I’ve always heard and pronounced the word jaguar as jag-war. But I recently heard a TV ad for the sports car which pronounced it as jag-yoo-ar. I have to assume the car company and the ad agency intended it to be pronounced that way. I also assume that the car and the animal have the same pronunciation. But I believe that Jaguars (the cars) are manufactured in the UK, so perhaps the three syllable pronunciation is the British way. Am I correct?
On a related note, I recently heard the British pronunciation of the word zebra. Apparently in the UK it’s zeb-ra, while here in the US it’s zeeb-ra. Sometimes you have to question whether we’re actually using the same language.
Jaguar (the company) like many others, is not exclusively british any more (correct me if I am wrong) but I think it is safe to say the ‘correct’ pronunciation is the British pronunciation.
When the first UK language Speak&Spell[sup]Tm[/sup] units went on sale here in the UK, there was also a flood of grey(gray) imports; many people would vainly try to test them in the shop, hoping that the word ‘colo(u)r’ would come up - there was an easier way - press the ‘z’ key and see if you get zee or zed.
Also on the subject of zee and zed, the Dr Seuss book The Cat in The Hat Comes Back was composed in such a way as to make the rhymes work either way.
My mother always tells me off if I say ‘zee’, reminding me that this is american pronounciation for Z. ‘Zed’ is the correct Australian (and probably english?) pronounciation for the letter Z.
>>. But I recently heard a TV ad for the sports car which pronounced it as jag-yoo-ar.
I still chuckle at the radio ad (recently aired in NY) where the proper British woman describes the car, using the jag-u-war pronunciation, then the American announcer comes on to describe sale conditions and leasing terms, pronouncing it jag-war.
That’s like the commercial for those Ricola cough drops. The guys sing Reek-o-la, then the announcer comes on and says Rih-cola (like coca-cola). I think they do it on purpose just to piss us off.
Also noticed, listening to the BBC on NPR, that the British seem to pronounce “Nicaragua” something like Nick-ar-AG-yoo-wa (very similar to the jaguar pronunciation). And in the same story you’d hear a native of same country pronounce it Nee-gar-awa. And the American pronunciation somewhere in between.
and tomahto