

I use both. "oath" for the deadly sin; "broth" for the animal. No idea why I'm that way round, and I don't feel too strongly about it, but that's how I say them.

That is what I do, I thought that was the correct way but I suppose there is no correct way.

 

[Calthrop]

I tend to use the 'oath' pronunciation, and I believe the etymology goes back the same way as slow. This would suggest that's also why the animal has the name and would have the same pronunciation.

Yes, indeed, that too -- although very often, English is conspicuously not logical in this particular way !

 

[hexagon789]

Slow-th for both (making a nice rhyme there ) in my case. I always understood the animal was named because of it's perceived laziness and slowness, hence both pronunciations should be the same

 

[prod_pep]

Definitely the 'oath' pronunciation for both sin and animal senses.

 

[swt_passenger]

I’m surprised no one writes it as slo’ve nowadays. Just thinking of the other current thread, like…

 

[cb a1]

I use both. "oath" for the deadly sin; "broth" for the animal. No idea why I'm that way round, and I don't feel too strongly about it, but that's how I say them.

Interesting, I'm the other way round.

 

[Gloster]

Oath for both
Sloth and sloth.

 

[Trainguy34]

Oath for both
Sloth and sloth.

I'm the other way with broth, though I was brought up fairly recently (Plus I'm from the South East)

 

[HST274]

Oath for both
Sloth and sloth.

Why did I read this as oath for boath, sloth and sloath