Post #763625 by mikehooker on Tue, May 10, 2016 7:00 PM

I've thought about starting a thread about how to pronounce certain common things like orgeat, falernum, Pernod, demerara, etc. I have it in my head how these things should sound then I have a conversation with someone and they say something completely different like dem-er-air-a and I'm like come again now? Really, that's how it's pronounced? I thought it was dem-er-ar-a. You know, like it's spelled? I still don't know what's correct!

When I was a newbie, the first time I went into a liquor store looking for orgeat I asked where to find the or-gee-ot, and he said, oh the or-gheet is over here. I've since heard it pronounced or-zsa (like zsa zsa gabor) and or-zsat which I think are more accurate. I stick with the former as it sounds more exotic and now hearing people say that harsh "gheet" really bums me out.

So what do ya'll say, should we start a phonetic thread on how to say stuff?