The things you learn: Cornish pasties

[pne]

I'd always been pronouncing them "pace-teas" in my head, like the pasties you stick over a nipple (or, more to the point, with the same vowel I have in "pastries"), but apparently, they're pronounced with a "short a" (as in "cat") in the first syllable. (I'd have written "pass-teas", but that would imply a "broad A" in my 'lect, as in "palm".)

Also relatedly, I'd pronounced pâté "PAT-ay", but apparently it's supposed to be "pa-TAY" or "pah-TAY". Ooh, all French and dignified.

Comments

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I think the pâté thing might be more Brit/Am variation, cf. garage. French has no word stress, of course, so either choice is equally arbitrary. At least with final stress, the /t/ is not subject to flapping (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flapping), which produces a better result overall from an AmEng speaker. (This is also a case where American /ɑ/ is a better fit than British /æ/, because historically the first vowel was [ɑ] and not [a] in French; most contemporary speakers no longer make the distinction between pâté and patté "pawed".)

I assume you got the proper pasty pronunciation from Language Log. They're a local delicacy in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, so quite a few Upper Midwesterners know to distinguish pasty from pastie.

[pne.livejournal.com]

I assume you got the proper pasty pronunciation from Language Log.

Yes, and confirmed on dictionary.com.

[polarbee.livejournal.com]

Oh I love pasties so much. I miss them dearly.

[pne.livejournal.com]

I miss them dearly.

Where'd you come across them?

[polarbee.livejournal.com]

My mother's family hales from Cornwall originally. It was one of the recipes kept and handed down.
I was surprised to find a Pasty Shop at the Alaska state fair a few years back. Not as good as Mom's, but still...
Couldn't get my husband to try more than one bite. He said he'd rather stick with empanadas which he says "are like pasties with taste."

(I apologize for any misspellings. It is very late, I'm very tired, and I have no spellcheck. Any moment now my daughter will run out of steam.)

[sinisteragent.livejournal.com]

I used to sell pasties in Canterbury. Most Americans make the same mistake, but I can see why. They seem to be terrified of buying any english food as well, even if it has an obvious name, just in case it's one of those weird things we have a ridiculous esoteric name for. Bless 'em.

They can be tasty wee things, pasties, but they can be pretty bland and stodgy as well. Mutton ones are surprisingly good.