# A critical question of language **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 12, 2002, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250 "2002-04-12T15:45:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/81 "2021-03-15T15:08:48Z")
Saying it as “LEE-go” still blows my mind a bit. Maybe people from Oswego? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/82 "2021-03-15T15:17:37Z")
I grew up saying LEE-goz > [@begbert2](#): > > The LEGO corporation wants you to call them LEGO bricks because they’re worried about them losing their trademarkable brand identity This is true. To be specific, they are worried that their trademark will lose distinctiveness. > [@begbert2](#): > > they way Kleenex and Xerox did. This did not happen. “Kleenex” and “Xerox” are still enforceable trademarks. “Lego” is nowhere close to being in danger of losing its trademark rights through genericization, but the law requires them to behave as if saying “Legos” is just awful and make stern statements about it. Many trademarks have lost their distinctiveness in one way or another, including: Aspirin Cellophane Dry ice Dumpster Escalator Flip phone Heroin Hovercraft Kerosene Lauderette Laundromat Linoleum Mimeograph Sellotape Trampoline Touch-Tone Webster’s Dictionary Zipper There are a lot of trademarks that people tend to use generically, but they aren’t in danger of actually losing their trademark status, not anytime soon anyway, such as: Band-Aid ChapStick Chyron ComicCon Crock-Pot Cuisinart Ditto Dobro Frisbee Google Hoover Jacuzzi Jell-O Q-Tips Rollerblade Styrofoam Taser Thermos Vaseline Velcro ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/83 "2021-03-15T15:35:45Z")
> [@robardin](#): > > And as for the IPA angle, those last two are fairly subtle distinctions I can hear if I listen closely (“lay” versus “Jose”), but do not make such a distinction when speaking. I wouldn’t be surprised if either vowel sound can come out of my mouth for those words, but mentally I map them to the “ay” sound - to me an E is either “eh” or “ay”, anything in between is some kind of unconscious slurring. Yeah, I believe in English we just treat them as allophones. Other languages do make a distinction. I remember some Spanish posters remarking about hearing English speakers say “e” in Spanish as the diphthong “ay” instead of as a pure vowel. In Hungarian, there is a difference between _tej_ (“milk”) and té (“the letter t”) and “te” (“you.”) The first would be like English “tay”; the last is a “teh”; and the middle is like “tay” without getting to the “Y” part, so the vowel is more raised than the usual “short e” /ɛ/. In my experience, most English speakers, including myself, find that middle word closer to “tay” rather than “teh”; my instinct is to “round it off” to that vowel. I’ve heard more than one Spanish speaker, however, say they preferred an “eh” sound to an “ay” sound when saying Spanish words with that vowel, so “ho-SEH” instead of “ho-SAY.” Many insist it’s the same vowel as in “meh,” but that’s probably because they’re rounding off /ɛ/ to /e/ themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2021, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/84 "2021-03-15T15:45:48Z")
> [@robardin](#): > > Saying it as “LEE-go” still blows my mind a bit. Maybe people from Oswego? Oswego NY, Oswego OR or Oswego IL? 😁 ---
**Author:** ![mordecaiB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mordecaib/32/7725_2.png) [@mordecaiB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mordecaiB)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/85 "2021-03-16T05:36:46Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > lose their patent on the lego connection system Do I understand right that they lost the patent because they had sold bricks earlier and didn’t call those Lego? ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/86 "2021-03-16T06:21:26Z")
> [@robardin](#): > > Nobody says “preggo” for Prego, I trust? How do you pronounce “pregnant”? Use the same vowel sound for “Prego” and “Lego”. For that matter, “egg” has the same sound. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 9:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/87 "2021-03-16T09:50:27Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > Use the same vowel sound for “Prego” and “Lego” They’re not the same sound. Prego is Italian (or Portuguese, but the “e’” isn’t the main difference there) ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/88 "2021-03-16T11:16:49Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > How do you pronounce “pregnant”? Use the same vowel sound for “Prego” and “Lego”. For that matter, “egg” has the same sound. [Here’s how “Prego” is pronounced.](https://www.thelocal.it/20190621/italian-word-of-the-day-prego/) I pronounce “Lego” the same way, only with a shorter “e” (unless I was saying “Lego” with an Italian accent, for some reason). ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/89 "2021-03-16T13:32:18Z")
Sounds completely different than “pray-goh”. If you shorten the ‘e’ sound (short in terms of duration), you’ll get the same vowel sound as that in “Lego”. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/90 "2021-03-16T17:49:53Z")
> [@mordecaiB](#): > > Do I understand right that they lost the patent because they had sold bricks earlier and didn’t call those Lego? No; it’s my understanding that it just expired in the normal way that patents do, thanks to its time running out. They’re not intended to last forever. (And neither are copyrights, no matter what Disney thinks.) ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2021, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/91 "2021-03-16T22:54:02Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > They’re not intended to last forever. …unlike most Lego pieces. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2021, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/92 "2021-03-17T12:47:38Z")
> [@Terminus\_Est](#): > > Sounds completely different than “pray-goh”. If you shorten the ‘e’ sound (short in terms of duration), you’ll get the same vowel sound as that in “Lego”. Right, which is “lay-go” for me (or was), LOL. (Now that it’s been brought to my attention, I think I will start to say “leg-go” half the time.) The way you say it, maybe (where you do say “preggo”). That is not how the Italians would say it, and it is an Italian (cuisine) pasta sauce, and there are a lot of Italian-Americans where I live, and nobody would say it “preggo” to rhyme with “eggo”. “Prego” sounds close to, or basically the same as, “pray-go” and not like “preggo” (which would be the slang term for a woman being pregnant, with the “preg-” being pronounced the same way, so it’s not like the word doesn’t exist in my lexicon). Unless you say “eggo” like in that commercial, which makes it sound like “prego” and “lego”. At least, if you pronounce “lego” like “prego” and not “eggo”. Are we clear yet? LOL This is starting to feel like one of those “caught - cot, pin - pen” things where people who think they rhyme cannot easily conceive of how someone might think they don’t rhyme, and vice versa. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2021, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/93 "2021-03-17T14:05:53Z")
Question: click on the link I gave a few posts up. Do you hear “Preggo” or “Pray-go”? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2021, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/94 "2021-03-17T15:33:56Z")
It’s “leg-go” my “egg-go.” The entire point of the phrase is that the two words rhyme. Further, “Leggo” is not “Lego.” Not only aren’t they spelled the same, but “Leggo” does not describe an object (and it’s not using the trademark LEGO as a verb, since it has nothing to do with the blocks). A trademark can only apply to a specific item. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2021, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/95 "2021-03-18T03:45:16Z")
> [@robardin](#): > > This is starting to feel like one of those “caught - cot, pin - pen” things where people who think they rhyme cannot easily conceive of how someone might think they don’t rhyme, and vice versa. Yeah, in the other thread that deals with this subject, I discuss this subject. It’s called pre-velar raising, and occurs before voiced velars (“g”). When you have words like “leg” and “egg” and “beg” the quality of the “e” can change depending on your dialect, from an /ɛ/ to an /e/; the latter is often heard by at least American English speakers as “ay.” For example, here’s some sound samples for “egg” from American English speakers: > **[How to pronounce egg in English - Definition and synonyms of egg in English](https://forvo.com/word/egg/#en_usa)** > > How to pronounce egg in English. The definition of egg is: animal reproductive body consisting of an ovum or embryo together with nutritive and protective... You can hear a few different realizations of “e”. There’s a range, but listen to gregorybrian, jollysunbro, and MorganJersey are at the /e/ end, and, to me, almost sound like “ayg.” The first one, floridagirl, is on the /ɛ/ end. The second one, Jersey, is also raised, though not quite as extreme as MorganJersey. This particular kind of raising happens specifically before the letter “g.” For example, those that do raise their vowels and say something like “layg” don’t say something like “bayt”, but “bet” with an /ɛ/. So, for them, “Leggo my Eggo” would come out sounding something like “laygo my aygo” (as it sounds in some of the Eggo commercials.) But some people will not hear the difference if they’re not used to making a distinction. (See, for example, how people say and hear “Mary,” “merry,” and “marry.”) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2021, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250/96 "2021-03-18T11:58:56Z")
Oops. I didn’t realize most of that I already posted in this thread. I could have sworn I posted it in another thread. I blame it on posting half asleep. Carry on. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-critical-question-of-language/103250.md?page=4)