to pronounce the champagne Moet mow-ett as opposed to Mow-ay and have a ridiculously stupid mini-row about it?

[GetOrf]

Disclaimer - I am not a poncetastic twat. Get that in before you lot accuse me.

At MILs last night, couple of SILs there. My MIL loves champagne, it was a distinct luxury when she was younger and I don't think she bought a bottle until she was in her 40s. Now she is making up for lost time and I always buy her a decent bottle for her birthdays, mothers day etc.

We were talking about different brands, and she was remembering the different ones she has tried, I said that a cheapish one which I had bought from Sainsbos (Charles something) was rated in the Sunday Times as being better than the more recognised brands such as Moet etc.

At which point my SIL laughed scoffingly and said 'I would have thought you would have known that the French don't5 pronounce the t on the end of the word, it is pronounce Mow-AY' (said in full on condescending terms).

I said fuck off dicksplash 'no it is pronounced Mo-ETT, theword is Dutch anyway'

She carried on 'no it's not, champagne is French not dutch, next you will be saying Edam comes from Wales'

She really got on my tits.

On a similar note, how do you pronounce the place name Theydon Bois? I have always imagined it is pronounced 'Thay don Bwah' in a kind of pseudo-French style, but I am willing to be corrected!

I'd go 'Boyce' personally. I couldn't really say why but I have some vague idea that, while it was obviously originally 'Bwah' in the French stylee, it's been Anglicised.

i say Al-m'nd
that's because I can - i don't care what the correct pronunciation is, that's how I choose to pronounce it.
Its correct pronunciation is Ah-mund though.
I also say Al-ms (as in Alms, which should be prounced ahms)
but I say Sahhms (for psalms), cahhm (calm), bahhm (balm) etc.

go figure.

I don't think anyone answered Lady Clarice about Douwe Egberts. It's "dower" and it means widow. The g in Egberts is prounounced like the G in Gouda...

Thanks Whistlers! Do you mean dower to rhyme with sour?

Yes, I think that would do it. There isn't actually an "r" sound at the end.

ooh, is that connected to the word dowager? As in a dutch (germanic? Saxon?) root for the word?

god I love entymology and pronunciation stuff, this thread is great, have been working lurking for ages....

and pronouncing moet incorrectly for years

Sparkly, I'm sure it is; as in "Dower House".

Sparkly, looks like English dower and dowager come from Latin
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dower] and so perhaps the Dutch for widow comes from that too - someone who gets a widow's dower?

Any thoughts on Noilly Prat?

Does anyone know how you pronounce chorizo?
I say cho-ree-zo
A friend says coritzo
Heard Rick Stein calling it cho-ree-tho...
TIA

chucking, DH and I get round this by saying it phonetically in an exaggerated cockney accent. So Noy-ley Prattt.

Chorizo - depends on whether we've been watching masterchef recently or not

Apologies, I've now taken the trouble to look up douwe and it doesn't seem to mean widow at all. A Dutch friend told me how to pronounce it and I must have misremembered the explanation. Sorry.

Messybessie Ha! Sorted!

How disappointing re Douwe. I still like the widow theory though.

I never knew it was Moett.

I will try to bring it up in a conversation now so that I can sound all superior and annoying

I found out a little while ago that bruschetta should be pronounced brus-ketta and not brush-etta.

I wish I hadn't found out as I can never decide, when in a cheap and cheerful italian, whether to say it right and be thought a poncy know-it-all or to say brushetta like every single other person in the restaurant.

I know we seem to be mostly focusing on foods here, but how do you pronounce MAYOR?

Is it 'may-or' or 'mare'?

Mare

pointydog, I know what you mean. My dh is Italian and I lived there for a few years and he would laugh his head off if I pronounced bruschetta the way they pronounce it here.

Well, last Saturday I just said brushetta after three other people round the table had said it.

Mare.

I remember going to a restaurant place with work once, and one of my colleagues asked for brush-ketta (said very nicely)
and he had to repeat it to the waiter, and point to it on the menu.
i was a bit at the italian restaurant staff....
(italian restaurant - the staff wasn't italian)

it was brus-ketta, sorry, not brush.
that would be odd.

this has made me laugh, would have to buy bottle of waitrose champers:) and pass it over saying here;s some pop from wait-rose.

ignore her. also, how about a wine tasting where you offer really cheap red wine saying its the flash one, then the flash one saying its the cheap one. after she has insisted she likes the one that is all tannin and horrible (hopefully the cheap one) you could shout oh no i mixed up the bottles!!! but that would be mean. sorry i mentioned it. i just know someone who drove her fil mad being a wine snob and he did that to her!

I always pronounce Flickr as Flick-R. I just can't help myself.