# Spanish or "American" pronunciation in restaurants? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 1, 2005, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-or-american-pronunciation-in-restaurants/287857 "2005-02-01T21:36:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-or-american-pronunciation-in-restaurants/287857/41 "2005-02-03T15:15:53Z")
I’d use a Mexican accent in a Mexican restaurant. Living in Texas & eating out a lot, only an idiot would not pick up a bit of the language. And I’ve done some formal study as well. The Spanish accent is not used in Latin America. In “Castilian” Spanish, for example, “s” is a soft “th” (as in “thin”) & “z” is a hard “th” (as in “the”). I ordered churrascos at a nice Latin American (not “Mexican”) restaurant & requested the sherry sauce–that’s “jerez”–inadvertantly giving it the “Spanish” pronunciation. The waiter gave me a glance meaning “give me a break.” To Latin American ears, that accent sounds like the “Oxbridge” accent sounds to Americans. (Actually, we’re all Americans in the Western Hemisphere.) Use the best pronunciation you can manage–the waitstaff will not be insulted. Ignorance is uncool. ---
**Author:** ![brad\_d](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@brad\_d](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brad_d)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-or-american-pronunciation-in-restaurants/287857/42 "2005-02-03T17:20:57Z")
I draw a distinction between an _American accent_ and _anglicized pronunciation_. There seems to be a split in this thread - some do and some don’t. To borrow the example provided by **Bad News Baboon** (Guadalupe):[ul][li]_Wa-da-lu-peh_ - Spanish/Mexican/whatever accent & pronunciation[_]Goo-wah-da-loop - anglicized pronunciation (application of English rules to Spanish spelling)[_]_Gwad-a-loo-pay_ - Spanish pronunciation, American accent[/ul]When ordering “Guadalupe tacos” (to just make up a convenient example), I do think it would be kind of odd to insert _Wa-da-lu-peh_ in the middle of an English sentence. It seems to me akin to an Englishman eating at a restaurant in London, ordering a “Fort Worth pepper steak” (again, I’m making up a dish) and affecting an American accent when saying “Fort Worth.” _Gwad-a-loo-pay_, to me, seems more appropriate in that context.[/li] Ignorance is uncool, but so is pretentiousness. The region in between can be pretty tough to define sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![Merkwurdigliebe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/74df32/32.png) [@Merkwurdigliebe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merkwurdigliebe)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-or-american-pronunciation-in-restaurants/287857/43 "2005-02-03T18:23:55Z")
Okay Guadaloop is where I draw the line. That is ridiculous. Honestly, it reminds me of the time Zap Brannigan from Futurama calls Guacamole… Guacamol. But anyways, Bridget, I am not going to use a Castilian accent in a Mexican Restaurant. Its just stupid, I’ll either try to make it sound Mexican or American. I am exactly trying to avoid those “give me a break” type looks. Most people find it really easy to sense the pleasure someone gets from speaking another language, and its hard not to show it right when it comes in handy? But then a lot of people will think you are being pretentious. When I say the name of the places where I’ve been in Spain, I don’t use a Spanish accent. Why? I think its inappropriate. I am speaking English, and there are English ways of saying things. I don’t really like to mix languages, you know, and even when I do, I always align it with the accent of the language that I’m speaking. I say Bush with a Spanish accent when speaking Spanish and with an American accent when speaking English. I feel that it suits me the best ---
**Author:** ![Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_News_Baboon)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-or-american-pronunciation-in-restaurants/287857/44 "2005-02-03T20:25:07Z")
I didn’t think about it when I posted, but I wanted to clarify that when I spoke of Spanish Accents, I was referring to the language and not the country. To be more precise, I should have said Mexican accents. To order Mexican food in a Castillian accent would just be wrong! Unath enchiladath ethepecialeth (I assume is how it would sound instead of unas enchiladas especiales) I agree with Brad\_d about context. To me it is all or nothing. If I order in English then I use American accents. If I order in Spanish, I’ll say the words correctly. I find that mixing the two often confuses the person taking the order. It seems that whenever I have mixed the two, the waiter will say, “could you please repeat that?”. ---
**Author:** ![Motorgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-or-american-pronunciation-in-restaurants/287857/45 "2005-02-03T22:32:39Z")
> [@Trunk](#): > > I don’t think that “crack” fully came together. > > I just meant that at “Olive Garden”, telling them it’s Broo-ketta is going to be completely lost on them because of how ingrained it is. > > And because, some waitress there couldn’t possibly give a shit as to the “correct” way of saying it. It wasn’t the Olive Garden or any other Italian-esque chain. And ya gotta put an “s” in it. For me, and my Roman prof, Brus-chetta = broo-sketta I agree with you that anything pronounced brooshetta oughta be spelled bruscietta. But I’m a snob in all the wrong ways. 😃 And to clarify, I wasn’t arguing with the waitress so much as just resisting her attempts to “fix” my pronunciation. It’s not like after the first time she said “Brooshetta” I responded with: “It’s pronounced broosketta, you ignoramus.” ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2005, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-or-american-pronunciation-in-restaurants/287857/46 "2005-02-03T22:49:36Z")
> [@LifeOnWry](#): > > …I had a friend who mocked me for saying “mohv” (mauve). When I told her the word was French and that is how it is pronounced, she said, “Yeah, well, I’m not French, I’m an AMERICAN so I’ll pronounce it the AMERICAN way!” So the next time we were out at a restaurant together I told the waiter she wanted the FILL-ett MIG-non. So how do you pronounce “Illinois?” Or “turquois?” Inquiring minds want to know. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![sjc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e5b9ba/32.png) [@sjc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sjc)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2005, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-or-american-pronunciation-in-restaurants/287857/47 "2005-02-04T01:41:27Z")
> [@Motorgirl](#): > > Reminds me of the time that a waitress & I got into a minor pissing match over the pronunciation of Bruschetta. > > When I ordered I pronounced it Broosketta. > > She smirked and said: “The brooshetta?” > > me: “Yes, the broosketta.” > > she: “You mean the brooshetta.” > > me: “Right, the broosketta.” > > she: “It’s pronounced brooshetta.” > > me: “You might want to ask the Italians about that.” > > She snorted derisively & moved on to taking another person’s order. I’m no expert, but I did take Italian in college (and paid attention). What I can say is that the standard way of pronouncing _bruschetta_ must be: “broo-ske-tta”. the ‘h’ in front of the ‘sc’ keeps it from being pronounced like “sh” in English. Having said that, there is of course a fair amount of regional variation. Sicilian dialect is quite different. I don’t know what those differences are, but they might include pronouncing the “-sche-” of standard Italian as “sheh”. [goes off to look up stuff on the Sicilian dialect] OK, I’ve looked up the Sicilian dilaect online and I have found that _bruschetta_ should be pronounced like the standard Italian, probably. This is based on the descriptions here: [http://home.att.net/~ilsiciliano/images/course\_of\_sicilian\_language.htm](http://home.att.net/~ilsiciliano/images/course_of_sicilian_language.htm). Of course, this partticular description of Sicilian doesn’t describe _all_ the variations found on the island, so maybe you could hear “brooshetta” on Sicily. As to the OP, I think it is fine ot do it either way. It really depends on the conventions of where you are ordering. If it feels too odd to try to pronounce the words right, just use an American accent. But I think one ought to _try_ if one can. ---
**Author:** ![lel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8797f3/32.png) [@lel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lel)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2005, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-or-american-pronunciation-in-restaurants/287857/48 "2005-02-04T05:10:11Z")
> [@Bad News Baboon](#): > > I find that mixing the two often confuses the person taking the order. It seems that whenever I have mixed the two, the waiter will say, “could you please repeat that?”. That’s my worst habit – I tend to mix the two up half the time and end up with some hodgepodge. I’ll realize I’m pronouncing something in Spanish and then worry that I’m being pretentious (even with my thick accent and random tendency to forget words – did I mention my lack of fluency too?), so I’ll switch back to Americanizing things. ---
**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:** [February 4, 2005, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-or-american-pronunciation-in-restaurants/287857/49 "2005-02-04T05:42:13Z")
FWIW, [in this article](http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/archive/2003/July/30/style/stories/02style.htm), the author makes it a point to emphasize the pronunciation of broo-SKET-uh in the restaurant La Bruschetta, and interviews the Sicilian owners of the restaurant in the article. I would have to assume that the Sicilian owners also used that pronunciation. FWIW, I’ve never heard anything but the hard “k” pronunciation as being correct, but there may be regional variations I don’t know about. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2005, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-or-american-pronunciation-in-restaurants/287857/50 "2005-02-04T09:52:11Z")
> [@Merkwurdigliebe](#): > > I don’t really like to mix languages, you know Lots of Spanglish is spoken here in Texas. It is not considered “pretentious” but does anger purists from both sides of the river. _¡Qué lástima!_ ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2005, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-or-american-pronunciation-in-restaurants/287857/51 "2005-02-04T16:28:06Z")
They can’t be too fussy about Spanish philology: if they were, it would probably have been _enchiladas mexican **a** s._ As for Italian, I’m forever ordering “a biscotto” in coffee shops. Nobody seems to have twigged yet. _Un biscotto, due biscotti._ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-or-american-pronunciation-in-restaurants/287857.md?page=2)