Pronouncing cocktail ingredients

[mbanu]

Noticed this nifty feature of the online Merriam Webster, thought I'd post some links for words whose pronounciation isn't immediately obvious from their spelling. :) (Or at least, not to people like me, anyways. :P)

chartreuse (edited for the right pronounciation)

cognac

curaçao (yeah, not French, but it's been bugging me)

eau de vie

orgeat

Pernod

Edited July 10, 2005 by mbanu (log)

[slkinsey]

Keep in mind, however, that these are Americanized pronunciations.

Take, for example, the French herbal liqueur Chartreuse. Merriam Webster would have you pronounce this word as "shar-troos" whereas I would argue for "shar-trœz." Merriam Webster would also like to have you pronounce liqueur as "lih-coo-er" instead of "lih-cœr." ("œ" is a French vowel sound one produces more or less by forming your mouth into an "o" position and trying to say "eh" through it.)

This is not to say that I think English speakers should try to pronounce 100% correct French/Italian/whatever when referring to ingredients, and of course there are certain foreign words that have more or less become anglicized in pronunciation (e.g., absinthe). But I do think "shar-truz is preferable to "shar-troos."

[SushiCat]

Definatively shar-trœz, or at least shar-truz

[mbanu]

Keep in mind, however, that these are Americanized pronunciations.

Take, for example, the French herbal liqueur Chartreuse.  Merriam Webster would have you pronounce this word as "shar-troos" whereas I would argue for "shar-trœz."  Merriam Webster would also like to have you pronounce liqueur as "lih-coo-er" instead of "lih-cœr." ("œ" is a French vowel sound one produces more or less by forming your mouth into an "o" position and trying to say "eh" through it.)

This is not to say that I think English speakers should try to pronounce 100% correct French/Italian/whatever when referring to ingredients, and of course there are certain foreign words that have more or less become anglicized in pronunciation (e.g., absinthe).  But I do think "shar-truz is preferable to "shar-troos."

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Oops. :) In the case of Chartreuse, they offered two pronounciations. "shar-trœz" was #2. :) I've edited my post accordingly.