Here’s a something I’ve been wondering about since I started going to genealogy conferences about five years ago:

Why do some people pronounce our favorite pastime with a short e, like JEN-ealogy?

I’ve always pronounced the word with a long “e” as in “gene.” But I’ve heard some esteemed conference speakers pronounce it with a short e, as in “jen.”

The screengrab from Merriam-Webster.com, above, indicates that my pronunciation is the preferred one. And, in fact, if you go to the website and click on the little speaker icon, you’ll hear the word pronounced that way. But the website also points to another alternate pronunciation, which I don’t think I’ve ever heard: jeen-ee-AL-ogy with a short “a”.

So I’ve put together a little poll: How do you say the word?

I’m looking forward to seeing the results!