This was brought on by this week’s AFC wild card games, and that means we’ll be hearing it a lot more over the next week. Mike Ditka is especially bad about it.
Does ANYONE pronounce it “jag-wire”? I’ve never heard that.
Everyone I know pronounces it “JAG-wahr”. Some commercials have a British-accented voice soundng out all the vowels – “JAG-you-are”, which sounds pretentious and false to my ears.
I probably say “jag-wire” too…yup. Just said it out loud and I certainly do. But I’d feel like a bit of a ponce if I said it like the announcer in the car adverts and said “Jag-u-wahr”. Midwest accents aren’t pretty.
You bad-mouthin’ the way Baltimorons talk, hon? I grew up in Gardenville, where everyone pronounced Jaguar the way you describe, and tires were always “tarrs”. Well, except in my house.
I watched a documentary about the Cold War two nights ago with a very well-spoken Northern Irish woman doing the voice-over, who repeatedly referred to “nuc-u-lar” escalation. GWB, I take it all back - you only do it occasionally; this woman did it about twice a minute
Me, I pronounce it “JAG-you-[schwa]”, but I appreciate that though correct in my accent, this is a bit odd.
Good one. Actually, we had a bus tire in the back yard which we used as a sand box. On the pronunciation thing, my parents struggled mightily to quash the most egregious elements of the Baltimore accent, but we all said “wooder”. I eventually overcame even that.
Yup. I say “jag-wahr”, but I had a lit professor in college who said “jag-wire”. I don’t know where he was from, but in spite of his really impressive erudition, that always made him sound like a yokel to me. I can’t recall why that came up in a lit class, but I still remember it very clearly.
Yeah, that’s how I’ve always pronounced it and I’m from Gainesville. (and my dad had an old “jag-wire” so I grew up saying it) It just sounds Southern to me.
I also live in Baltimore where it is pronounced Jag-Wire by everyone except for me since I’m not from around these parts. In Baltimore, I’m from Yerp.
More fine Baltimorese: Earl (oil), Tarrs (tires), Zinc (sink), chimley (chimney)and the favorite…‘Downy Owshun’ as in ‘This summer, we’re going downy owshun hon’ as in we’re going to the beach.
Eh, you can get still get annoyed by it. My personal pet peeve: pronouncing “picture” as “pitcher” which is the common pronunciation in these parts. Still grates every single time and my friends are so tired of me bitching they now say “piKKK-ture” with a deep, throaty Greek growl.
I live near Washington state. Actually, BC is so close to Washington state that it touches it for some miles. I love those Washingtonians who say they live in Warshington. They have idears. I have idears too. My idear is: where does that “r” come from?
BTW, some of my kin say “chimley”, too. So even in the nicest families.
