I was recently listening to the Pink Floyd song "Pigs (Three different ones)" and a line in the chorus goes,
Ha ha, charade you are!
In the context of the song I am nearly sure that the word charade
is intended to mean something or someone that is a fake. What interests me is the way that the word is pronounced.
It is being pronounced Sha-r-ahhh-d
(Not sure how to convey a long ah
accent but that is the intent. As an American, I have only ever heard this word pronounced more like Sha-r-AID
.
My question is, is there a single correct pronunciation of the word, or is this simply pronounced differently in England as compared to America (US, Canada)? Or… is this simply just a poetic pronunciation of the word in the song for effect and uniqueness?
Best Answer
From (2009 copy) OED:
Not being a subscriber, I can't access the latest online version of OED, which may mention the US pronunciation /ʃəˈreɪd/ ("shar-aid"). But that doesn't appear at all in my copy, and I've never heard Brits say anything other than (ʃəˈrɑːd) ("shar-ard").