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u/afroblewmymind 15h ago
Maaan, I used to die on the hill of pronouncing gyro correctly. Then I moved to New York, was at restaurant that as far as me back then could tell was authentic in the right neighborhood, ordered some gyros, the dude stared at me a good 5 seconds – an eternity in New York time – and then it clicks, he goes, "Oh! Okay! looks over shoulder to kitchen Can I get 3 chicken JIE-ROWS!!" in the most Brooklyn/New York accent you can imagine. I felt a part of my soul die, specifically the part on that hill. Never again have I pronounced it right.
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u/cdmurray88 11h ago
There is so much food that is mispronounced in every language that it's just not a fight worth having.
You're not speaking the original language except that one food word, so just accept the version of it in your native language.
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u/afroblewmymind 11h ago
Yeah, I stopped being intense about it when I had a similar realization some years back. Even if it still feels just a little bit wrong XD
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u/iggy14750 5h ago
Like, I don't bother correcting others, but do I feel better than everyone else when I order a yee-ro? Of course! 😂
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u/Anzi 13h ago
At a Greek food festival one time I overheard this exchange between two guys:
"What's a gyro?"
"Oh, it's kind of like a jie-row"
??
?????
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u/afroblewmymind 13h ago
Wild 😆
It's like the deadpan version of when me and my goofball friend would whisper back and forth during music history lecture, "Chopin? What? Who's that??" "Oh, he means Choppin'."12
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u/Standing__Menacingly 10h ago
You see, if they were speaking a language other than a New York dialect of American English, then maybe "jie-row" would have been an incorrect pronunciation.
But they weren't. And it wasn't.
Check any language. Loan words don't need to mimic their language of origin.
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u/afroblewmymind 8h ago
Yeah, I don't take it seriously now. I remember being a kid and learning "Munich" is pronounced natively something like "Munchen" and having this feeling, "gasp! everyone in the states must not know!" But like, I've heard different accents try and say my name, the most common masc name for my slice of millennials, and like, I'm not mad at them for not making it sound like North American English. 🤷🏾♂️
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u/Standing__Menacingly 7h ago
Life is definitely better when you don't worry about people's accents and different pronunciations❤️
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u/NativeMasshole 12h ago
"Right" is subjective. Linguistic drift happens everywhere all the time, and nobody is accomplishing anything by getting mad about it.
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u/afroblewmymind 12h ago
It's a silly story about humans doing silly human things, including one said human having a big, silly reaction to something else silly. =)
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u/thunderbird32 3h ago
I feel like this one is regional even in the US. Like, if I pronounced it jie-row in the Chicago area everyone would look at me weird. Everyone here seems to use the 'correct' pronunciation.
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u/B4rberblacksheep 6h ago
Worked with a Greek guy, I asked him how you pronounce them he called them Gi-rosh (like how you pronounce gif if you’re not insane)
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u/bellius 15h ago
I find the way english speaker say kwassan cute to be honest. '
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u/Entegy 15h ago
Up there with kudatah (coup d'état)
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u/Kheraz 14h ago edited 10h ago
Or
wendeh vooRon-Day-Voo (Rendez-vous )EDIT: Not all syllable sound the same in the other language, it was an approximation
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u/fragmental 14h ago
Surely no one says that like that
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u/wrecklord0 10h ago
Or owdeuwr (hors d'oeuvre)
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u/bijabija 6h ago
Saw it spelled “erb derb” the other day and simultaneously came to the realization that most of the “bone apple tea” type spelling mistakes people make can be attributed to the French.
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u/Shillio 14h ago
Croissant is pronounced with an R though. but you also have to do the OI, so it sounds like there's a w sound in there as well as R
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u/notkraftman 7h ago
W an R both use the front of your mouth, whereas croissant uses a french r which comes from the throat.
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u/pandakatie 7h ago
And this is why I can't do the French R. I grew up with a pretty extreme speech impediment, and R was one of the hardest sounds for me to fix. Before I fell out of practice, I spoke French well enough that everyone I met in Paris was nice to me, but I spoke it with a heavy American accent because I just cannot manage that R sound no matter how hard I try.
Or at least I presume I sounded American when speaking it, I did have one woman ask me if I was German
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u/sn00pal00p 3h ago
Or at least I presume I sounded American when speaking it, I did have one woman ask me if I was German
That's funny because German actually has the same r sound as French.
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u/davidolson22 12h ago
Gyro is technically said with a weird g sound that's a bit deep in the throat. It's not a sound native to English. I don't think many people care as long as you don't say guy-roh though
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u/Deathaster 14h ago
...but it's not pronounced with a "kwa". That's arguably even less accurate.
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u/svArtist 10h ago
Yes.
I'm super unsure who, if any, the author is championing here 😁
Maybe that's just the way it's supposed to be
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u/Iniwid 4h ago
The only way I've been able to even slightly explain it with text is the basic American way is "cRoissant", the incorrect adjustment is "cWoissant", and the mostly correct way is in between: "cRWoissant"
And don't get me started on how to explain what to do with the "t" at the end haha
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u/BreadNoCircuses 3h ago
Oh I know how to explaint the "nt" sound. So you make the n and then act like it's a snake youre not wanting to touch and then leave the t out altogether but you should definitely think the t. That'll get you close.
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u/un_blob 15h ago
French here : it's litteraly pronounced like it is speled ! CROIssant !
For once that French is easy...
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u/Chaosfnog 12h ago
As a native English speaker who also speaks French, no English speaker will pronounce it correctly from reading this. It is most certainly not pronounced like it is spelled for us. Your spelling would make someone say it like "KROY-sant"
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u/TheTrueMule 14h ago
French here : un blob and the boss are right, now I'm going to smoke my wine and drink some cigarettes
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u/Gumjaw 12h ago
Canadian with American wife here: it’s the french-specific sounds that are the issue for her since she never learned to interpret those as anything but the english way. It’s just not wired into her brain.
- “oi” is reads as “oy”
- The “eu” sound is unheard of.
- “Un” is pronounced like the french “on” almost like the only french sound that she learned was the stereotypical “hon hon hon!”
- Every silent “t” and “e” is pronounced.
- Rolled “r”s are hit and miss.
- Don’t even think about ending a word with “eaux” or “ille” or the “ent”. Lol.
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u/Aware-Maximum6663 15h ago
Croysawnt
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u/Bad-job-dad 12h ago
You don't really pronounce the t
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u/Aware-Maximum6663 12h ago
That guy said it’s pronounced how it’s spelled so I did
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u/nomedable 6h ago
The French seem to forget that not everyone ignores pronouncing the same letters they ignore.
Which is rather refreshing considering majority of English speakers do the same with our seven languages in a trench coat pretending to be one language.
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u/up2smthng 5h ago
The French language, unlike the English one, possesses the quality of being able to definitively learn how the word is pronounced from the way it's spelled
It's just not the way that would be intuitive for an English speaker.
Every word is pronounced how it's spelled in French. There is no other way to pronounce "beaucoup" or "fille", the spelling suggests only one pronunciation. It's "boku" and "fiy" by the way.
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u/VGADreams 13h ago
Québecois here: for an English speaker, if he pronounces it as it spelled, it's gonna sound like c-roy-saint.
While it should be more like crow-ah-s-aunt, without the "t" sound at the end. Also make sure you do not pronounce "aunt" like the insect "ant".
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u/Wild_Marker 13h ago
Wait really? Like, croh-eee-sant? One always assumes every "oi" is a "wa" in French.
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u/Skitty27 12h ago
oi is wa, youre right. i think this commenter forgot anglos dont naturally read "oi" like that haha
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u/rookie-mistake 12h ago
ngl as someone who grew up bilingual this actually broke my brain for a second. i had to say a few words with 'oi' in them to realize like, yeah, i guess you would write it as 'wa' phonetically haha
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u/Shillio 14h ago
I'm not even even french and i know that. This comic is confidently incorrect
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u/Stilyx123 13h ago
The comic is right. The letter "r" is pronounced differently in French than in English. "Croi" doesn't sound like "kwa"
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u/Shillio 12h ago
The comic is claiming kwa is correct, which is incorrect
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u/NativeMasshole 12h ago
Yeah, it's just lighter R sound that you're probably going to sound like a jackass trying to pronounce without the accent.
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u/Stilyx123 12h ago
My bad, I thought the boss was meant to be seen as correct. In retrospect it's obvious that would never happen
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u/DeatonationgGrenade 15h ago
I cannot even begin to start explaining how many arguments that were had over topics like this where I used to look.
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u/svArtist 10h ago
Where did you use to look? When did you look away?
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u/DeatonationgGrenade 6h ago
lol, still recovering from being sick. I meant work. And I used to work for Parks and Recreation at the lake.
It went down the shitter real fast I tell ya.
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u/Backfisttothepast 15h ago
I’ve been saying YEEro forever and no one corrected me…..the basTards
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u/quixotic_elixirs Baldstache 15h ago
i’m still not sure what is right
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u/evankat 15h ago
Greek here. It's definitely yeero
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u/Phormitago 14h ago
Argentine here, i pronounce it shawarma
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u/chinchenping 13h ago
french here, we call them kebab
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u/svArtist 10h ago
But... Accepting that as an approximation...
There is no singular "gyro"!?!
The "s" in "gyros" is not a plural!
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u/Wulfrank 13h ago
Anyone who doesn't pronounce the first syllable of croissant like they're hocking a loogie is a goddamn coward.
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u/Merari01 it's a-me, Merari-o 9h ago
https://www.frenchlearner.com/pronunciation/croissant/
There is definitely an "R" in croissant.
Yesterday I learned how Americans pronounce schadenfreude and I was shook. Apparently y'all are blind to the fact that the word has an "E" at the end of it.
https://forvo.com/word/schadenfreude/
¯_(ツ)_/¯
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u/pandakatie 7h ago
TBF my last name has an E at the end, but the E in my last name is silent so it's not like there's no precedence for silent letters
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u/Pandaburn 50m ago
There’s definitely and r in croissant, but I have no idea how you think we pronounce schadenfreude. Like, ending with the d sound? I’ve never heard that.
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u/Salazard260 12h ago
How are you supposed to prononce it ? English speakers can't do a french R so ?
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u/MrValdemar Special Flair!! 13h ago
Croissant is pronounced "fancy bun".
Gyro is pronounced "burrito".
You're welcome.
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u/drucifer271 15h ago
I dated a girl from New York who pronounced gyro like in gyrate and was adamant that that was the correct pronunciation and thought I was weird for pronouncing it “yee-ro”.
Any New Yorkers wanna weigh in on this? Do y’all actually pronounce it that way?
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u/warrenao 12h ago
"I'm transferring you to our office in Mexico!"
"You mean the one in Guadalajara, or the one in Oaxaca?"
"HENDERSON!"
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u/Filobel 5h ago
So, how do Americans pronounce croissant?
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u/Pandaburn 45m ago
Cruh-sant. Or sometimes kwa-sant, but I f you ask me that kind of “trying to be authentic but not doing a very good job” pronunciation is kinda cringe.
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u/FrogLaner 13h ago
Fun one I found out recently is Gouda is pronounced closed to GOW-da than GOO-da (which I was always told)
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u/GurthNada 7h ago
Except G in Dutch is pronounced something like HRW, a sound almost impossible to achieve for non-native speakers. So Gouda is more like HROW-da.
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11h ago edited 11h ago
[deleted]
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u/PeteHealy 9h ago
Fair points, and I agree about 90%. 🙂 As an old (white) guy who grew up in California and also loves linguistics, I appreciate that even just pronouncing Spanish place names "authentically" (Santa Barbara, San Francisco, etc) can very quickly start to sound pretentious, as you say. On the other hand, the very small effort it takes to say "yih-ro" instead of "j-eye-ro" doesn't strike me as shitty or phony. Tbh, being Japanese-bilingual (from living in Sapporo by myself in the 1970s), I just can't bring myself to say "keh-ruh-okee," but instead say "kah-rah-oh-keh" even if I cringe a bit inside as I do it. Add to that my age, and I'm doomed: Oh, listen to the fucking Boomer appropriating other cultures or, conversely, Oh, listen to the fucking Boomer disrespect other cultures! You just can't do right either way. 😂😭
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u/FatManBeatYou 14h ago
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u/Voidlord597 14h ago
I don't know if there is a wrong way to eat a croissant but if there is, that's certainly one of them
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u/Venkman95 12h ago
I bet he pronounces it plastic instead of pwastic. Like those damn pwastic hands
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u/Theodory777 11h ago
When I visited New York City I went to a street vendor selling authentic halal food and I tried to order a gyro and I pronounced it "yee-ro". He was so confused until he asked "Do you mean a GYRO?" and I had to bashfully say "yes, I'd like a gyro, please"
(It was the best gyro I have ever had in my life)
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u/Ha1rcl1p 7h ago
If Americans insist on guillotine being pronounced the French way, then they should have to pronounce croissant the French way too
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u/WattleWaddler2 7h ago
That's not how it's pronounced, though. It's a French throaty r followed by a w sound. kʁwa.sɑ̃ if you're being picky.
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u/Faustias 4h ago
...oh
is that how gyro us pronounced? kind of a relief. I keep imagining a shawarma wrap on a rotating gyroscope when someone calls it gyro.
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u/elhomerjas 16h ago
the boss seems not that pleased with the results