Do you call it "soy" sauce or "soya" sauce?

[Dandan]

Fifty years or more ago, in Baltimore, I (somewhat) distinctly hearing extended family members saying “soya”.

Anyway, I say it’s soy, and I say the hell with it.

Dan

[hogarth]

@Spoons

Pretty much the same here, though the products were purchased in western Canada. A bottle of Lee Kum Kee “soy” sauce, and a jug of China Lily “soya” sauce in the pantry.

Poking around the Real Canadian Superstore website, it looks like only VH (made by Conagra) and China Lily (made by Lee’s Food Products) still say “soya sauce” on the label, although No Name Brand looks like it has switched to the bilingual

soy
sauce
soya

[Corry_El]

@Spoons

Pretty much the same here, though the products were purchased in western Canada. A bottle of Lee Kum Kee “soy” sauce, and a jug of China Lily “soya” sauce in the pantry.

Me, personally, I say “soy sauce.”

I’m thinking the mix in Canada on bottles might be ones bottled in or mainly for the US market? I guess there’s no requirement to use British English spellings on English labels of stuff sold in Canada, in contrast to regulatory requirements for some things to also be in French.

Seems from answers that ‘soya’ has eroded in Canada. Modern Canadians usually use British spelling (labour not labor, though OTOH Canadian Tire not Canadian Tyre) but American 20th century-type technical terminology (elevator, trunk, gasoline rather than lift, boot, petrol etc; information age technical terminology is pretty much uniform in the English speaking world). This case is sort of in between, being a spelling difference in basically the same word, but which makes an actual difference in the sound.

[Leaffan]

There are requirements in Canada for bilingual labeling on foods: French and English, obviously.
Yes, we do use a hybrid US/British spelling. Spell checkers get confused.
For me, personally, I was born in the UK and have always said “soya sauce,” yet I say “soy beans.”
Beats me, it’s just what I say.

ETA: So my bottle says:

Sauce
Soya
Sauce

to satisfy the bilingual requirement. It’s kind dumb, I know.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

Soy. But I prefer teriyaki (or duck sauce on eggrolls).

[RioRico]

Soy, unless it’s Tamari.

[SciFiSam]

@Springtime_for_Spacers

British. I remember calling it soya sauce around forty years ago when I first started using it but it’s been soy sauce for a long while now - not least because that’s what it says on the bottles.

It’s less than forty years ago that I first started using it, in England, but I do remember it being interchangeably called soya sauce and soy sauce and people not knowing which was right. Not sure when the term soya sauce died out, but it did exist, probably for a very brief period. I wouldn’t be shocked to hear someone say soya sauce, especially if they were over 60 and also didn’t use it much. It might be a class thing too.

[lingyi]

To those who say or hear soya. Is it used for all forms? Soya beans, milk, powder, etc?

[SciFiSam]

@lingyi

To those who say or hear soya. Is it used for all forms? Soya beans, milk, powder, etc?

I do hear people say soya beans and soya milk (never really heard anyone reference soya anything else). Soy sauce is the exception in the UK these days. Same as a couple of other British people who posted before me.

[Acsenray]

My mom insists on saying “soya” although I’m sure she hasn’t heard or seen that usage nigh on sixty years now.

[Springtime_for_Spacers]

@SciFiSam

I do hear people say soya beans and soya milk (never really heard anyone reference soya anything else). Soy sauce is the exception in the UK these days. Same as a couple of other British people who posted before me.

I don’t think I’ve heard soy milk, it’s always soya. It seems easier to say

[Springtime_for_Spacers]

@SciFiSam

It’s less than forty years ago that I first started using it, in England, but I do remember it being interchangeably called soya sauce and soy sauce and people not knowing which was right. Not sure when the term soya sauce died out, but it did exist, probably for a very brief period. I wouldn’t be shocked to hear someone say soya sauce, especially if they were over 60 and also didn’t use it much. It might be a class thing too.

I can actually date it quite accurately as I remember going to my first Chinese supermarket in Doncaster with my ex husband and buying a huge bottle of soy(a) sauce among other goodies.

Edited because it should be ex- not first husband as I’ve only had the one

[MarvinKitFox]

“Soya bean” is the name of the bean. Unless you are american, in which case it is “soy bean”
This rule goes for Soya Bean, Soya milk, etc… Just apply your americanism or not , as relevant.

The dark tasty liquid is called “soy sauce”. If it is the chinese all-soya bean-version. It is never “soya sauce”.
If it is the Japanese version, which is made of both soya beans and wheat, it is “shoyu”
And its distant cousin, “tamari”, is a byproduct of making tofu. Which is made of soya beans.

[DigitalC]

We used soya in spanish, more specific “jugo de soya” aka soya juice.

[mixdenny]

Well, it’s down to 3% of this group that says, “soya”. This may be the most definitive poll ever taken on the SDMB.

Dennis

[Grestarian]

Since I grew up in a Japanese household (albeit, in the USA) and, since the Japanese learned the recipe from the Chinese and since my mother ran a Chinese restaurant years before I was conceived…

I say, “Sho-yu” and cringe when my wife says “Shoy-yu” and if people outside the family wonder what I’m talking about, I say, “Oh, y’know: Soy Sauce.”

–G!