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Respected Contributor
Posts: 2,941
Registered: ‎03-30-2010

I can't believe she said that!

[ Edited ]

I came into the house to cool off and relax, so I flipped through channels.  The Logo show was almost over, so I left it on.  There was a yellow cardigan that the host was pronouncing the color  "myeez". Huh?  I looked it up on the Q online, it's MAIZE (mayz), corn in Spanish.  I have only ever heard that pronounced mayz, not myeez.  Anyone know which is correct?  I think it's "mayz" which is what I've heard forever.   

Respected Contributor
Posts: 3,083
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: I can't believe she saud that!

I've only heard it with the long a.  

 

And, from Dictionary dot com:  

maize  - māz 
 
I took my mother to an eye doctor several years ago.  The tech who did all the readings introduced himself as KEE-in.  I'd never heard that name before, and asked him to spell it.  His response was KEE-in.  K-E-N.  KEE-In.  I think he was from Indiana, or somewhere near there.  
 
In this case, though, I'd question if it was ignorance. 
Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 5,901
Registered: ‎05-27-2015

Re: I can't believe she said that!

[ Edited ]

@this is mynicc  We English speaking people pronounce it mayz, but in Spanish it is "myeess"

Honored Contributor
Posts: 12,702
Registered: ‎08-22-2013

Re: I can't believe she said that!

The host should have know how to pronouce that color, I learned that word in grade school.

Respected Contributor
Posts: 3,696
Registered: ‎09-27-2010

Re: I can't believe she said that!

It seems a word is  pronounced according to the language that we speak or the way we're comfortable saying it, rather than the way the word was initially pronounced in its origin. If English is your primary language, you pronounce maize "mayz". If you speak or think in Spanish, you relate it to the word for corn and pronounce it  "mah-ees". Another example of a bastardization, if you will, of a word is the way many English-speaking people pronounce the French word voila as "walla" when it would correctly be pronounced "vuah-lah" since the "v" is supposed to be pronounced. 

Honored Contributor
Posts: 9,745
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: I can't believe she said that!

Maize meaning corn is pronounced different in English than Spanish.  The pronunciation you are referring is Spanish.  The pronunciation you are familiar with is English.  Hope that helps.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 9,745
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: I can't believe she said that!

[ Edited ]

@blackhole99 wrote:

The host should have know how to pronouce that color, I learned that word in grade school.


@blackhole99   She does know how to pronounce it.  You just learned a different pronunciation.  That's not unfamiliar to someone who has lived in different parts of the world that words are pronounced differently in different cultures and even in different regions of the USA.  When in Rome or wherever, I always tried to do as the host country so I would not look like I did not accept their culture.

Honored Contributor
Posts: 16,230
Registered: ‎03-09-2010

Re: I can't believe she said that!

There are all kinds of ignorance.  One of mine is Spanish.  I know maybe 10 expressions, maybe less.  Anyway, I googlerd and there are several Videos available.  My audio isn't working well, but I could hear enough to learn on one of them that the a in maize isn;t long the way it is in English.  The i takes precedence.  I did not hear the QVC show, so I won't even guess why Whoever was speaking chose the pronunciation she did, but do Google and listen.  Hope your machine works a little better than mine.

Esteemed Contributor
Posts: 7,204
Registered: ‎06-16-2015

Re: I can't believe she said that!

[ Edited ]

I guess you have to know your audience. This is the United States where QVC is aimed. How do the majority of the population pronounce it?

Honored Contributor
Posts: 17,491
Registered: ‎03-10-2010

Re: I can't believe she said that!

Do we need to add this to the Empire and Marquise pronunciation threads? 

 

 

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