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Glossary entry

English term or phrase:

affiant [pronunciation]

English answer:

Normally stressed on the second syllable: uh - FEYE - unt [second syllable rhymes with the word \"eye\" and the word as a whole rhymes with \"defiant\"]

Added to glossary by Robert Forstag
Sep 5, 2017 16:44
6 yrs ago
20 viewers *
English term

affiant [pronunciation]

English Law/Patents Law (general) Pronunciation of \"affiant\"
What is the correct (or preferred) pronunciation of "affiant" in American English?

I ask because there are web references indicating two very different pronunciations:

1. uh - FEYE - unt (accent on second syllable, which rhymes with "eye")

2. AH - fee - unt (accent on first syllable, which has a short "a" sound, with an unstressed second syllable that rhymes with "bee."

Thanks in advance!
Responses
4 +4 Normally stressed on the second syllable: uh - FEYE - unt
4 -1 əˈfīənt
Change log

Sep 5, 2017 17:55: NancyLynn changed "Visibility" from "Visible" to "Squashed"

Sep 5, 2017 19:03: Enrique Cavalitto changed "Visibility" from "Squashed" to "Visible"

Sep 10, 2017 20:14: airmailrpl changed "Edited KOG entry" from "<a href="/profile/55340">Robert Forstag's</a> old entry - "affiant [pronunciation]"" to ""əˈfīənt [accent on second syllable, which rhymes with \"eye\"; word as whole rhymes with \"defiant\"]""

Sep 13, 2017 20:56: Enrique Manzo changed "Removed from KOG" from "affiant [pronunciation] > əˈfīənt [accent on second syllable, which rhymes with \"eye\"; word as whole rhymes with \"defiant\"] by <a href="/profile/21987">airmailrpl</a>" to "Reason: Incorrect grading"

Discussion

Rachel Fell Sep 5, 2017:
UK dictionary entry for "affiant": "US: someone who makes an affidavit" - emphasis on the "i", quite simply.
Charles Davis Sep 5, 2017:
@Tony Ah, I see what you meant.
By the way, I'm not averse to being Quixotic myself when it suits me!
Actually, affiant and defiant are not unrelated etymologically. Affiant comes from Vulgar Latin affidare, via FR affiance and EN affiance; defiant comes from Vulgar Latin disfidare, via FR desfiance and EN defiance.

If pronunciation reflected etymology, we ought to be saying "DEFFiance" and "DEFFiant". Maybe English speakers once did stress these words on the first syllable, but certainly no one does now. If the tonic accent can shift to the I in these words, there's surely no reason why it shouldn't do so in affiance and affiant as well.
Tony M Sep 5, 2017:
@ Charles Oh no, sorry, I have not been clear: I stupidly used the capitals solely to indicate the matching syllables 'aff' in each case, to show my case for not pronouncing it a-FY- — because we don't say a-FEYE-day-vit or even af-feye-DA-vit.
I'm quite prepared to accept the consensus, of course — I should hate to be Quixotic! — whilst acknowledging that there is however a certain lack of logic to it! And we do know that there are often detail differences between US and GB pronunciation — let's take 'laboratory' as a common example!
Charles Davis Sep 5, 2017:
@Tony Do you stress "affidavit" on the first syllable? I've always said, and heard, aff-i-DA-vit, stressed on the third syllable (which sounds like "DAY"). But that aside, I don't know by what criterion one decides that a pronunciation is erroneous, except by the consensus of respected reference works and prevailing practice among educated speakers. There are surely many cases in which pronunciation doesn't reflect etymology, and it seems a shade quixotic to claim that when it doesn't, speakers are getting it wrong.

On the British side, Oxford and Collins both give the pronunciation of this word as əˈfaɪənt: stressed on the second syllable. That is the consensus on both sides of the Atlantic, as far as reference works are concerned. In fact I haven't yet found a dictionary that says the opposite.
Tony M Sep 5, 2017:
I can see... ...how people might (erroneously) seek to pronounce it like 'defiant', even though etymologically there is no connection whatsoever; my own instinctive pronunciaiton would have been your #2 — it's an AFF-i-davit, and is made by an AFF-i-ant. But I am quite willing to acknowledge that the US pronunciation might depart from my GB logic, and Charles's argument is certainly convincing.
Tony M Sep 5, 2017:
I can see... ...how people might (erroneously) seek to pronounce it like 'defiant', even though etymologically there is no connection whatsoever; my own instinctive pronunciaiton would have been your #2 — it's an AFF-i-davit, and is made by an AFF-i-ant. But I am quite willing to acknowledge that the US pronunciation might depart from my GB logic, and Charles's argument is certainly convincing.
Charles Davis Sep 5, 2017:
@Mike Thanks for that reference. I've just clicked on all the examples posted on the page, and a clear majority stress it on the first syllable. Unless my ears deceive me, there's even one who stresses it on the second syllable, but says "a-FEE-ant", instead of "a-FEYE-ant", as all the other second-syllable-stressers do.

I can't help wondering how many of the people whose voices you hear there have ever used this word in conversation. I'm not sure I ever have, not being a lawyer. So on what basis are they pronouncing it one way or the other, I wonder? Genuine personal experience? Guesswork? Looking it up? Following a script organised by someone behind the scenes? This, of course, is a general problem with user-generated sites: how do we know whether the users know what they're talking about?
writeaway Sep 5, 2017:
according to the IPA af·fi·ant
əˈfīənt
nounLAW
a person who swears to an affidavit.
Robert Forstag (asker) Sep 5, 2017:
@Mike Yes, Mike, there are several such references on the Internet offering the two different pronunciations that I indicated. This is why I asked the question.
mike23 Sep 5, 2017:
http://www.pronouncekiwi.com/Affiant

Responses

+4
2 hrs
Selected

Normally stressed on the second syllable: uh - FEYE - unt

(Since the question has been reinstated, I am taking the opportunity to post the answer I have already communicated privately.)

Most Internet sources indicate that it is stressed on the second syllable in the United States, as in your option 1. Merriam-Webster, for example, gives only this pronunction: "\ə-ˈfī-ənt\"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/affiant

This view is not unanimous. Here is a YouTube video in which an American who looks as though he may be a lawyer firmly stresses it on the first syllable, AFFiant, as in your option 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX1uSEc22q8

However, to me the clinching reference is Black's Law Dictionary, surely the most authoritative source in the U.S. for legal terminology. In the 8th edition, supervised by Bryan Garner (generally recognised as the leading American expert on legal language), the
pronunciation is explicitly indicated in the entry for this
word:

"affiant (<<schwa>>-fI-<<schwa>>nt)"
https://imeumanahchambers.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/blacks...
(foot of p. 177).

To me, this clinches the matter. There are clearly those (in the U.S.) who pronounce it the other way, but stressing it on the second syllable must be regarded as the standard pronunciation.
Note from asker:
Thank you, Charles!
Peer comment(s):
agree Tony M : Can't argue with your reasoning... those as a Brit, my natural tendency would have been the other way.
1 hr
Thanks, Tony! I have to admit that I had never thought about this before.
agree lorenab23 : Yes, stressing it on the second syllable is how I hear it day in and day out during depositions (I interpret an average of 5 a week)
3 hrs
Thanks, Lorena! That's what we needed: someone with first-hand experience :)
agree mike23 : Great explanation, Charles. It should be stressed on the second syllable as the standard pronunciation.
19 hrs
Thanks very much, Mike :)
agree acetran
1 day 18 hrs
Thanks, acetran :)
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "I made a mistake in awarding the points to airmailrpl when I had intended to award them to Charles. I am now correcting this error. Once again, many thanks to Charles for his help. Thanks also to airmailrpl for graciously allowing me to put this matter right, and to site staff for having rules in place that permit such rectification."
-1
21 hrs

əˈfīənt

Dictionary
af·fi·ant
əˈfīənt/
noun
Law
noun: affiant; plural noun: affiants

a person who swears to an affidavit.
Peer comment(s):
disagree Tony M : That's exactly the same as Charles's answer, except that you don't actually explain the pronunciation.
10 mins
phonetic : /əˈfīənt/.
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