Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Why do you think they call it "Mayo"?


because you pronounce it "mayo nnaise NOT MAN NAISE!!!! There is no man in mayonnaise.

I am watching the Food Network and the hostess is saying "mannaise" over and over and over.............it is driving me crazy, crazy, crazy!!!! THERE IS NO "N' IN THE FIRST SYLLABLE OF MAYONNAISE !!!!

YES, I AM SCREAMING!!!! FOR GOD'S SAKE IF YOU ARE ON THE FOOD NETWORK, YOU SHOULD AT LEAST KNOW HOW TO PRONOUNCE THIS WORD!


This is a BIG irritant to me. I know many people say "mannaise", like "man". Why? I just cannot see where they get the "man" part!!!

God, it feels good to have this blog so I can finally vent! LOL.

So, fess up. How do you pronounce, "mayonnaise" ?

I guess this post may be coming off all high and mighty -- like I never mispronounce anything. Well, nothing could be further from the truth--I do certainly mispronounce many words.

One that comes to mind is "mischievous". I tend to say "mis chee vee us". The accent should be the same as the word "mischief". I am trying to catch and correct myself when I say this word. I am sure I irritate many when I say it incorrectly.

Are there any mispronunciations that really bug you?

21 comments:

  1. Yes, MAY-uh-nayz has three syllables when I pronounce it, and I think it would bug me too to hear it pronounced "mannaise". I am glad you confessed to mispronouncing "mischievous" because I would have put that as one that bugs me. I guess another one is when television announcers say "suit" instead of "suite" (usually in ads for local furniture stores).

    ReplyDelete
  2. Heck, I usually say 'mayo'. I cringe at some of the dialect around Philly-where's it at for one thing. Lots of people say 'iggils' for the football team-the Eagles. My great aunt said 'bat-ter ree'.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Man-naise sounds bad, one that is more of an identifier for me is 'warsh' - people who 'warsh' their clothes (as opposed to washing them) - are usually from the Midwest!

    ReplyDelete
  4. What's wrong with 'warshing' clothes? Not that I do but I have older relatives who do.

    I have trouble pronouncing mayonnaise, so I always say mayo.

    Carol at May Dreams Gardens

    ReplyDelete
  5. When I was in junior high, I had all the spelling words right the first time we were tested one week. So I was the "teacher" later in the week - saying the words as my classmates wrote them down. The word was "creek" - I pronounced it just like I always had up to that point - "crick". That was the last time I ever said crick - wow - junior high is embarassing enough without stuff like that happening! (And now that I think of it, why was "creek" a junior high word?? Were we really that slow?!!!)

    ReplyDelete
  6. I guess I say Mayunayze, Zoey.

    If you google "origin of Mayonnaise" you get a lot of interesting and conflicting theories, with many sites giving credence to the idea that the original name was MaHonnaise, and a typo in an 1841 cookbook gave it the 'Y'. Which would really put the pronunciation up for grabs!!

    Betcha half the people in the US just ask for Miracle Whip, instead!


    Annie at the Transplantable Rose

    ReplyDelete
  7. Vent all you want!
    I never really paid much attention to the "man"naise, but now that you mention it - that is pretty silly.

    As for mischievous - I believe that the way you pronounce it is fine. Many words change their stress when they are converted from one form to another or joined with other words.

    ReplyDelete
  8. So are you saying MAY-O-NAYZ with a long a in the first syllable? As in "May Dreams Gardens"? Well, we would never dream of saying it that way here. We say "salad dressing." Ha ha. I'm going to "warsh" my face and go to bed.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Snort! I'm Dutch so I probably strangle and mangle a few words here and there in the English language but I do know how to properly pronounce mayonaise: the French way. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  10. I am quietly admitting that I say mannaise when I say the whole word.

    And moving on.... One word that people mispronounce a lot is Library. It drives me insane when someone says lie-berry. There is an R in there for a reason. It is a Lie-BRERRY! No berry in the library! :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Just yesterday my Mom and I were going down the highway when a motorcycle passed us. I commented on it and she said I thought they were motorsicles. And come to think of it she has always called them that.

    ReplyDelete
  12. ROFL Zoey, I love this post!! I could actually picture your reaction while watching that cooking show! hehe I always say Mayo or Mayonnaise...never "mannaise"! lol The one word my mom cannot say is caterpillar...she's forever saying CARterpillar!! I say mischievous the same way you do, I thought that was the proper way! lol xox

    ReplyDelete
  13. Let's all stand and applaud Jodi's courage to admit that she says "mannaise"! I know I hear it all the time so there had to be somebody out there who says it that way. *Big smile*

    I am getting a kick out of all your words. I have heard most of them--especially "warsh". My Dad says it!!! LOL. My mother is always trying to get him to say it correctly.

    ReplyDelete
  14. As as child I learned the incorrect pronunciation of mayonnaise and had to correct myself as an adult (same with mischievous). My pet peeve is the word "jewelry" incorrectly pronounced "jew-ler-ee" instead of correctly pronounced "jew-el-ree". Also the word "realtor" incorrectly pronounced "ree-la-tor" instead of correctly pronounced "re-al-tor". And don't get me started on "nuclear".

    ReplyDelete
  15. OK, Cindy, now you've got me wondering........how is nuclear pronounced?

    I say, nuke lee er. Is that correct?

    LOL. We will all be afraid to open our mouths after seeing all these words!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Yes, Zoey, you are correct! Ding Ding Ding!!! You win the prize! ~~Cindy

    ReplyDelete
  17. Whooooooooo hoooooooooooooo! :) I love to win!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Sorry Zoey,
    I'm from Pittsburgh and we have our own language "pittsburgise".
    There are even books about it.

    We say mannaise,jew-elree,ree-la-tor,lie-berry,etc. I think all of you are talking to people from Pittsburgh and EVERYONE does it here!I guess I should do a post on it.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I was thinking of the word February..many times I hear Feb u ary...same as library, I'm with Jodi, that 'r' is not a silent one!

    ReplyDelete
  20. LOL, Suzy. Maybe that's where it all started!

    Betty,
    I was thinking of February, too.
    I think that one is very tough to say correctly. I go with the Feb U ary.

    For some reason library is much easier to say than February!

    ReplyDelete

I appreciate you taking the time and effort to leave a comment. I will try to answer any questions you have. Please note due to Blogger changing word verification so almost nobody can read it, I have had to change to no word verification and only allow registered users to comment.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...