Saturday, June 21, 2008

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You say to-MAY-to, I say to-MAH-to

A timely note on pronunciation:

Salmon, the fish, is said with a silent “l”.

In Salmonella, the bacteria genus, the first “l” is pronounced (well, so are the others, but you know what I mean).

Thank you.

And as to the title of this post, say “tomato” any way you like. But grow your own. They are très yummy, and you won’t get sick.

4 comments:

Thomas J. Brown said...

Bang on, as usual.

Although, pronouncing salmon as "sal-mons" makes me smile. -)

Laurie said...

Salmon may have a silent "l" but the family Salmonidae doesn't...

I actually pronounce tomato both ways depending on whether I'm talking to my British parents or an American. Oh, and we grow our own - usually heirloom varieties :-)

Barry Leiba said...

I do wonder why we pronounce "salmon" as we do, given the Latin name, and given that, say, the French do pronounce the "l" also.

But my complaint was about many in the news media who use a silent "l" in "Salmonella", which I've been hearing a lot lately because of the Tomahto thing.

ClumberKim said...

A topic near and dear (tomatoes, not salmonella!). Like Laurie, I find myself using both pronunciations even in my own house, thanks to a British husband. Our son insists on calling ketchup "Mah-toe". That's going to be a tough one here in the land of Heinz. And yes, we grow our own too.