Dear Ann Landers,
ave you noticed how many people, including those in radio and TV, pronounce February as Feb-yooary? Walter Cronkite, no less, is one of the principal offenders. I will be mighty glad when these so-called experts on the English language get with it. I've written to Mr. Cronkite to protest such sloppy usage but, so far, no reply. How about your trying? -February Freak

Dear Feb,
I sent your letter to Walter Cronkite who, incidentally, is a real pussycat. Across the top of your letter, I wrote: "Dear Walter: The lady is right. I heard you say it. Please clean up your act or get off the air." Walter Cronkite telephoned his response. He let me know in no un-certain terms that his act doesn't need cleaning up. Moreover, he said he has no intention of getting off the air. Mr. Cronkite claims the dictionaries are divided as to the pronunciation of February. I checked several reference books, however, and they all give Feb-yoo-ary as second choice. (See World Book Dictionary, Merriam- Webster's New Collegiate, Funk and Wagnall's, American Heritage and Ran-dom House.) One of them even has Feb-yoo-ary as third choice. So Feb-roo-ary is preferred, but Feb-yoo-ary is acceptable, and that's the way it is, Monday, April 24, 1978. Dear Readers: Remember the Japanese soldier who hid in a cave on Iwa Jima for 25 years and no one could figure out why? Well, I think I know the reason. He probably said something un-complimentary about Walter Cronkite. Ever since I printed the letter from the woman who criticized Wal-ter's pronunciation of February (he said Feb-yoo-ary), I have been catching heat from Cronkite fans. They are angry and unrelenting, and the numbers are staggering. The woman who signed herself "February Freak" had written to Cronkite about his "sloppy pronunciation." She received no reply and asked me to try to get through to him. I said I would. (I, too, shudder when I hear someone say "Feb-yoo-ary," and I had heard Walter say it.) Cronkite is a dear guy and a good friend of mine. He phoned his re-sponse, which was as follows: "The dictionaries are divided as to the pronunciation of the word. I happen to prefer Feb-yoo-ary." I then began to check various dictionaries-World Book, Merriam- Webster's New Collegiate, Funk and Wagnall's, American Heritage and Random House. Not one gave Feb-yoo-ary as first choice. In fact, one gave it as third. When I politely suggested that Cronkite clean up his act, the feathers hit the fan. After several hundred letters in defense of Walter, telling me where to go and what I could do with my typewriter when I got there, I finally hit on a letter I could print. It came from Elaine P. Paden, Ph.D., asso-ciate professor of phonetics and phonology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She wrote: "Your reply to 'February Freak' perpetuates a common misconcep-tion that the pronunciation of a word appearing first in a dictionary is 'preferred' or 'best.' A second-place variant is not to be regarded as less desirable than the one given first. Thus, Walter Cronkite's Feb-yoo- ary is neither 'sloppy' nor inferior to Feb-roo-ary." The second printable letter was from Virginia McDavid, professor of English at Chicago State University. She wrote: "Before you tell Walter Cronkite or anyone else anything about pronunciation, you should learn to use a dictionary. What makes you think the first pronunciation is 'preferred' and second or third is merely 'accepted'? "The first pronunciation shown is generally considered the one used most frequently, but the second and third are not incorrect and are just as acceptable. So tell your audience that if both pronunciations are in a modern dictionary, great-go with them. And let dear Walter alone." So-oooo, there you have it. What's more, you can be sure that from now on anything Walter Cronkite says is all right with me. Better I should criticize motherhood, apple pie or the United States Marines. I thought the Walter Cronkite debacle was finished, but the readers refuse to let me off the hook despite my abject apologies. Are you ready for more? This, I vow, will terminate the self-flagellation. I've had it with the sackcloth and ashes.