Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers

[venta]

On New Year's Eve, I was at a party where the conversation turned to Tex-Mex food. Someone mentioned a mysterious food item: chi-poht-lay. Huh?

A little querying determined that she was saying the word I'd pronounce as chi-pottle. Well, she's from Michigan, these things are only to be expected.

But then other right-thinking, British persons began saying that no, of course it was chi-poht-lay. No one says chi-pottle. I briefly considered they were winding me up, but it seems Wikipedia agrees with them.

Now, I'm pretty sure I've ordered things in restaurants that required me to say "chipotle", and no one has ever corrected me, queried it, or looked at me funny. Presumably no one has ever repeated my order back and chi-poht-layed at me, either.

So, have you all been secretly mocking me[*]? Humouring me? Assuming I knew and was mis-pronouncing for comic effect[**]? Have you all, in fact, been making the same mistake?

[Poll #1808125]


[*] Mocking me on the topic of smoked peppers, that is. Other categories of mocking are outside the scope of this question.

[**] I do this a lot with words. This means that when I genuinely don't know how to pronounce a word, no one realises. Which is nice, but potentially problematic when I'm in a situation where I'd normally quit mucking about. Di-TRY-tus, apparently, not DEE-tri-tus. ChrisC tells me he's been aware of me saying detritus wrongly for years, but assumed it was deliberate.

Comments

[sushidog.livejournal.com]

I'm fairly sure I've never heard anyone say it, nor needed to say it myself, but I would probably have said "chip-pottle" if pressed.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Well, you're a sensible person who knows things about food, so I shall stop feeling as if the whole world knew and I didn't!

(On which note (knowing things about food, not peppers): thanks for sharing the crinkle cookie recipe before Christmas. I made some and they were great!)

[sushidog.livejournal.com]

Ooh, they're nice, aren't they? I sort of want to make some more quite soon, except I also want to eat healthily for a bit, to get rid of some of the excess winter weight and as a respite from Christmas eating. And I also want to work my way through the updated Mrs Beeton's cookbook that my brother-in-law gave me for Christmas, especially the honey madeleines. These ambitions are not compatible, sadly.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Since I started cycling to work, my baking output has dramatically dropped. This isn't part of some healthy-living plan, but just the difficulty of physically wrangling cake to work on a bike.

Which is a shame. Apparently my colleagues think it is a shame, too :(

[sushidog.livejournal.com]

Yes, my colleagues would be disappointed if I gave up baking. When I left my job at the OU a while back, my HoD popped his head round the door on my last day, with a slice of cake in his hand (I'd brought in one last farewell!), and wished me luck, paused, looked dolefully at the cake, and said "I don't think we'd realised how much we're going to miss you..."

It was _very_ good cake.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

This, except I'd go for chi-poht-ley. :)

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

That's how that combination of letters sounds in Spanish but I've never had occasion to say it out loud before, since if I ate one my head would probably explode.

[sushidog.livejournal.com]

I've been trying to figure out the Spanish pronunciation, but it's not a very Spanish word (Wikipedia says it's from Nuhuatl); does the stress go on the "poht" (which is where the Spanish would presumably put it) or the "lay" which is where it feels more natural to put it if it's pronounced chi-poht-lay?

[venta.livejournal.com]

The people who corrected me put the stress on the "poht" (rhymes with "boat", my phonetic renderings are a bit poor). Only slightly, though, the stress seemed quite even.

I have no idea what a proper Spanish-speaker might say, though.

[sushidog.livejournal.com]

We need a real Nahuan to help us out!

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Hm, slightly more on poht I think.

[venta.livejournal.com]

The Michigan-lady did ask if I knew any Spanish, which I don't really. But I might have guessed that -otle wouldn't be -ottle in Spanish. However, my defence is that however Spanish the word's origins are, I've only ever met it in quite an American context. And I've heard the ghastly things the US can do to French and German words, so didn't expect them to be much kinder to Spanish words :)

[metame.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard it said much, but I'd say chi-poht-lay with a note of question mark to check someone had understood.

I kinda assumed that chi-pottle was a UK version that was used even though it's not what your better informed Central/South/North American would say. Like we mispronounce other Spanish and Italian food with different degrees of abashedness.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Well, I was taking that approach until a lot of Brits looked horrified at the very idea. Maybe I'll just assume that they're weird exceptions.

And dammit, remember the Empire! We can mispronounce anyone's words with a sort of grandiose denial instead :)

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

As I understand it, if a word looks sufficiently foreign it's a bit un-English to even try to pronounce it. So it might be necessary to go for something like: chih-pot-thingy.

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

Does chi-poh-ttle count as chi-pottle?

[venta.livejournal.com]

I've no idea!

[zotz]

I think it probably is supposed to be poatlay, but I pottled my way around Arizona for two weeks in October with a Spanish-speaking half-Bolivian friend who never bothered to correct me, so I doubt it's important.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

I'm a weird hybrid - I say 'chiPOHtul'.

[ewx.livejournal.com]

I don’t think I’ve ever heard it pronounced or for that matter had it served to me.

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

They'll be claiming that lasaggun is wrong too, next.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Well any fule kno it's laz-ag-nee, innit.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

In English we say "laser gun". :-P

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Or as my little brother used to call it, lungsten.

[floralaetifica.livejournal.com]

I'd pronounce it Spanish style, ie 'chi-pot-leh'. Not 'chi-pote-lay' - that's how Americans would say it, because Americans do funny things to Spanish.

[jiggery-pokery.livejournal.com]

Surely chi-pottle would be half a gallon of Greek lettuce?

[lnr]

Awesome - the LJ app on my iPod can now do polls!

[shui-long.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure that I've ever actually had occasion to say it, but would pronounce it chi-pot-leh.

[shrydar.livejournal.com]

It's been less than half my life since I switched from DET-ri-tus to de-TRY-tus. I hadn't considered the possibility of alternate mispronunciations.

(I responded to the survey with chi-pottle, but it's possible I've been reading it as chi-pohtle. Pretty sure I've never said it out loud, or knowingly heard it).

[smiorgan.livejournal.com]

Chipottle if drinking it in pints, chi-pot-le if in shots with tequila.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I've been trying¹ to spread the meme of mispronouncing it chipottle for comic effect, so glad to hear that you've succumbed already.

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1 Not very hard.