Stone Gordonssen wrote:
> >Is it /'sIn@m@/ or /'sIn@mA:/? For Americans, I mean.
>
> Depends on where in the USA, since we Americans don't speak so
> homogenously/cohesively as do all peoples in the UK or Australia. :-)
Back in the 50s, there was a movie theatre in suburban Boston called "The
Cinema"-- it was locally known as the [kaj'nem@], to the amusement of all us
Bright Young Things at Harvard.
>
> In my dialect, it's ["sIn@ma]. In my parents', it would have been
["sin@m@]
> but would have been perceived by them as being either archaic or an
attempt
> to put on airs. They'd have said _pictures_ ["pIktSVr'z] or ["pItsVr's].
>
An elderly lady of my acquaintance in Florida used to say "show"-- "Let's go
to a show this afternoon". Indonesian, FWIW, uses a positively antique
term-- bioskop [bi'oskop]
SG also wrote:
>Funny. Before joining this list, I'd never even considered judging such
differences between American, British and Australian English as "wrong".
Because they aren't. Just different...........