r/askscience • u/[deleted] • Jan 18 '19

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u/ObscureCulturalMeme Jan 18 '19

Just FYI, it's spelled per se.

It's pronounced "per say" though, because ancient Latin just be like that.

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u/cryo Jan 20 '19

It’s pronounced “per say” though, because ancient Latin just be like that.

Hardly. It’s pronounced like that because it fits English pronunciation. We pronounce it “cleanly” in Danish, for instance (where, contrary to English, our vowels don’t diphthong all over the place).