How do you pronounce ‘mayoralty'?
'Six!' cried my husband, waving his notebook as he monitored the by-elections. He wasn't counting Reform wins but the ways of pronouncing mayoralty.
The most inventive seemed to be Jonny Dymond on Radio 4, who called them mayoralities, introducing an i, as in words such as realities or moralities. Although mayoralities wasn't exactly the required word, it sounded much better than the popular but hideous method of basing its pronunciation on mayor as if it consisted in two syllables, may and or, with the second stressed.
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