Explain "marshmellow" please

[kiwiblue]

Wise pedants, please explain why English people say "marshmellow"? Was it a brand name? I was born in the UK but grew up in NZ. In NZ people say "marshmallow" as it is spelt. I've noticed my children say marshmellow and I'm wondering about this!!

I say marshmallow (I’m English) I get irritated by marshmellow, in the same way as I get irritated by Westminister.

I grew up in the South West, never heard 'marshmellow' until girl from Essex moved to our school, she pronounced it that way and we all took the piss! So must be a regional thing.

I am Scottish and it's definitely marsh-MALLOW!

i say marsh mellow. Didn’t know it was incorrect as I’d never seen it written down until recently. I’m not young.
I'm in the south east, and apart from this I think I speak quite proper!

South-east England, and I was raised saying marshmellow. My son also says marshmellow and he would have picked it up from school. My Scottish husband says marshmallow. Must be regional.

I'm English I say Marshmallow. It's named after the plant, though the sweets actually don't contain any marshmallow anymore. Never heard anyone say 'mellow', if I did I would think it was an error like 'a damp squid'.

I’m Welsh and say marshmallow. Can’t for the life of me think how anyone can say marshmellow when it’s not even spelt like that.

I am South East. I have always said marshmallow.

I know it's espresso but when anyone pronounces it, it sounds like a speech impediment, so I say expresso, sounds so much nicer.

English, East Midlands, always say marshmallow, have never met marshmellow until here.

Interesting. I’m also from the East Midlands and have always pronounced it as marshmellow, despite knowing the correct spelling and generally being reasonably well-spoken (pleading not guilty to all other examples given on this thread)! I have never thought about it before today but I suppose it is odd.

I’ve always pronounced it mellow despite knowing it’s spelt mallow. South east. And quite old.

I'm from the south east and always pronounce it mallow. And also get annoyed by those saying mellow.

What?! It's Italian! Expresso does not sound nicer.

I’m in Ireland where haitch is the standard pronunciation of the letter h. It’s the correct form here, the pronunciation taught in schools etc.

I’ve never heard anyone say marshmellow for marshmallow.

We adopted a bunny called marshmellow and as dh and I are both writers we did not carry on that name. She’s seemingly quite happy to be called Betty instead. I assumed it was a reflection on the education levels of the staff.

I’m from south east Kent and say mallow.

Marshmallow here. I even grow the plants, which are definitely mallows. I presume it comes from Malva, the scientific name of the plant, and so 'mellow' is most definitely wrong.

I assume marshmellow is just people who've never heard of a marsh mallow plant and have misheard the pronunciation, then more people hear it, and it persists.

Haitch/aitch is actually a bit of a minefield.

I was brought up to say aitch, and taught haitch was flat out wrong. Very firmly corrected if I said haitch.

I've since found out that, particularly in Ireland, it was historically a marker of Protestant / Catholic, and used as a 'tell' when working which side of the divide someone was on. It seems to have persisted across England too, presumably because the monarch, (being Protestant) would have said aitch, and haitch was then regarded as 'wrong' in comparison. It's really very interesting, worth a Google.

I've found myself correcting DD to aitch, when she had a teacher that said haitch. It's genuinely like fingernails on a blackboard to me, even worse than f instead of th. I guess that conditioning from an early age for you!

I'm culturally CofE, going back many generations, I guess it's something so intertwined with that, that it's instinctive to correct it to what parents, grand parents, and so on back, taught.

They are all wrong, it's marshmallow.

That's interesting. Definitely no one I hear saying this is Irish, but good to know. I found this from a Google

He explained that the two variants "used to mark the religious divide in Northern Ireland" – aitch was Protestant, haitch was Catholic, and "getting it wrong could be a dangerous business".

Yes, I’ve heard that too, but I’m in Ireland (ROI) not Northern Ireland so no experience of that myself. Hopefully things are improving there anyway in this regard, but it’ll take a while.

I think the sound is just very similar in a lot of accents.

I know it is marshmallow. I garden and grow mallow plants. But when I say the word out loud it sounds like marshmellow 🤷‍♀️

Maybe I am not pedantic enough for this thread...

Marshmallows are not American.

According to Google they originated in ancient Egypt made, as pp said, from the Mallow plant, and later, in the 1800s were adapted by the French.

I'm English (South East) and have always pronounced it marshmallow.

You can just pretend you're French

@butterpuffed , What are you doing in Pedants' corner?