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> Fauxghee sounds like "fogey" which refers to an older person It actually doesn't, at least the way "ghee" is pronounced in the native languages where the wor

> Fauxghee sounds like "fogey" which refers to an older person It actually doesn't, at least the way "ghee" is pronounced in the native languages where the word originates from. English doesn't quite have the strongly voiced "g" sound, so western people pronounce it incorrectly as "gee".

adolph 3y ago
Is the G sound like goat (only more breathy) or like George? I’ve only heard it like “goat” in Texas.
- alex_smart 3y ago
  It is like goat but more voiced, with a hint of h. In Indian languages there are four different g-like sounds (two that are somewhat like g as in goat and two that somewhat like g as in George).
- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 3y ago
  https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ghee https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ghee That has an audio recording of someone pronouncing it. Sounds like it’s the former per your example.
  - alex_smart 3y ago
    That pronunciation is incorrect.
    - tuukkah 3y ago
      Correct as an English word, incorrect as a Hindi etc. word, right? When a language borrows a foreign word, it doesn't bring any new sounds (or letters) with it but adapts the word to the language instead.
lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 3y ago
I’m not sure which it’s supposed to be, per this reading. Is it similar to the “g” as used in “great” or as in “refrigerator” or as in “cough” (or a different sound which I didn’t think of)? This particular American read it initially as in “great”, for what it’s worth. From other comments it sounds like that’s intended if it’s supposed to sound like “fogey”.
- q7xvh97o2pDhNrh 3y ago
  That's just it — it's none of those! Off the top of my head, the only American English sound I can think of that'd come close would be the Americanized pronunciation of "Ghent," as demonstrated in this random YouTube video I found: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meuBUq3K3XY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meuBUq3K3XY So take the "Gh" sound from "Ghent" in that video, and then tack on a long e — and there's your ghee.
  - lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 3y ago
    So I believe you. But I also don't hear any sound that's different from what I'd use to say "get". It reminds me of people who say "melk" instead of "milk" and can't hear the difference. Thanks for the examples.
dgoodell 3y ago
I just looked up a youtube video of the pronunciation in Hindi and g is pronounced basically the same way as I say it in northeast Ohio, which is generally pretty close to standard American english. Then I looked up the ipa standard pronunciations for both from wiktionary: enPR: gē, IPA(key): /ɡiː/ (South Asia) IPA(key): [ɡʱiː] Perhaps it’s just you?
- tuukkah 3y ago
  The difference is right there in those IPA renderings. The superscript h means the g should be aspirated (like the k typically is in 'key' in English; also 'spin' vs 'pin'). See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirated_consonant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirated_consonant You might not hear the difference as the English language does not assign meaning to that difference. But if I pronounce 'key' or 'pin' without aspiration, you may feel that I speak with an accent or even mishear it as 'bin': > Pronouncing them as unaspirated in these positions, as is done by many Indian English speakers, may make them get confused with the corresponding voiced stop by other English-speakers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirated_consonant#Allophonic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirated_consonant#Allophonic
  - spqr42 3y ago
    spin, bin, and pin rhyme to me an a native English speaker. Are you sure westerners say ghee “wrong” and not just with a different accent?
    - tuukkah 3y ago
      This has nothing to do with those words rhyming: your examples rhyme because they all end with -in, but we are concerned with the sound in front of that. Also, the point in this subthread is not how you should pronounce the word in English. The point is that English speakers (or most other people in the world for that matter) cannot pronounce the word the way it's pronounced in the regions where ghee and its name is originally from. Trying to sum it up: different languages have different sounds and you may not be able to hear and/or pronounce the differences. Your sibling comment mentions the English lice-rice distinction which is difficult to some Japanese/Chinese natives. Is saying 'lice' when you mean 'rice' just a different accent? Going further, people don't observe these details of how they speak their own language and thus cannot reflect or explain to others. Quoting Wikipedia again: > Native speakers of a given language perceive one phoneme in the language as a single distinctive sound and are "both unaware of and even shocked by" the allophone variations that are used to pronounce single phonemes. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allophone https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allophone
canjobear 3y ago
It’s pronounced /gi/ in English. Pronunciation in other languages is irrelevant.
- alex_smart 3y ago
  It is not pronounced /gi/ in English by people from India.
deleted 3y ago
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adolph 3y ago

Is the G sound like goat (only more breathy) or like George? I’ve only heard it like “goat” in Texas.

alex_smart 3y ago
It is like goat but more voiced, with a hint of h. In Indian languages there are four different g-like sounds (two that are somewhat like g as in goat and two that somewhat like g as in George).
lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 3y ago
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ghee https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ghee That has an audio recording of someone pronouncing it. Sounds like it’s the former per your example.
- alex_smart 3y ago
  That pronunciation is incorrect.
  - tuukkah 3y ago
    Correct as an English word, incorrect as a Hindi etc. word, right? When a language borrows a foreign word, it doesn't bring any new sounds (or letters) with it but adapts the word to the language instead.

lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 3y ago

I’m not sure which it’s supposed to be, per this reading. Is it similar to the “g” as used in “great” or as in “refrigerator” or as in “cough” (or a different sound which I didn’t think of)? This particular American read it initially as in “great”, for what it’s worth. From other comments it sounds like that’s intended if it’s supposed to sound like “fogey”.

q7xvh97o2pDhNrh 3y ago
That's just it — it's none of those! Off the top of my head, the only American English sound I can think of that'd come close would be the Americanized pronunciation of "Ghent," as demonstrated in this random YouTube video I found: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meuBUq3K3XY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meuBUq3K3XY So take the "Gh" sound from "Ghent" in that video, and then tack on a long e — and there's your ghee.
- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 3y ago
  So I believe you. But I also don't hear any sound that's different from what I'd use to say "get". It reminds me of people who say "melk" instead of "milk" and can't hear the difference. Thanks for the examples.

dgoodell 3y ago

I just looked up a youtube video of the pronunciation in Hindi and g is pronounced basically the same way as I say it in northeast Ohio, which is generally pretty close to standard American english. Then I looked up the ipa standard pronunciations for both from wiktionary: enPR: gē, IPA(key): /ɡiː/ (South Asia) IPA(key): [ɡʱiː] Perhaps it’s just you?

tuukkah 3y ago
The difference is right there in those IPA renderings. The superscript h means the g should be aspirated (like the k typically is in 'key' in English; also 'spin' vs 'pin'). See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirated_consonant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirated_consonant You might not hear the difference as the English language does not assign meaning to that difference. But if I pronounce 'key' or 'pin' without aspiration, you may feel that I speak with an accent or even mishear it as 'bin': > Pronouncing them as unaspirated in these positions, as is done by many Indian English speakers, may make them get confused with the corresponding voiced stop by other English-speakers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirated_consonant#Allophonic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirated_consonant#Allophonic
- spqr42 3y ago
  spin, bin, and pin rhyme to me an a native English speaker. Are you sure westerners say ghee “wrong” and not just with a different accent?
  - tuukkah 3y ago
    This has nothing to do with those words rhyming: your examples rhyme because they all end with -in, but we are concerned with the sound in front of that. Also, the point in this subthread is not how you should pronounce the word in English. The point is that English speakers (or most other people in the world for that matter) cannot pronounce the word the way it's pronounced in the regions where ghee and its name is originally from. Trying to sum it up: different languages have different sounds and you may not be able to hear and/or pronounce the differences. Your sibling comment mentions the English lice-rice distinction which is difficult to some Japanese/Chinese natives. Is saying 'lice' when you mean 'rice' just a different accent? Going further, people don't observe these details of how they speak their own language and thus cannot reflect or explain to others. Quoting Wikipedia again: > Native speakers of a given language perceive one phoneme in the language as a single distinctive sound and are "both unaware of and even shocked by" the allophone variations that are used to pronounce single phonemes. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allophone https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allophone

canjobear 3y ago

It’s pronounced /gi/ in English. Pronunciation in other languages is irrelevant.

alex_smart 3y ago
It is not pronounced /gi/ in English by people from India.

deleted 3y ago

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