On Jun 11, 10:14*am, "Ed Huntress" wrote:
...
How about FORMidable's mispronunciation, forMIDable? *I used to think
it was only a Britishism (that's the way Jean Luc Picard said it.)

That's not a mispronunciation. There is no "verbal base" to the word
formidable (nothing equivalent to "lament" as a base for "lamentable," so
syllabic emphasis can go either way. Webster's accepts both.
....
Ed Huntress

In French, which has no (or less) stress variation, it can be for-mi-
DAB-l.
http://french.about.com/od/pronunciation/a/rhythm.htm

jsw