Faina--it is a Southern Italian/Sicilian thing. As far as dialects go, they have a tendency to drop final vowels..this carried over to the states when our ancestors came here (mine came from Naples and Sicily)

We also tend to say what sounds like "calama" for "calamari".

Miss Ziegfeld has it right about "manigott" or "manigut."

BTW, out of self-defense I tend to go easy on people who mispronouce non-English words because I've realized that just about everyone, including me, has a blind spot. For instance, how many people know that it's NOT "chaise lounge"? The correct term is "chaise LONGUE."

One time in a restaurant, I asked about the "broo-SKAY-tuh" and the waitress corrected me: "You mean 'broo-SHETT-a.'"

Suzanne -- I live blocks from Westminster in NW Denver, and I've never heard it pronounced Westminister, but I checked the book, and it's spelled "Westminster".

My fave: Dubois, Wyoming, pronounced Due-BOYSS by the boys at the bar where I got stuck in a snow storm once while on a road trip.

Jules

How about all those people who put Wor-chester-shyre sauce on their steaks?

That is interesting. The 2:17 post just appeared for me. Until then, my posts were back to back. Not sure why.

Our interpretations are indeed different. If you reread the 5/16 thread you started, the responses were virtually unanimous that there were attitude issues with your question and responses. One poster even listed names of others who felt the question and/or attitude behind it was out of line.

If your comment earlier was directed to me, I only posted one comment and one link at the end.

Your tone now reflects the tone of last week's thread. If you are fine with that, so be it.

AND, it is perfectly okay to refer to a chair as one that a Mr. Chase would have created because that pronunciation has been in use in America since the 1800's - and is perfectly acceptable to most - except for a few "gigglers".

Call such "gigglers" pompous or not and call their comments mocking or not - it does not change reality. The pronunciations are not "wrong" just because you deem them to be. Hard to accept evidently, but true.

Jules, I am sure you were astute or well-mannered enough to not correct them (or giggle in front of them)

It would be quite painful to do so in a lot of places. Cairo, GA (kay-roe) is one that comes to mind!

Have-er de Grace, Maryland

How about Bret FARVE?

<i>Cache</i> (ka-SHAY) and <i>cachet</i> (KA-shet)?

Anyone giggling yet?

Robespierre,
Here's a fact checking exercise.

Go to www.m-w.com (Merriman-Webster Online Dictionary.

Enter &quot;chaise lounge&quot; with either spelling (just for kicks, enter them both).

Click on the audio link to hear BOTH acceptable and correct pronunciations - including the one you giggle at (the one that refers to Mr. Chase's chair)

Maybe we need an American counterpart to the Acad&eacute;mie Fran&ccedil;aise.

The m-w.com pronunciation got <i>chaise longue</i> correct, and <i>chase lounge</i> didn't show up at all.

In any event, dictionaries aren't the &quot;official&quot; version of the language, they are <i>reports</i> on how the language is used. But we already knew how this particular French phrase is rendered by the middle of the IQ curve - that's what started this entire riff.

I can't tell what your point is.

And after doing so, just wondering...

any apologies forthcoming to those you have mocked for using (what you considered as) &quot;incorrect&quot; spelling or pronunciation of chaise lounge?

It would be the civilized thing to do given that you were the one wrong on both counts.

It's <b>l-o-n-g-u-e</b>, and means &quot;long&quot; in English.

It is BOTH - lounge and longue
I believe the longue = long is from the French origin (not sure 'cause I'm just one of the common folk, ya know)

Since you are too busy defending your opinion to take the time to click on a link, here's some info....

&gt;&gt;&gt; Many visitors to the US are surprised to find that the name for the article of furniture is not only still known (in Britain, for example, it is now virtually obsolete outside historical contexts), but is indeed often called a chaise lounge (though by no means all Americans describe it thus). This spelling and pronunciation appears in dictionaries of American English and is now so established that no amount of remonstration, condemnation or ridicule will affect its status one jot.

The original form, chaise longue, is French, meaning “long chair”. Though the chaise lounge form is a classic example of folk etymology’s changing an odd foreign word into something more meaningful, in one way it’s hard to criticise—it is, after all, a seat that one lounges on. &lt;&lt;&lt;

One can only imagine my giggles when I read &quot;is now so established that no amount of remonstration, condemnation or ridicule will affect its status one jot&quot;

But not for our dear Roby. He's STILL ridiculing and mocking away.

Just checked a dictionary (WordReference.com) and &quot;longue&quot; is indeed French for &quot;long&quot;.

I know some don't trust dictionaries as accurate, but for many of us they work.

I don't know any such person. I just find the degradation of &quot;long&quot; to &quot;lounge&quot; is quaint - and marginally illiterate (not that there's anything wrong with either).

&gt;&gt;&gt; In any event, dictionaries aren't the &quot;official&quot; version of the language, they are reports on how the language is used. But we already knew how this particular French phrase is rendered by the middle of the IQ curve &lt;&lt;&lt;

You can say that again!

Of course! NOW I understand. I'm so glad you took so much time with the &quot;marginally illiterate&quot; and &quot;the middle of the IQ curve&quot;.

I'm cured...or, should that be trained?

Based on your continued posting, I have NO idea why anyone would use the following to describe you or your posts -

&gt;&gt;&gt; &quot;was &quot;offensive,&quot; &quot;nasty,&quot; or that the OP is a &quot;jerk&quot; or &quot;pseudo-intellectual&quot; as they did this month.&quot;&lt;&lt;&lt;

Off to spend the holiday in the mountains. Tra-la-la, y'all.