The plot thickens.

[conuly]

siderea said she was only familiar with the "bride" pronunciation, so I went back to google.

Now, most pages turned up were just dictionary pages and Wikipedia and the like, but I found a few language threads - all of which were discussing the fact that both the "breed" and "bride" pronunciations are apparently quite widespread, and wondering which is more correct!

It appears that the original pronunciation in English hewed closely to the French, with the stress on the final syllable and all. However, it rapidly changed to be "mostly English, vowel as in see". The vowel as in sigh is the newest pronunciation, but it appears to be quite widespread already, although nonstandard. However! Since this word is so uncommon, it is doubtful that anybody knows if you're using a standard pronunciation or not, so I wouldn't worry about it in the slightest. Not sure where the "brayed" pronunciation slipped in, but maybe I misheard. (Also, the etymology is literally "unbridle" in French, so if anybody questions you, you can just say you've decided to work from there.)

Sources disagree wildly over whether the "bride" pronunciation is more widespread in England or in America, which suggests both pronunciations are prominent in both countries.

Comments

[sovay]

The vowel as in sigh is the newest pronunciation, but it appears to be quite widespread already, although nonstandard.

Neat!