Bruschetta - please help me

[MistsandMellowMilady]

I like it very much so I'm frequently in a quandary.

I say, "Brus-ketta" and then the waiting staff always correct me with "Bru-shetta" whilst sneering.

Have tried explaining that the "ch" sounds like a hard "k" in Italian as in "Chianti". Then they probably go and spit in my food

Today a waitress kept on and on saying she didn't understand what I wanted to eat until I had to explain and when I used the Chianti example she didn't know what it was. Oh and then she said she was dyslexic (despite telling DH she was at University training to be a teacher) so I felt really awful!

Pedants, what do you do?

Do you use the wrong pronunciation initially and risk scorn or pronounce it correctly and chance being "corrected"?

Sorry for crashing your board with my shite grammar btw

You are correct, they're not, I would probably just say it correctly. Like me ordering a coffee,

"I'd like an espresso please"

"A single expresso?"

"Yes, a single eSpresso please"

etc.

Just say it correctly, and if they say something different then don't bother trying to correct them so long as you can tell they know what you meant and are bringing the right thing! Better to be right and risk the scorn of the ignorant, than to say it wrong and risk the scorn of those who know better!

Oh that makes my blood boil and I don't even drink coffee!

Don't get me started on ordering a single "Panini"

Oh that is fantastic advice AMIS and very well put!

I have the same dilemma with Pinot Grigio which I am certain should be pronounced with a hard G.

Everyone else in the world Essex pronounces it grijjio.

Pronounce it the way you want to (ie the correct way). If they sneer at you then you can take the moral high ground and let them happily go along in their world thinking it is pronounced "Bru-shetta". You are right and you know you are right. They are wrong and you know they are wrong. Poor them

My Italian friend says Grigio is Gree-jo, not gree-jee-o as she hears a lot here.

Pinot Grigio - um, not an Italian expert but I think the Essexians are right... no?

I believe the rule in Italian pronunciation is that a G followed by an e or an i is soft (j sound). All others are hard.

CF Parmigiana (par-midge-ee-arn-ah)

I agree about Bruschetta though. But I think there are some battles you a) can't win and b) risk sounding like an uber-ponce.

It's become anglicised to BruSHetta - you may have to accept that. Otherwise it's like talking about your holiday in "Paree" or similar.

LOL Kings

I remember watching a Wife-Swap episode where the people were from my part of Essex.

They had a little girl who was nine and when the Scottish guest Mum was pouring all the wine away she said, "ow now, not the Pinoh Grizhiow!"

Sweet little girl she was.

oo good point SOH! Yes I stand corrected, it should be par-midge-ah-na. The second i is silent. Same in grigio.

But definitely NOT a hard G.

wine pronunciations

Sorry Louiseg - I'm not sure what you're saying.

Your link supports what I'm saying - that the Essexers are correct - it's Pee-noe Gree-joe with a soft g.

Not a hard G which would be Pee-noe Gree-GO.

You do sometimes hear Pee-noe Gree-zhoe (with a French soft G) which I agree is not correct.

I was just reading that list - slightly LOL at some of their efforts to write out phonetic transcriptions!

Can you imagine someone going into a restaurant and earnestly ordering the "BURR-gun-dee" and the "Shah-toe-nuff-duh pahp"

Sorry, I was asking for the correct pronunciation for Grigio.

I was under the impression that it was a hard G, I was wrong and the Essex girls and pedants' were right.

I just liked the list of over exaggerated wine pronunciations.

Blood pressure rising as I recall all too many TAG-lee-a-telly incidents in restaurants that purport to be Italian - it's pronounced Tal-yah-telleh (near as dammit in English), and yes, it's brusketta and Peen-noh Gree-joh. Don't get me started on lasag-na and g'knockee

GridGio...hard G!

oh sorry I thought you'd posted it to support your original post.

I agree - brilliant list! I want to march into Oddbins and start demanding "Ree-OH-ha"

Idling on google I just found this funny BBC article entitled How to Say Bruschetta which shows at least that lots of other people have the same dilemmas.

'Oh and then she said she was dyslexic (despite telling DH she was at University training to be a teacher) so I felt really awful!'

What do you mean here, if you don't mind me asking?

Don't get me started on ordering a single "Panini" Mist... I know!

Especially as when I lived there I used to go to the supermarket each morning to buy my lunchtime 'paninO'

Alouiseg if it helps at all, I don't give a fuck so long as we can drink some.

isn't there a limit to how far you pronounce when you're actually speaking English tho - like I say "Burr-lin" not "Bear-leen" (tho the other way round when speaking German", equally would say "Soo tom ton" if speaking French (tho I do break my own rule with Angular Merkle - but it's her name! Like poor old Moosyur Sar-cosy, sounds vaguely ridiculous with an English pronunciation).

Oh, I don't know.

Val - at the risk of repeating myself, it's NOT a hard G.

A hard G is the G in Go or Got or Gap, with the phonetic sign /ɡ/

A soft G is the g in George or Gerry or Gyroscope with the phonetic sign /dʒ/

There's an additional soft G in a few words borrowed from French with the phonetic sign /ʒ/ - this is words like Peugeot, louge etc.

But however you look at it, Grigio is not a hard G (well, the first one is, but not the second)

oh bollocks - should have known MN wouldn't support the phonetic alphabet.

Totally agree Fellatio I started at 2.30 this afternoon but stopped early :)

I was shoring up a friend who is dining with the PTA afficionados tonight. She was stressing about what to wear so I pointed out that they wouldn't notice because they are so self obsessed. As you can imagine that took a couple of bottles. :o

Er TYV... It may well depend on whereabout in Italy you are. Where I used to live it was a hard G...well maybe not hard G but almost a GriGGio...