For those who don’t know there is a song
You say tah-may-toe
I say tah-mah-toe
You say pah-tay-toe
I say pah-tah-toe
And ends…“Let’s call the whole thing off.”
Now I’ve lived a long time and I’ve never heard anyone say “Pah-Tah-Toe.”
So my question is in the history of the world has ANYONE ever said “Pah-Tah-Toe,” I mean other than when they sing that song.
Well, I certainly never say it, nor have I ever heard it pronounced that way by anybody.
Has ANYONE EVER said “Pah-Tah-Toe”? Almost certainly. Has it ever been considered a standard pronunciation?* No. It’s what’s called “a joke.”
ETA: *in modern English, as defined by recognized authorities on standard pronunciation.
What’s tah-ters, precious?
I’ve wondered the same thing. I’ve lived in many places & heard many different accents, but I’ve never heard anyone call it a po-tah-toe.
I think it’s just a joke by analogy to “tomayto, tomahto,” both of which do in fact exist.
I’ve always thought that it was a send up of an affected northeast country club sort of speech pattern. You know, like the Howells on Gilligan’s Island.
How did Julia Child pronounce it?
Dan Quayle?
My wife does, in fact, pronounce “vanilla” vanahlla. It makes me laugh just about every time she says the word, which then pisses her off. If there’s baking going on in our house, you can pretty much bet I’m not getting laid that night.
–Cliffy
Heh.
Someone I work with is constantly talking about sonnometers. It took weeks for me to figure out that she was talking about a unit of measurement.
I can laugh at her all I want for it, because you can pretty much bet that I wouldn’t lay her even if you put a gun to my head.
I had to bump up this thread
On the Simpsons tonight (January 31, 2010), Marge and Homer are singing the song “Let’s Call The Whole Thing Off,” and after they’re done Bart says: “Who the hell says ‘pah-tah-toe’”?
I guess the writers of the Simpsons read these forums
You say celli, I say cellos
Cellos, cellos
I don’t know why you say celli , I say cellos
Actually (possibly inspired by this thread), I mentioned this to my dad recently, and he said that when he was a boy (20 years after the song was written), it was an occasionally heard upper class pronunciation.
–Cliffy
Does anyone say ersters instead of oysters?
I occasionally pronounce it “Pah-Tah-Toe,” if I am not consciously thinking about what I am saying. I have to remember that there are certain words that sound funny if the long “a” is not used. At least people understand when I say “Pah-Tah-Toe,” it is when I talk about those big cyclones called “Tor-Nah-Does” where they start to look confused.
That seems to be the standard pronunciation among medical personnel.
Christopher Walken (IIRC) once did a funny rendition of the song on SNL, where he sang both words the same way: “You say tomay-to and I say tomay-to, you say potay-to and I say potay-to”, etc. and didn’t quite understand when people tried to explain the “correct” pronunciation.