Why Do Americans Pronounce 'Oregano' Like That? | #shorts

A 60-second primer on why Americans pronounce 'oregano' differently to the British.

[dxjxc]

So many of these just end up being "British changed the pronunciation for no reason and American stayed consistent."

[Jamespetersenwa]

I love when people are forced to confront their biases against their will.

[derpyderp]

I love it when he basically goes... "Why are we this way?" Every once in a while xD

[unphasedmultimedia]

As an American who took seven years of Spanish in public school, there was one rule that helped with phonetics above the others: if the word doesn't have an accent mark, the accent is on the second-to-last vowel. In Spanish, oregano is spelled "orégano, " so the stress is now on the accented vowel instead of the second-to-last vowel. Unlike English, Spanish has reliable phonetics, but it helps to learn the more subtle rules.

[one_for_one]

The quintessential brittish experience is learning you mispronounce a word, and asking yourself why that is, but without ever acknowledging you're wrong.

[joedoherty]

I do this joke to myself where I pronounce words wrong by putting the stress on the wrong syllable. Apparently the British are doing that unironically with Oregano

[TJ-vhps]

“The problem is, reality dictates otherwise.” Truer words were never spoken.

[robertgronewold]

Hearing Brits pronounce Spanish words often brings pain to my heart.

[PumpkinMozie]

It’s so rare that you see a British person admit that Americans are right about something 😭😭😭 this guy really is the GOAT

[sabikikasuko]

Fun fact, English actually has a hidden tense rule in which a large portion of nouns have the tense in the second to last syllable. Tense consistency is very common across languages, for example in Spanish most words have the tense in the second to last syllable, and ALL French words are stressed in the last syllable. That's why IPA transcription of French words like /ʀɛvolusjɔ̃/ never have the stress mark, because it's redundant. English just has that default as well.

In Spanish, if a word ends in N, S or a vowel and it doesn't have an accent, it's read as stressed on the second to last syllable, so "oregano" would actually be read like the British does. However, gje Spanish word is written as "orégano", which in turn indicates it's stressed on the third to last syllable.

[awsomewe]

Soviet Womble said it the best. “We didn’t take over half the world to start speaking somebody else’s language”

[positivelysimful]

My grandparents were from Italy and the family always pronounced it stressing the second syllable. First time I heard the British pronunciation (I was actually being lectured by a British person at a grocery store lol) it sounded so weird to me. I could never get used to it.

[rhov-anion]

Because Americans lived alongside Spanish, French, Germans, Italians, etc. in melting pot cities, while the English sat on their island only reading about these strange herbs and spices from foreign lands. If you only see the word written, you tend to mispronounce it. When you hear the word spoken by a native, you learn to say it right.

A case where Americans (GASP!!!!) actually got things right!

[FredndAbn]

Hi Laurence! As a Spanish native speaker I concur. We even write it 'Orégano'. Notice the accent symbol on the 2nd syllable. I didn't knew that British people pronounced the word like that! One learn something new everyday. 😆 Is alright, I know what you mean even if you pronounce it the Brit way. I don't take offense or get worked up when ppl mispronounce Spanish words. I simply and politely correct them if I feel they will not get offended by said correction. After all, I appreciate when somebody corrects my English.

[YouHaveReachedBob]

English is my second language, and my English professor claimed that the key to speaking perfect English was to pronounce every foreign word incorrectly.

[ElizabethLopez-hxxv]

Haha I’m so glad you properly dissected this. As a Mexican-American, my instinct after seeing the title was well, Italian is a romantic language like Spanish and my Spanish pronunciation of Oregano is very similar to my English pronunciation (only diff being the first O as “oh” or “uh”). So I was gonna need iron-clad proof whatever you claim Brits say was the right way! 😂 Never even heard that pronunciation before in my life and, glad I can immediately forget it bc it’s wrong (or “weird” whatever) 😂

[AccidentalNinja]

I had a British person once teach me the "proper" way to pronounce several spices, & was so proud that he tried to have me say them for some other people.
Of course I pronounced them my usual American way when asked to demonstrate.

[TheLikenessOfNormal]

So the short answer is
Americans are actually in contact with people who speak Spanish.

[SimulatedChicken]

Bro, I love your dryness. Crispy af 😂

[abstracttechnician]

"Why do the Americans pronounce this foreign word strangely?"
"Because that's how the foreigners pronounce it."
"Well, why do you pronounce this English word strangely?"
"Because that's how you pronounced it when you introduced it to us."