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04 October 2006

How do you pronounce these words? →[More:]

data

day-tuh or dah-tah?

vase

vace, (rhymes with space) vaze, or vahz?

aunt

aynt or ahnt?

envelope

ehnvelope or ahnvelope?

tomato

tomayto or tomahto?

potato

potayto or potahto?

Should we call the whole thing off?

post by: iconomy at: 19:23 | 41 comments

day-tuh
ant
envelope
tomayto
tater

posted by jonmc 04 October | 19:26

I say the following:
day-tuh, vahz, ant, ahnvelope, tomayto and potayto, but then again, what do I know? I'm Canadian!

posted by richat 04 October | 19:27

oh, and vace

posted by jonmc 04 October | 19:28

dah-tah
vahz
ahnt
ehnvelope
tomahto
potayto

unsurprising, really.

posted by gaspode 04 October | 19:30

daytuh
ahnt or sometimes aynt
vahz
ahnvelope
tomaytoe
potaytoe (does anyone really say poh-tah-toe? and if they do, can I hunt them down and ~~kill~~ write them a polite yet stern note?

posted by mygothlaundry 04 October | 19:31

day-ta
vahz
aynt
ehnvelope
tomayto
potayto (I've never heard anyone [American] say potahto)

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 04 October | 19:47

day-tuh
vace
aynt
ehnvelope
tomayto
potayto

posted by weretable and the undead chairs 04 October | 19:48

unsurprising, really.

Maybe, maybe not. So far you're the only one who says dah-tuh.

posted by iconomy 04 October | 19:53

First one in every instance for this midwestern boy. Have a pop - Coke or Pepsi?

posted by caddis 04 October | 19:54

day-tuh
vahz
ant
ehnvelope
tomayto
potayto

I once encountered a gentleman looking in the meat department for "fill-its". When I countered with "Filets?" He repeated "Fill-its." He wanted filet mignon. He never did say the "mignon" part. Perhaps he pronounced it "mig none"?

posted by redvixen 04 October | 19:55

In each case, your first alternative, in my head.

The most pretentious way, if I'm actually speaking to someone.

posted by orthogonality 04 October | 20:06

dah-tah; vace; ahnt; ehnvelope; tomayto;
potayto

And my pronunciation still gets termed BBC 'merican, believe it or not.

posted by vers 04 October | 20:29

Maybe, maybe not. So far you're the only one who says dah-tuh.

I meant because I'm a kiwi, ico!

posted by gaspode 04 October | 20:59

He repeated "Fill-its." He wanted filet mignon. He never did say the "mignon" part. Perhaps he pronounced it "mig none"?

*ahem*

posted by jonmc 04 October | 21:06

dah-tah
vahz
ahnt
ehnvelope
tomahto
potayto.

Unsurprising really, for the same reason as gaspode.

posted by dg 04 October | 21:10

day-tuh
vace
ant
ehnvelope
tomayto
potayto

posted by small_ruminant 04 October | 21:32

or ahnvelope. either or.

posted by small_ruminant 04 October | 21:33

Mine are just like small_ruminant, down to pronouncing "envelope" both ways interchangeably.

posted by BoringPostcards 04 October | 21:58

Other than "potayto" and "tomayto", I tend to switch it up with the others...probably the result of being half Canadian, half New England Yankee.

My roommate is big on accents and can't get over the fact that I will say "ahnt" in once sentence and "ant" in the other.

posted by SassHat 04 October | 22:16

dayta, dahtah, they're sorta interchangeable.
vahz.
ahnt, usually.
ohnvelope. again, it changes.
two martyrs. ok, really, tomayto.
potayto.

It'd seem that the wishy-washy answers are due (pronounced djew, not doo) to inflections picked up by whomever I'm talking to, and what they'll understand. I think.

posted by Zack_Replica 04 October | 22:25

dahtah
vace
ant
ahnvelope
tomayto
yam

posted by scody 04 October | 22:36

I say all the above as any good nasal N'Yawkuh would. But I say pih-KAHN for the nut, thanks to my Southern parents.

I guess it's because the examples were all pretty common, so I would've heard them growing up. But pecans aren't often referred to in polite company, so I had to rely on Ma and Pa for patterning.

(Besides, pee-cay-un sounds really ugly!)

posted by rob511 05 October | 00:06

dayt-ah
vaze
ahnt
ehnvelope
tomayto
potayto
skuh-zee
maym
met-uh

posted by Daniel Charms 05 October | 01:05

What about bouy?

We in the 51st state say "boy", but I've been told that you guys across the pond say it differently?

posted by flopsy 05 October | 02:06

Dayt-er
Vahze
ahnt
enveluhpe
tomarter
per tater

posted by seanyboy 05 October | 02:12

flopsy: buoy is pronounced either "boy" or "boo-e", but the word buoyancy is universally pronounced "boy-an-see". [wiki]
(also if you look at the word 'buoy' too much, it stops making any sense. buoy buoy buoy.)

posted by Zack_Replica 05 October | 02:23

Day-tuh, vahz, ahnt, ehnvelope/ahnvelope, tomayto/tomahto, potayto. Being British but married to a Canadian has turned me somewhat bipronucionational. I never thought I'd pronounce yoghurt as yoe-gurt rather than yogguht but now I sometimes do...

posted by misteraitch 05 October | 02:36

Standard Commonwealth pronunciation. Same seanyboy really, except

tom-ar-toe
poe-tay-toe

posted by flopsy 05 October | 02:59

dah-tah
vahz
ahnt
ahnvelope
tomayto
potayto

(or however we can write the long "a" on those last two)

booey

Ico, I guess you know you are required to answer your own question here?

posted by taz 05 October | 03:43

Same as gaspode and dg for me. Unsurprisingly.

posted by nomis 05 October | 05:35

Gaspode, I didn't know you were a kiwi!

Mine:
dah-tah (this is what prompted me to ask this question, because I'm the only person I know who says dah-tah)
vaze (but around here everyone else says vace)
ant
envelope
tomayto
potayto

posted by iconomy 05 October | 06:13

You didn't, ico? Wow, I should talk about myself *more*. Heh.

posted by gaspode 05 October | 08:00

data
Used to be both, but now day-tuh exclusively as an act of will. This makes me different from the other antipodeans. I also spell "program" as such rather than the "programme". I've since learned (possibly from languagehat's blog) that the latter is an English affectation to which Scots have only recently subscribed.

vase
vahz

aunt
ant

envelope
onvelope (I grew up in Ireland and my mother had an Irish accent even before we moved)

tomato
tomahto

potato
Who says potahto? (or, what mgl said)

And it's "corriander" not "cilantro"

Hey, pode, how do you say "fish and chips"?

posted by GeckoDundee 05 October | 08:23

data = "datter"

envelope - "en-vuh-LOPP-ee"

but seriously, what's more important to me is "creek." people think i'm weird when i say "crick."

posted by shane 05 October | 08:27

Hey, pode, how do you say "fish and chips"?

*sigh* I would assume you would hear it as "fush and chups".

Interestingly, people often ask if I'm from Boston. It's the lack of "r"s.

posted by gaspode 05 October | 10:01

I pronounce like BoPo, including the tendency to use both variants of envelope. Which is kind of surprising considering I'm from Ohio and he's from rural Georgia. I wonder what words he and I would pronounce differently.

"Aynt"? I've never heard that one. To me the differences are "ant" and "awnt".

posted by matildaben 05 October | 10:42

Interestingly, people often ask if I'm from Boston. It's the lack of "r"s.

whadda you, retahded or something?

posted by jonmc 05 October | 10:44

i say "dah-ta" (and not just because i run with a crowd likely to make some stupid star trek joke if i don't).

is there an even more flat-a version of aunt? cause that's how we say it in my family.

posted by crush-onastick 05 October | 13:30

I pronounce it "ant" if its a noun and "aunt" if it's a proper noun.

"Who's that?"
"That's my ant."
"Who?"
"That's my Aunt Steph."

Is that weird?

posted by muddgirl 05 October | 14:34

day-tuh
vace
aynt
ahnvelope
tomayto
potayto

And everyone laughs at me when I pronounce "bury" as "burry" not "berry". I tell them it's my mum's fault; she's from Arizona as were her parents.

I'd like to find out what a linquist (if that's the right person) would make of my accent. It's mostly your normal flat American newscaster accent but I'm from SoCal, lived in Texas and the PNW (Washington and BC).

Caddis - it's soda. Pop is your dad. Gimme a diet Coke, willya?

posted by deborah 05 October | 21:52

data - day
vase - vahz if it's from the Ming Dynasty, vace if it's from the thrift store, following the artist's lead if I'm talking to them
aunt - ant, though I seem to pick up 'ahnt' when I'm around other people who say it
envelope - both, as w/'coupon'
tomato - may
potato - tay

posted by box 05 October | 22:02

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