Ferrari or Dairy? — Pronouncing “Certiorari” and the Problem with Dictionaries

What’s the right way to pronounce “certiorari”? That’s exactly what James J. Duane asks in his recent Green Bag article The Proper Pronunciation of Certiorari. Specifically, Duane examines how U.S. Supreme Court justices pronounce the word. Surprisingly, he find a contentious six-way split, with some pronouncing it “ser-shee-or-RARE-eye”, others “ser-shee-or-RAHR-ee,” and others something different yet.

What’s a diligent and articulate law student to do when it comes pronouncing tricky legal Latin, not to mention French, phrases?

You might look in a standard law dictionary like Black’s, something more specialized like Guide to Latin in International Law, or something more historical like the Self-Pronouncing Law Dictionary. And sure enough, in these learned tomes you’d find pronunciation guidance for legal terms.

But then you’d probably still have a problem. Most of these sources use what’s called the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) or some simplified variation of the IPA. The IPA is an alphabetic system used by linguists to describe the sounds of languages. It’s not so easy to use for non-linguists because it uses special characters like æ, ə, or ʒ to describe certain sounds. If you’re not familiar with the IPA, then you might run into problems looking up the pronunciation of legal terminology in law dictionaries.

Here’s one possible solution. To make things easier, dictionaries and other legal pronunciation guides should simply adopt a “sounds like” method. Duane uses it in his article. He says that some justices make certiorari rhyme with Ferrari, while others make it rhyme with dairy. Various authors have noted other legal rhymes – prima facie like I’m a geisha, res judicata roughly like peace rutabaga, or voir dire like tire if you’re from Texas.

See James J. Duane, The Proper Pronunciation of Certiorari: The Supreme Court’s Surprising Six-Way Split 17 Green Bag 2d 279 (Spring 2014).