How Do You Pronounce.....
- Thread starter azmark
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It wouldn't surprise me if you're right. I learned of a similar phenomenon in wine. When I visited the Franciscan/Mt. Veeder tasting room in Napa Valley, the pourer - who knew more about wine than your average bear - poured us some Meritage, and made a point of telling us about its pronunciation. He said many people liked to pronounce it "mair-ih-TAHZH," assuming it's a French word. (I had assumed this myself.) He said that's altogether wrong. A Mt. Veeder vintner actually invented the style way back when, and coined the term as a combination between the English words "merit" and "heritage," and thus Meritage is pronounced just like "heritage." Just goes to show you, some words really are that basic, even though some of us might want to imbue them with a more exotic status.
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Yep, I guess you're right: that's the easiest way for an English speaker to pronounce the "gl" digraph. In fact, I don't think this phenomenon existed in Latin (or at least in Classical Latin), so the Italian words that now have "gl" had in its original Latin "li". For instance, battaglia ("battle") comes from the latin battualia.
But I'm no linguist, and I fear I might be venturing on uncharted waters.
Interesting to know how to properly pronounce the word. I run it all together in my redneck accent, and it comes out kind of like "lockitain" with an ever so slight pause (almost non-existent) between the l and the o. More like a slight stutter than a pause.
I've always said Locks-a-tawn, which is actually very close to correct. The recording sounded like Locks-ee-tawn.
Yeah well that's the dumb yankee way I would have said it. Was never clear whether it was French or Italian word...
The recording was imbued with a true French accent which, while correct, could sound bad if a non-French speaker tried to emulate it. Saying "loke-see-tahn" in a normal accent is just fine. (That's "loke" like "bloke.")
It is word from the Occitan language--neither French nor Italian--as far as I know.
Luh (like luck) Ock (like Mock) i (like it with no 't') then tan
Luh ock i tan
Luh ock i tan
Would the 411 operator have been able to find it even if you had pronounced it correctly?
I would have thought that spelling it for her would have enabled a quicker look up, as that bypasses the whole pronunciation issue.
I would have thought that spelling it for her would have enabled a quicker look up, as that bypasses the whole pronunciation issue.
- Thread starter
- #31
I did try. It was first an automated voice recording and after about 3 times of saying "what was it again" it passed me to a live person who was even worse. I knew it was wrong but figured they would find it. I think I spelled it Locsatine while I was driving.
This is the funniest thread I've read in a while. I've been laughing so hard. The problem is I have a respiratory infection right now and it hurts like hell.Haha...I have run into this Meritage issue before!!!
Even more funny, I ride road bicycles for exercise and have a Trek (no pronunciation issues their). I ran into a guy and had a conversation about his Cannondale. He kept saying Cannondale like "Cannon-dah-lay" like it was some exotic boutique french or italian brand. Hahaha...I had to concentrate to keep a straight face. Cannondale is an American company for those who don't know.
- Thread starter
- #34
I have a few Kuota road and tri bikes. It's an Italian brand. I still don't know how to pronounce them. I say Key-ota, some say Koo-ota...I even heard a Yoda one time
I have a few Kuota road and tri bikes. It's an Italian brand. I still don't know how to pronounce them. I say Key-ota, some say Koo-ota...I even heard a Yoda one time
Italian is by and large phonetic (except for that 'gl' digraph thing), so I believe it would pronounced koo-OH-tah.
Rolling my eyes at cannon-dah-lay. lol
And don't forget the other Italian digraph thing: "gn" (= "gn" in French, "ñ" in Spanish and "nh" in Portuguese and Occitan)
And don't forget the other Italian digraph thing: "gn" (= "gn" in French, "ñ" in Spanish and "nh" in Portuguese and Occitan)
You mean as in "gnocchi"?
Mmmmmmm, gnocchi! I don't care how you pronounce it, that is good stuff!
Precisely!
Mmmmmmm, gnocchi! I don't care how you pronounce it, that is good stuff!
