Hegemony?

[henke]

I was in a politics lecture today and the lecturer was talking about 'hegemony'. She pronounced like 'leg' with an 'h' and obviously 'mony' on the end but I always thought that it was pronounced 'hedgemony'. Who is right? Does anyone even understand this question?

[Kingaroo]

My dictionary (did you lose yours, poor thing?) allows emphasis on either GEM or HEDGE, and notes that some people prefer the hard g, as your lecturer does.

[jno]

yes, I thought it was hedge until I heard someone say heg. I found my dictionary says it can be either, and can be pronounced either way. Presumably it's spoken aloud so rarely (it's a literary sort of word, more likely to appear in writing) that there's never been any widespread agreement on its use.

[Aschenbach]

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=hegemony

[gary baldy]

It is pronounced
he ( as in hair but with out the 'r') - ge- (as in get without the 't') -mo -nee.
Only lecturers use the word though but you can drop in to conversations to make yourself look really clever!
I used it on this site once in a question about Dancing on Ice.

[henke]

Thanks for the answers guys.