Instead of money she's got yams and cabbages

[venta]

Just when you thought I'd desisted from telling you about my lunch...

Today was my first experiment with quinoa, which I'm going to continue mispronouncing as kwin-o-a because the alternative just sounds too ridiculous for words.

Last night, I made a half-batch of Bento Lady's Quinoa with Green Peas and Dried Sausage, using garlic and herb chorizo from The Bath Pig and frozen shelled soy beans (because I don't really like peas all that much). And I turned out not to have any mustard seeds in the cupboard, so dolloped in a big spoonful of wholegrain mustard instead.

But other than that I stuck pretty faithfully to the recipe, and packed it up for lunch with the other half of my bento box full of blanched kale, Chinese cabbage and spinach with sundried tomatoes.

No picture, I'm afraid, because I'd eaten it before I thought of writing about it. Also it wasn't terribly photogenic, because the soy beans don't keep their colour as well as garden peas would, so it looked a bit old and tired.

It was very tasty, though. Quinoa doesn't have a terribly strong taste, but it does have a pleasant texture - although, once cooked, it looks very slightly as if it's in the process of hatching. It's simple and fairly quick to cook, so I think it might well feature in my life considerably more than it has done to date. Mind you, since I have an entire packet-minus-one-half-cup left in the cupboard, it's going to have to.

If cooking for the first time, be warned: it's surprisingly dense. My lunch portion today was sizeable, but was only made from about a quarter cup of the dried stuff.

Comments

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

because the alternative just sounds too ridiculous for words.

o.O Seems a bit harsh! Did you have some traumatic experiences learning foreign languages when you were at school?

I'm sure English would appear just as silly to people whose first language is Quechua. Probably more so.

[venta.livejournal.com]

But if I were speaking Quechua that would be a different thing! I'm not, I'm essentially using an Englishified word to refer to an imported concept. If people speaking Quechua want to wildly mispronounce words they've imported to refer to English foodstuffs, to make them sound more sensible to their ears, then I'm fine with that.

Also, from my experience, considerably more people know what you mean if you mispronounce it. Apparently more of my friends have read it than heard it said.

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

I disagree that the word sounds* silly. It may potentially *look* like a silly way of writing a word that sounds like that**, but words not being pronounced the way they are written is hardly a novel concept for English.

*Well, no sillier than "Bob" or "Fred" or any other word sounds if you start saying it too many times.

**In which case, you are "merely" dissing the Spanish way of writing it down, which is a bit less loaded.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I actually do think it sounds inherently silly, but that's a personal opinion. I also think this about a lot of other words (and some pronounciations of some words) in common use. I don't think there's a strong correlation between thinking something sounds silly and it being of foreign origin (in so far as that concept has meaning in a mongrel language like English).

It's been more noticeable with quinoa simply because most people I've spoken to don't know how to pronounce it. I found out about a year ago that I wasn't saying it correctly, when I had a long conversation with someone about whether quinoa was acceptable during Passover and they concluded by pointing out idly that it should be pronounced differently. I think it's more of a problem here with words of Spanish origin, because in general UK schools don't teach Spanish by default the way they do French; even if I'd known initially it was to be prounced as a Spanish word, I wouldn't have known how to say it (without looking it up).

Most languages have a history of bastardising words for imported concepts - I guess in fifty years' time (assuming quinoa becomes/stays mainstream) either everyone will automatically pronounce it in a Spanish way without thinking, or everyone will pronounce it as written and dictionaries will note that it is "derived from" a Spanish word.

(Actually, I've just looked at wikipedia, which gives both pronunciations, and it tells me that in Quechua it's "kinwa" and in Spanish "quinua". So I've no idea where this odd spelling with an 'o' came from. If importers had just left it with the Quechua spelling, that would have avoided the whole people-not-knowing-how-to-say-it thing! I'd have been better even with the Spanish, because at least it looks more like a word that should be prounced Spanish-style.)

[ewx.livejournal.com]

Wikipedia tells me that Quechua used a Spanish-based orthography until 1975, with the <k> spelling only being introduced at that point. The borrowing of quinoa into both Spanish and English presumably long predates that.

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

, because at least it looks more like a word that should be prounced Spanish-style.

(As an aside, hmmmm. I can think of quite a few Spanish words ending in -gua, but I can't think of many words off the top of my head that end [^g]ua. Are you thinking of any in particular?)

I do agree re your statement that quinua being a much better spelling for pronouncing it Spanish-style. During Anglicisation, quínoa has lost the stress accent (with that spelling, without the accent, you'd put the stress on the o).

I think altering the spelling when translating so they sound the same would have been more sensible. Though searching becomes a nightmare when multiple spellings are possible

[venta.livejournal.com]

No, I can only think of words that end -gua. However, my Spanish vocabulary is likely to be considerably more limited than yours, since I think you actually speak some :)

It was more that I'm aware of things like Antigua and Quechua, but most of the words I can think of which end -oa are pronounced -o-a (like Goa and Genoa, and boa). Whereas they're not exactly stereotypical English words, they are familiar words and they've fostered the impression that -oa is a two-syllable noise rather than the more one-syllable noise that ends quinoa. I can't think of having ever encountered any other -oa word that has the quinoa pronounciation, though if my knowledge of Spanish were better perhaps I'd know lots.

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

However, my Spanish vocabulary is likely to be considerably more limited than yours, since I think you actually speak some :)

Well, as my family, coworkers and most of my friends like to mock me for, I *did* only get a B at A-level, even *with* the resit of the AS speaking exam. ;-).

they've fostered the impression that -oa is a two-syllable noise

Yes and no. Yes, oa is notionally two syllables and ua is a dipthong and is one syllable (which, incidentally, is why you need the accent for quínoa but not quínua). But the o is pronounced much shorter than in English, so oa sounds a lot less like two syllables as typically spoken by a Spanish speaker than it would in English.

though if my knowledge of Spanish were better perhaps I'd know lots.
Er. Dunno. An awful lot of what goes on in post A-level conversation classes (and for that matter, during A-level) tended to focus a lot less on learning lots of words and a lot more on culture, literature, politics* and the like.

*Neocolonialism, cultural imperialism and the problems it causes for los pueblos indígenas** (e.g. biopiracy) are common themes of discussion. Oh, and Evo Morales' sweaters.

**Apologies for the switch in language, it doesn't translate exactly.