Foreign Words We Mispronounce

August 24, 2011

Interview with Chris Warmash, Publishing Director of Living Language www.LivingLanguage.com

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Mike Carruthers:
Mispronouncing foreign words is hardly a crime but it is interesting to discover the correct pronunciations of words many of us have been mispronouncing when we go to a restaurant. The big one is bruschetta.

Chris Warnash:
Because it’s got that “sch” in there and that looks like the German way of spelling “sch” but it’s actually pronounced “brusketta” but you can just say “brusketta”.
 

Chris Warnash, Publishing Director of Living Language which publishes foreign language courses, says those Italian potato dumplings are pronounced “nnoki”.

It’s not so much difficult to pronounce as it is baffling to read because it’s spelled gnocchi and we just don’t know what to do with that. But “gn” in Italian the spelling “gn” is “nya” like onion or canyon.

What about those little thin pancakes, some people say “craypes” some people say “crepes”…

In French the word is “crepe” with an “eh”. That word has essentially become an English word so to me if somebody corrects you if you say “craype” they’re just being obnoxious.

And if you order pepperoni on your pizza in Italy you’re in for a big surprise.

The American word pepperoni, somebody must of made that up, when they were making pizza in Brooklyn or something like that, there is a word peperoni with one “P” they’re like bell peppers actually. So if you ask for a pizza with pepperoni when you’re in Italy you’re going to get a pizza with bell pepper on it. 

To hear the complete unedited interview, click here