telophase | (no subject)

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pet peeve

(no subject)

I do quite often marvel at the customers in the Not Always Right blog, but today the joke's on the server -- in this one, we're supposed to be amazed that the mispronouncing customer is mollified when the server re-pronounces the name of the dish.

Except that the customer (and about a billion people in the U.S.) is correct. "Bruschetta" is NOT "broo-shet-ta". In Italian, if there's an "h" after a "c", it's a hard c, and pronounced as "k". It's "broo-sket-ta".

Drives me up the wall, that does.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

:O! i had no idea!

Don't be ridiculous. When American English annexes a word, it's pronunciation is always the correct one. Those furriners don't know how to speak. Just ask all those Texans from "Montayg" County. (Of course, that's not American English, that's Texan English, which it's own monster.)

When I lived in San Antonio, the two main streets near where I lived were "Blaynco" and "San Paydro".

Dallas has, I believe, a "La Jolla," a "La Joya," and a "La Hoya." I've seen the first and the last for certain. There's also Manana Street, but that is more likely the fact that the ñ is not in the City's catalog of letters for street signs. Or the sign maker was being paid by the individual symbol.

You should see what the once-French surnames in Vermont become. And then there's "Callas." (Spelled 'Calais,' of course.)

That reminds of the time my brother when mental when I first ate nyokkee and called them gnotshee ^^ *

* I'm talking about gnocchi, in case it's not remotely understandable.

Hee! A college friend twitched visibly when I ate a *jy-ro* instead of a *yee-ro*.

(Gyro.)

IIRC, the 'correct' (read: Greek) pronunciation is between *guy-ro* and *yee-ro*.

As Eb said (first), though, English (and especially American English) mangles foreign words all to hell. Usually.

(Why yes, I am a linguist, why do you ask?)

We speak that with a 'g' over here ^^, heh. Fascinating to read all these different conventions.

Oh and an u-Umlaut: ü as the pronunciation of the 'y'

That Sanzo is too cute! Lol, whatsit say?

In Italian:

"Where is the Sanzo?"

"There is the Sanzo!"

(Dov'é is technically misspelled without the accent, but hey. XD)

"Oh, right. Here's your noodles in green oily stuff and pieces of chickie."

Sometimes the weird pronunciations aren't just a matter of Americans hopelessly mangling Weird Furrin Words, however -- there are a lot of Italian-American pronunciations (http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=133542) that differ from "proper" textbook Italian because they're ultimately derived from a different regional dialect.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only