Cava - cavver or carver?

[StillCoughingandLaughing]

Just been on the phone to my mother, who was waxing lyrical about the lovely ‘cavver’ (Cava) she’s bought to go with Christmas lunch. I’ve always pronounced it ‘carver’, with a soft A, and that’s what I hear more often than not, but she’s not alone in her pronunciation, so I have a nagging doubt I could be wrong. Can I get the views of the MN jury?

YABU = Cavver with a hard A
YANBU = Carver with a soft A

Caa- va. No r's

Short vowel sounds only in Spanish. So OP's friend is right.

It's pronounced kah-vuh

Where are you getting the 'vuh' sound? It's 'va'. Why would you pronounce 'va' as 'vuh'?

It is vuh, not va- in English. The dictionary tells you how it’s pronounced:

ˈkɑːvə

Long A. The final sound is a schwa. Vuh. Not Va.

It’s irrelevant how it’s pronounced in Spain, even if it’s a Spanish drink. We don’t pronounce champagne the French way.

@saffire

The Spanish pronounce v as b so really it's ka-ba.

Yes!

@VodselForDinner I've been wondering this for years! I always feel irritated when I hear "Jessica Rennis" and "Rebecca Radlington" with r's where there shouldn't be!

It's pronounced exactly how it's spelled

Ca-va. Just like Lava. Hard first 'a', slightly softer on the second 'a'.

Its cava. No R.

Neither. It has four letters: C.a.v.a.

[quote Glitterblue]@VodselForDinner I've been wondering this for years! I always feel irritated when I hear "Jessica Rennis" and "Rebecca Radlington" with r's where there shouldn't be![/quote]
A pet hate of mine too! I don't put in an imaginary letter r so don't know why it's necessary.

And this is why Brexit happened.

@RudolphToldRedNoseNotSymptom

Because that's how it's pronounced. In English, the correct way to say it is kah-vuh. You can say it anyway you like, but that's the correct way.

V is b in Spanish so Caba

100% is a short vowel sound like the a in cat if pronounced correctly. Ca-vuh.

However I think people sound a bit like a knob when they say it like that as majority of people in the UK pronounce it car-ver

It definitely isn't pronounced like lava if using the correct way

Two short a-s, imagine saying Nanna and just change the consonants to C and V

@ fussychica, you are correct, except when V is placed in between vowels, as with cava, in which case it’s much more like an English v sound than a b sound.

Here we go again with all the folk who can’t imagine that er at the end of the end of a word sounds the same as an a at the end in some accents

I have a rhotic accent (i.e. I pronounce 'r') and say KAH-vuh. As it would be said in Spain

@fussychica

V is b in Spanish so Caba

It's not. It's often interchangeable sound-wise, so it's common for many Spanish speakers to mix up b and v, but v is more often than not a soft /v/

(Sorry, I'm pedantic - I used to work as a Spanish translator!)

@paisleybandana some more than others - I had a Galician teacher in school and bloody hell, could hardly understand a word!

The wood carver drank cava whilst he carved the meat for the carvery

No R!!!

Here we go again

I love these threads for this very reason.

"Why are you putting an r in?" "Because we don't actually pronounce it"

"Why aren't you using the Spanish (French, Italian, Thai, delete as appropriate) pronunciation?"
"Because we're in the UK and discussing UK culture"

Every single time .