Re: skis and skies

> >    Early 1900s English use also spelled it "shee". My
> > mother has a dictionary (1930s) that spells it "ski" both sing.
> > and plur. and gives the pronunciation "shee". I'm
> > not sure if  the dictionary was a US or British standard.
> > My grade 5 teacher also pronounced it "shee".
>
> For clarity, this is more or less the way "ski" is pronounced in
> Norwegian (with a moderately short "ee").

This year I'm trying to learn Italian, and I was pleased to see that
Italian preserves the Norwegian pronunciation: under Italian spelling
rules, the noun for skis or skiing is "sci" (same for singular and
plural).  The verb is "sciare" (shee-AR-eh).

Lew Lasher
Cambridge, Massachusetts and Stowe, Vermont