Friday, November 09, 2007

metathesis

I was having a burrito for lunch and as usual I decided to satisfy my curiosity on the origins of what I was eating. So I started browsing Wikipedia. I'm always wondering what's a "real" ethnic food and what's made up by a North American pretending to be foreign.

I then stumbled on the term 'chipotle' - that's a smoke-dried chile pepper, btw... And I noted the spelling. And not for the first time either.

It made me think about that stupid commercial with the bunch of ladies around a bowl of dip. And one of them says, "ha-LA-pen -no" peppers even after being corrected by another who explains that "the 'j' is silent." Anyway, it makes me cringe when people induce metathesis to the point where it becomes commonly-acceptable. It's NOT acceptable, damn it! When somebody says "chi-POL-tay" they sound like a frickin' idiot! It's "chi-poh-lay" - not only is the 't' supposed to be silent, but it comes BEFORE the "L" anyway!

1 comment:

Weirdguy said...

It's just like most people in the Gatineau call it the Lake Lemay (and it's associated Casino) while it'S written Leamy.

It's should be pronounced "lay-me".