[Bell Historians] What a carillon!

[John Camp]

At 13:45 on 16 July 2013, Richard Offen wrote:

> To bring the topic back to ringing, there is the word "carillion",
> which has never been "correct", but which is widely used. Should a
> dictionary record this?

> John Camp

> Please, NO!!!

> I’ve spent the last eight years trying to persuade Australians to
> omit the extra ‘i’ in ‘carillon’, please do not give them hope of legitimacy!


I thought it was the Poms who were the bastards :).

The OED gives three pronunciations of 'carillon'. One is more-or-less
French (nasalised 'on'). The others both have an 'i' sound after the
'll'. And the derivation is said to be from mediaeval French
'quadrilion'. So perhaps 'carillion' isn't as bad as all that.

John Camp