to point out that people who say "choritso" for chorizo...

[MardyBra]

... are assigning an Italian pronunciation to a Spanish word?

You don't need to do a Manuel-style "choreeeeetho" thing. Chorizo with a z sound is fine by me if you prefer, as it's a valid in many dialects.

How do you pronounce pizza if not peetza please?

Intriguing thread! Personally I can find English words hard enough because I am deaf and do not always to get to figure out pronunciation before I say something, so if I manage to make myself understood then I consider that a bonus!

OP, YANBU, drives me up the wall! but I can't believe there is 14 pages of this thread! Had no idea it was so contentious!

I've always said it chori-so.
My mum can't say or just wants to make herself sound daft - cafetiere. She says cafeteria. Really.

There's so much variation among Spanish speakers as to how 'chorizo' is pronounced that I don't think it matters a jot if we don't pronounce it in one particular way.

Well, I'm delighted to have revived this zombie thread (seems a fitting tribute to The Walking Dead, which I just finished series 4 of last night), generating 3 fresh pages of comment in a few hours. Loads of intelligent comments from all sides, and just a few of the real zombie-type remarks ("who cares?" "doesn't matter"). Good to see people caring and also good to see some jokes getting cracked.
It's annoying that this site (which I joined solely to pitch into this zombie chat) doesn't allow one post to link to another as a specific response. But meantime: @Namechangeyetagaintohide: I think that's a very good idea: "choriso" is probably the most internationally-usable pronunciation.
@squoosh: nobody says it matters if you don't pronounce it one way: it's the one way people do pronounce it that matters: for all the various Spanish pronunciations, none of them are anything like choritso.

Well it's become the anglicised pronunciation for many so I'd imagine it's here to stay.

Even more annoying is when people pronounce a well known champagne as "Mow-ay"!
Rather than "Mow' et"

'Good to see people caring and also good to see some jokes getting cracked.'

People 'care' about the most trivial of matter on MN.

Personally it's people who don't pronounce 'croissant' properly that gets my goat.

It's 'cwa-sson' not 'cross-ont'!

Or maybe that needs a whole thread of its own..?

I think 'peets-a' is OK, but the other poster's mother says 'pits - a'

As for pronunciation of Indian dishes and ingredients - the way the Sylheti Bengali people I worked with pronounced 'Garam Masala' is completely different to the way my Tamil ILs pronounce it. This goes for many ingredients.

I would love to see a MN Guide To Pronounciations - with a list of the correct way to say the new foods we are introduced to.

It would have saved my kwin o-a faux pas (fo pah) .

I never heard that about Moet & Chandon - I plead guilty, always thought it was moway. My error reinforced of course by "Killer Queen"'s "she keeps the moway and shandonn in her pretty cabinet".
Just as everyone (including superfan Martin Amis when he doesn't catch himself) talks about the author of "Lolita" as Vladimir Nabberkoff, as do the Police in "Don't stand so close to me". Apparently, Russian speakers tell me, it's more along the lines of Ner-bokk-off. Excuse my pitiful attempts to indicate pronunciation - anyway the stress is meant to be on the "bok" rather than the "nab".

thanks to this thread, I have said "choritso, I'm sorry I mean choreezo" every we have eaten the spicy Spanish sausage in the last 4 months.

DP looks at me like this

And can someone tell me how the town of Penistone is pronounced please, because I am sure the it is not the way it was pronounced on a recent episode of Top Gear by Jeremy Clarkson, the knob (pron:nob) .

Surely it is PEN-is-tun?

we are in England not Italy and therefore it is perfectly acceptable to to Anglicise

Spain not Italy.Have got Italian on the brain at the moment!

My mum says coreezo, I don't know why. She would argue it is correct, I am sure.

Blu - it's about 50 miles from here..and you are right. JC is indeed a nob.

Countess you must know my grandmother! Huge fan of mange tout she is
Also likes to say "Vicky verky" rather than vice versa

Now, I can't be arsed to trawl back through the hundreds of posts, just wanted to check, has anyone pointed out the utter tediousness that is panini/panino yet? Anyone that asked for a panino in my company would have their face rammed into the fucking press and cooked on the hot plate for sheer twattery

Bollocks. I say Choritso and I am proud

But it's not anglicised, is it? That's the problem with it, it's blooming italianicised! Why?! I have no problem with people saying pay-ella for paella, but this 'choritzo' thing is just wrong!

Damsel - I offer my face. Be gentle.