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

@JassyRadlett

The disingenuous battles of the rhotics and non-rhotics are so fucking tedious, and you can predict that any thread with someone asking about how an ‘a’ sound is pronounced it will descend quickly into this farce.

I find them fascinating.

"This is infuriating when posters with a south of england accent do this. They don't pronounce an R, so they insert an R (that they don't pronounce) as some sort of GUIDE for the rest of us"

Agreed. Why use "ar" to mean "ah" when what you're saying is "ah" anyway?

Agreed. Why use "ar" to mean "ah" when what you're saying is "ah" anyway?

Because in the same way other people are saying they pronounce ‘cava’ like ‘lava’ and claim there’s ‘no extra R’ (do people really think ‘lava’ would sound different if spelled ‘larver’?), ‘ar’ and ‘ah’ don’t sound the same to me. If anything, others who have said ‘carv-uh’ where I used ‘carver’ are getting the point across more accurately.

Other wines are available!!!

Agreed. Why use "ar" to mean "ah" when what you're saying is "ah" anyway?

Because OP says the first syllable the same way she says "car", it doesn't mean she pronounces it cah-ruh-vah! In lots of accents ar and ah are the same.

Don't mention the scones!!!

My weird Cornish accent means that a lot of A sounds have an R sound in it

@nosswith

Other wines are available!!!

Ah but they aren't all as nice

"Because OP says the first syllable the same way she says "car", it doesn't mean she pronounces it cah-ruh-vah! In lots of accents ar and ah are the same."

But is this not more to do with not sounding the R in some words rather than adding it to others?

do people really think ‘lava’ would sound different if spelled ‘larver’?

It 100% would sound different to me, yes.

Cava because I'm Scottish and there is no r in the word

I love these threads where people with different accents tell you it rhymes with something they say completely differently to you

@StillCoughingandLaughing

Ca-va No random r in the middle or at the end

It’s not ‘random’ - it’s just a way of spelling it phonetically!

That's not phonetic spelling 😂

I think kah va is probably close to what I say.

As an Irish person my brain actually hurts reading these threads because something like cava and carver sound nothing alike and it just looks like adding random letters/sounds where they don’t belong 🤣

@nosswith

Other wines are available!!!

The most sensible post I've seen today.

How are we pronouncing caviar? Good jebus but it could be anything.

Well when I was living in Spain I’d have pronounced it properly. Now it is more of an anglicised Carva. I can’t bring myself to self to say chorizo or Rioja wrong but do tend to anglicise paella. It’s odd really some things just sound pretentious saying them correctly.

@StillCoughingandLaughing Because in the same way other people are saying they pronounce ‘cava’ like ‘lava’ and claim there’s ‘no extra R’ (do people really think ‘lava’ would sound different if spelled ‘larver’?)

Yes, lah-vah and larrrr-verrrr. Just cos you don't pronounce the 'rrrrrrrr' sound doesn't mean nobody else does?

Kahvah

@pinkyredrose

Neither. It's 'caava'!

This

Even my northerner husband says caarver

do people really think ‘lava’ would sound different if spelled ‘larver’?
Now, surely, you are just being deliberately obtuse. These would sound totally different in any accent where the “r” is pronounced. Do you really not understand that just because r’s are silent for you that they are not for other accents. Have you never heard Sean Connery speak, or Graham Norton, or Nicola Sturgeon?

This thread is absolutely blowing my mind 🤣

I would pronounce cava like lava - I'm in Scotland.

Accents are so interesting - I remember reading a baby name thread where the mother was thinking of calling her son 'Sorley' (Scottish name) and the vast majority of people replying couldn't hear any difference between 'Sorley' and 'Sorely' whereas they are quite different to my ear.

Call it what you like - o tend to say 'bubbles' 🤣

Merry Christmas everyone!

If lava was spelt larver it would sound totally different in many accents.

The second part would be the same as louder or shudder.

No R in it so YABU

Cah - Vah is how we say it down here on South Coast.

I am assuming -

Carver - Liverpool
Cah-vuh - Yorkshire
Cah-vah - RP

I would pronounce brother as bruhther

So some people are ending cava with the uh in the first part of brother and some with the er in the second part of brother.