Your pronunciation of niche
Replies: 71 - Last Post: Feb 24, 2013 8:00 AM Last Post By: misterbee
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15
But what if you like the way your aunt smells? And what if she wears Niche? And what if you can't afford Niche so you can never reach your goal of smelling like you aunt? I loved whatever it was that my grandmother used to use but she wasn't the kind of person with whom you discussed her scent and she was rolling in money so I'm sure I could never afford it anyway. (Not to change the subject but it just had to be said. :) )19
I read the word as neesh, but I pronounce it as nitch.The mentions of perfume and of English speakers pronouncing French reminded me that Dior came out with a scent called Poison some years ago. A friend said she liked the scent, which she pronounced pwah-SAW. "No," I said, that's not poison; that's fish." (Poison = poison, poisson = fish.)
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My husband had the worst time saying poisson when we were in Morocco. I had to order all the fish dishes we ate. Although his first try did entertain the waiter a lot.24
This morning I heard two people on the radio discussion a press release put out by the St. Tropez company (they make tanning products.)Man: This was from the Saint Tro Pez company.
Woman: [pause] It's Sahn Tro Pay. (which is how most Americans would pronounce it.)
Man: Really?
Nutrax
The plural of anecdote is not data.
25
Usher73: I wore made-to-measure suits from 1968, when I had the first two made, until recently. They were called custom-made, and bespoke was indeed considered a British term. Now I see it in lots of U.S. publications. It sounds phony to me when an American uses it.26
I think the gradual adoption of a French-ified pronunciation of niche probably has to do with the spelling. For a word that was adopted into English about 400 years ago, it's odd that the spelling wasn't regularized to "nich" or "nitch," as you'd have expected. So now, by analogy with other French-derived words ending in -iche (e.g. quiche, noveau riche, corniche, pastiche) it's reverting to a quasi-French pronunciation.Like some of the other posters, I suspect I've been slipping back and forth between pronunciations depending on context, with "nich" for the physical recess and "neesh" for a metaphorical one. I suppose I should strive to be consistent...but it's clear from this thread that whichever pronunciation one adopts one risks being thought either pretentious or uncultured.
28
Apropos of this, from Separated by a Common Language, the blog of an American linguist who lives in England. filet, fillet and the pronunciation of other French borrowings.She says, of niche (formatting is hers, except for some odd spaces around hyphens, which were forced by TT's formatting issues. Set off with lines so I can maintain formatting):
According to the OED, preferences for the pronunciation of niche are reversed in BrE and AmE, with rhymes-with -itch dominating in AmE and rhymes-with -leash dominating in BrE. Myself, I've always pronounced it to rhyme with leash wherever I've been--but the pronunciation was only 'Frenchified' in English during the 20th century. So, nitch- sayers can consider themselves to be a certain kind of authentic, and niche- sayers can consider themselves to be another kind of authentic.
The comments are interesting.
I did some looking around, not at dictionaries, but at forum discussions. Where geography could be determined, it appears that generally, Americans are of the nitch persuasion, and generally, UK & Continental Europeans are neeshers. I didn't find much in the way of Antipodean or Indian posters, so don't have any info for them.
I rather liked this from one thread, where they were punning on possible pronunciations.
Silly people! It is pronounced nietzsche. :)
But of course. And these? -? -? are question marx.
Nutrax
The plural of anecdote is not data.
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