It is estimated that there are over 7,000 languages and at least ten times more dialects worldwide. Yeah, that's a lot. Of course, nobody is familiar with all of them (the average person speaks about two languages), but since words know no borders and are often shared between different nations, it is not strange that, in everyday speech, non-native speakers butcher some of them and glue them back together in, what can only be described as Frankenwords.
This is especially evident when we talk about food and drink. In the 20th century, globalization brought local dishes to restaurants and homes far away from their land of origin, and although some of them have since become staples, they are still often mispronounced.
TasteAtlas provided the data, WordTips did the rest
To better understand this linguistic phenomenon, WordTips made an extensive pronunciation analysis of popular foods and drinks from 130 countries in order to find out which are most often mispronounced. They used the lists from TasteAtlas as base data and searched for those foods and drinks on Forvo, the online library of user-submitted pronunciation recordings.
The Most Mispronounced Foods / Credits: WordTips (Click here to see full size image)
The presumption is that the pronunciations with the higher number of listens are the ones that are most often mispronounced, and the research results showed that, along with the occasional exotic food or drink, the dominant majority of common speech fallacies are actually the most popular and well-known dishes and beverages. Well, let's see some of them...
Chorizo at the top of the list
If we'd have to guess, the classics of French, Chinese, or Vietnamese cuisine would surely be in the first places on any list of mispronounced foods and drinks, but WordTips analysis shows that the landslide win goes to - chorizo! With over 22 million listens, this delicious, mildly spicy Spanish sausage is obviously confusing to vocalize, and it doesn't help that there are several accepted pronunciations.
Chorizo / Credits: Shutterstock
If you want to be the closest to the original, you'll pronounce it as cho-ree-that, with that characteristic "Spanish rolling r". However, Americans will most often pronounce it as cho-ree-zou and the British are more inclined to chuh-reet-zou, which are just some of the better-known variants. Truth be told, there are as many pronunciations of this word as there are languages in the world. Not bad for a modest, unassuming sausage...
Among other words that often cause confusion regarding pronunciation, we can single out the French croissant, the English scone, the Chinese chow mein, and the Brazilian pão de queijo. Looks like hummus, shared between four Middle Eastern countries and Egypt and originally pronounced huh-muhs, changes its phonetics when enjoyed abroad, as many non-native speakers pronounce it hoo-muhs.
Croissant / Credits: Shutterstock
It is surprising to see that the list also includes some dishes that we would think there should be no doubt about, such as Japanese sushi. Turns out there is a small but important difference between the original pronunciation and what is accepted in the rest of the world. Namely, in Japanese, the second syllable in su-shi is pronounced with a soft "s", similar to the word "sassy", while the anglicized version has a much harder "sh" sound, as in the word "ship."
Sushi / Credits: Shutterstock
The most famous American dish is also the most mispronounced
But sushi is not the most unexpected entry on this list. All hail his majesty - the burger. Arguably the most iconic American dish (with German roots) apparently has the most questionable pronunciation, with over 880,000 listens.
Burger / Credits: Shutterstock
From New York to Los Angeles, Americans pronounce their pride and joy as a simple bur-gr, but in many other countries they do it slightly differently. The French have their classic boer-geur, the Italians enjoy a tasty boor-gair, while the Spaniards will order bur-her. Yes, it may sound like some non-native actor tries to do one of these accents and ends up as a stereotypical movie caricature, but that's how they pronounce it!
And the champions of drink mispronunciation are...
The Most Mispronounced Drinks / Credits: WordTips (Click here to see full size image)
When it comes to drinks, the Spanish representative is once again at the top. The beverage in question is the famous red wine Rioja, which is originally pronounced rrio-ha, again with the accented "Spanish rolling r" and vocalizing the letter "j" with the phoneme "h", something that is not the case in most other world languages. It is that "j" that often stirs the pot of confusion, although most English speakers know the difference and usually pronounce it as ree-ow-huh or ree-ock-uh.
Rioja / Credits: Shutterstock
Other often mispronounced drinks include the ever-popular French champagne, Italian prosecco, Chinese kombucha, and Russian vodka, while five countries in Southeast Europe are represented by the local throat ripper and belly warmer, rakija. Regarding the US, the top spot is reserved for bourbon. As originally a French word, it causes doubt in many non-native speakers. For example, while it is locally pronounced as buh-buhn, in Slavic languages it will be something akin to bur-bon.
Champagne / Credits: Shutterstock
Anyone up for a game of food and drink mispronunciation?
Since we can't list every single one of these mispronounced words and their pronunciations, WordTips provides an extensive list of all 130 countries included in this survey. It could also be an excellent opportunity to check how well you actually know those delicious dishes and beverages you enjoy every day. We are already thinking about a casual, friendly drinking game on that topic. Given some of the things we've learned from this research, we could end up under the table in a matter of minutes...
As Plato said: "I know that I know nothing". On that note, one should not despair if one gets some of these words wrong. Maybe they won't be pronounced as their native speakers intended, but the nature of language is to change and adapt to its environment. So, to rephrase: it's not wrong, it's just... unique!
