You say potayto, and I say potahto . . .

[mbarker]

Amusing. My wife, Mitsuko, taped a show about Hawaii the other day, and was watching it at lunchtime. I happened to ask, "Would you like a ukulele?" (pronouncing it the way I had learned - you-kih-lay-lee). She looked very puzzled, then said, "Oh, you mean a ukurere?" (oo-koo-ray-ray, with that wonderful soft r). The English dictionaries indicate that "you-kah-lay-lee" (I was close -- bet that was Dad's Ohio accent that turned the kah into ki) is the right pronounciation, but now we both wonder what the original Hawaiian was?

Fun - a word that both languages have borrowed, but not quite the same way.

Comments

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

And I just looked to see what the original Portuguese might be -- and the current Portuguese term translates as "Hawaiian guitar."