Thread: Mate beverage (pronunciation in your language), (or similar cases of imported words)

Just a technical question,
(I am not a drinker of this beverage)

There is a controversy about how the word 'mate' must be pronounced correctly.
But as the origin is Spanish (or Portugese), it would be desirable to stress the first syllable.
So the question is how it is pronounced in your language.
In Russian it is pronounced мате by most of the people, which seems incorrect.

Originally Posted by alexsms

Just a technical question,
(I am not a drinker of this beverage)

There is a controversy about how the word 'mate' must be pronounced correctly.
But as the origin is Spanish (or Portugese), it would be desirable to stress the first syllable.
So the question is how it is pronounced in your language.
In Russian it is pronounced мате by most of the people, which seems incorrect.

English Wikipedia indicates that the Spanish name of the beverage sounds like мате and the Portuguese like мачи.

By the way, the pronunciation мате turns the Spanish word into a past-tense first-person verb: yo maté = я убил(а), "I have killed"!

But, unsurprisingly, some English speakers apparently use the incorrect pronunciation, putting the stress on the "e" instead of the "a", and often adding an acute accent over the "e" in writing. Linguists call this a "hyperforeignism."

Another famous example in US English is the common name of the (чрезвычайно остро-пикантный- жгучий!!!) pepper Capsicum chinense. The Spanish spelling is "habanero" (pronounced абанэро), but many English-speaking Americans say the word as though the spelling were "jabañero" (хабанеро or even хабанъйэро).

I have been convinced that the 'anglosphere' pronounces almost all French words incorrectly, according to strange hyperforeignism patterns)))

Hi Alex!

My daughter is in Bolivia right now and sadly, due to the altitude, she is drinking mate! I just texted with her and she is going to try and do a recording of a native pronouncing it for you and send it to me. If we are all successful in getting it recorded and sent to me, I will upload it for you

Originally Posted by alexsms

I have been convinced that the 'anglosphere' pronounces almost all French words incorrectly, according to strange hyperforeignism patterns)))

It's these mispronunciations that give the English language its special Jenny Say Kwozz.)))))

I used to live with a guy from Argentina for some time and he pronounced the word with stress on "a". máte