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Cigar Pronunciation... a rant.

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Hey I've been known to mispronounce some things. It is painful to the ears but most people aren't aware they are mispronouncing the name so I'll correct them if they keep doing it I'll just move along.
 
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This is similar to single malts. At least with cigars and spanish, its pretty phonetic as long as you know a few rules as to pronunciation. The scotch names I often have to look up because they're pronounced so differently. I do try to use the correct pronunciation if I am indulging in the item/activity/sport etc. IMO, especially if you're a retailer, you should try to at least make an attempt to pronounce the names correctly. G1
 

stroke

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Eh... in truth, unless you speak Spanish... even you're probably saying it incorrectly and they're just saying it MORE incorrectly. You really say "moan-teh-crees-toe?" You really say "rah-moan-ay-yoan-ess?" You do them both with the "r" properly rolled? How do you pronounce "Romeo y Julieta?" I bet it's wrong...

Speaking English and then trying to sound overly authentic is just as annoying. Nobody orders a burrito at a Mexican joint and all of a sudden rolls the R. Nobody says "ro-may-oh ee hoo-lee-ett-ah," they say "ro-me-oh ee joo-lee-ett-ah," and that's close enough for everyone.

Instead of being annoyed... if it's WAY off...... I like to be gentle and say something like, "Isn't it co-ro-ho? I think I've heard it said that way in Spanish." Yes, I already know how it's pronounced because I speak Spanish... but he doesn't need to know that and I don't want to "teach" him... just help him out a little.

Just my .02 - but I bet a native Spanish speaker would roll his eyes at YOU "properly" pronouncing all these terms applied to cigars, yes?
Ya got a point there
 
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Being fluent in Spanish helps me out. That said I know plenty of people who can understand and speak Spanish but the pronunciation part just never clicked. I've also meet native Spanish speakers that can't roll their R's. As long as we come together and enjoy some nice smoke I don't sweat the small stuff. I do have to chuckle at some pronunciations though. More good for a laugh than a real annoyance.
 

Zedman05

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There are some very salient points here. I too get annoyed with people in the know that don't even try/blatantly don't care. I am one of those people who decided a long timeago that if I wanted to speak another persons language, or at least understand a bit of it, the least I could do was to understand the most basic phonetic properties and not make myself sound like some douchebag gringo. I DO NOT speak spanish, but since getting into cigars have learned a lot of little tricks. These small tips have helped me with most pronunciation, and I will try to use the correct terminology as much as I know. As a leighman, I figure it is something that we all could learn and be excused from, but as an "authority", you should be introducing your products/ideas in the correct manner.

I have made a lot of mistakes the first time around until someone corrected me, and that was great, I just hope that others are helpful in being patient and respectful of uneducated ignorance. I mean really...did anyone get Tatuaje's name right off the bat? Or was everyone like me and just ended up putting two and two together and *smack on the forehead* ohhhh I see ;P
Great question/rant brother!
 
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I have the "benefit" of not knowing any other cigar smokers around here, so I rarely ever hear any cigar names pronounced, just see them in writing. I did however, meet a tobacconist who pronounced Oliva as "olive-uh" and had to ask around to make sure I wasn't the one pronouncing it wrong.
 

nubchin

cigar dreamin 24h
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Since I live in "Sandy Eggo" and not "Sahn Diego," I'm not that picky either... just as long as we aren't saying things like "ANN-jeh-o" or "Cry-O-lo" when it ought to be "Ahn-YAY-ho" and "Cree-OH-yo."

For example, how do y'all say Pepin? PEP-in or peh-PEEN? I don't care either way because we all know who we are talking about. We can chalk up the difference to regional dialects just as much as we could call it ignorance.

Guahahahahahaha damn!!! :stretchgr

You killed me with that ANN-JEY-HOE!

I've noticed that some non-US smokers starting to pronounce Maduro as Ma-Dyuu-Ro were it should be Ma-Doo-Ro .
Spanish words converted to American English distributed to the world could cause some :lookaroun
 
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I am one of those people who decided a long timeago that if I wanted to speak another persons language, or at least understand a bit of it, the least I could do was to understand the most basic phonetic properties and not make myself sound like some douchebag gringo. I DO NOT speak spanish, but since getting into cigars have learned a lot of little tricks. These small tips have helped me with most pronunciation, and I will try to use the correct terminology as much as I know. As a leighman, I figure it is something that we all could learn and be excused from, but as an "authority", you should be introducing your products/ideas in the correct manner.
So since so many get upset at non spanish speaking people getting Spanish word pronunciation incorrect yet haven't mastered their own English language. Example: Leighman is not correct, it's Layman. :gangfire:
 

stroke

Brian
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So since so many get upset at non spanish speaking people getting Spanish word pronunciation incorrect yet haven't mastered their own English language. Example: Leighman is not correct, it's Layman. :gangfire:
Poor argument, both would be pronounced the same! We're not discussing grammar, we're discussing pronunciation :stickbeat
 
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Zedman05

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Poor argument, both would be pronounced the same! We're not discussing grammar, we discussing pronunciation :stickbeat
Thanks. And I have seen it spelled both ways....so what you are saying by attacking my spelling is that you don't agree with my post ? I thought we were talking about authoritative figures not even attempting to pronounce words correctly. WOW
 
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It bothers me only when my friends mispronounce it. They know better and I know they know better. I am that way about a lot of things though. When I go to a cultural resteraunt I always try to eat my food the way they do. I am amazing with chopsticks now.

However I once had a guy come in to my store and ask me for an "anaconda" he was referring to "Macanudo" it was hard not to laugh.
 
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So since so many get upset at non spanish speaking people getting Spanish word pronunciation incorrect yet haven't mastered their own English language. Example: Leighman is not correct, it's Layman. :gangfire:
Z-man is from Canada... who are we to say it isn't spelled that way up there? :headroll:
 

stroke

Brian
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Since we're all of a sudden members of the Grammar Police, allow me to help you out:

Firstly, your sentence structure is completely incorrect. "So since," and then go into "yet haven't," all within the same sentence structure? That's definitely a ticket from the Grammar Police.

Your sentence is also a run-on without any proper punctuation. Strike two.

You didn't capitalize the word "Spanish." We might have to take you to jail.

"Non" is not a word at all. You could have added hyphens to make it work, but you failed at grammar again. We're past jail and looking at Grammar Prison at this point.

You put two spaces after the word "example," which is also incorrect.

Your last sentence should have either been split into two separate thoughts or joined by a semicolon. Again, you broke grammatical rules.

I just love when people correct others, on things like grammar, as if meaning was lost because syntax was improper... esepecially when they fail as miserably as you just did. <-- Yes, you will note my improper use of ellipses there; my apologies in advance. :bouncetau
:hysterica
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I'll politely correct somebody cause we're all equally guilty of incorrectly pronouncing a cigar, a wine, a scotch or company before. I only begin to slap my head and/or grit my teeth when somebody knows the correct pronunciation and still spew out the wrong way.

But quite honestly, like I tell guests of ours that massacre wine varietals, so long as you know what you want, I know what you want (or in this case, your B&M), and you enjoy it... Call it whatever the hell you want. It's your money and your good time.
 

twenty5

BoM 11/09, 4/10 BoY '10
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While smoking a Tattoojey the other day on my patio, I thought about this and laughed at the people that screw up the names. Some people just aren't as so fisticated as the rest of us.
 
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