Re: Exceptions to the -tion rule in French

From: "Alfred Wallace"

> I can think of two off the top of my head.  One is "un cation," which
means (incredibly) "a cation" (the chemical term).

> Also,  the french word for a violent ancient greek sport is "le
pankration."

> Do these count?
Sounds like we're getting warm. But is it safe to assume these are
pronounced à la quasi-grècque (/katiO~/ and /pa~kratiO~/) as opposed to à la
française (/kasjO~/ ana /pa~krasjO~/)? If they're pronounced like the
former, then I would expect there to be more; if it's the latter, then these
may well be two of the three.

Speaking of free association :), this reminds me of some word play we
learned in French Comp101.

Nous portions nos portions.
        /portiO~/      /porsjO~/
       /portjO~/ allegro
We were carrying our shares.

There's another one with les fils /fis/ (sons) and les fils /fil/ (threads),
but I've forgotten it ("Les fils ont cousu les fils" or some such probably).

Sidebar: I was unfamiliar with "pankration", so I looked it up in the
Webster's. Didn't find it, but apparently the word survives in English in
its Latin form, "pancratium", which they say should be pronounced <shudder>
/p&nkreSi@m/. Yech!

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