Quinoa: Way More Than One Way To Pronounce It - Language Log

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From a colleague:

A question about quinoa. Linguistic, not gustatory or political-economic. How do / would you normally say it?

kee-NO-ah?  kwee-NO-ah? KEE-no-ah?  KWEE-no-ah? KEEN-wah?  KWEEN-wah? keen-WAH?  kween-WAH? (or? )

And apart from your own production of it, what pronunciations can you semi-statistically report from the mouths of others, grouped according to nationality or any other category?

Do not feel the need to argue knowledge-based reasons for or against certain pronunciations on the basis of Qechua/Spanish origin. After all, pronunciation of loanwords can be relatively autonomous of their origins (even when the origin is consciously known, which is not always the case). Some people will fall into a state of agitation over this, denouncing from the very treetops various renditions of quinoa — one pole as 'ignorant', the other as 'pretentious' .

(The word's ultimate origin, though, is evidently Peruvian Quechua kinuwa, with the stress in the middle: kee-NU-wa. No audio but the word can be seen in the online (pdf) bilingual pictoral dictionary Yachakuqkunapa Simi Qullqa – Qusqu Qullaw Qhichwa Simipi (en quechua sureño y español) (Lima: Ministerio de Educación del Perú). See also 'Stress is penultimate in most dialects of Quechua'.)

For the record, I (VHM) say kwee-NO-ah, though I know that some people will probably look askance at that pronunciation.  The "correct" pronunciation of the word is so hotly contested that I have decided not to be vexed about trying to get it "right".

See, for example:

"Why 'Keen-Wah'?" by SERIOUSB on Serious Eats (9/20/10), with plenty of comments expressing all sorts of opinions about how to pronounce it.

"Why is Quinoa Pronounced As Though It Were French?" by Melanie Cr on Take Our Word For It (1/1/15).

BTW, there is a Quechwa Wikipedia (in the Wikipedia language menu it's called "Runa Simi").  For quinoa, see here:

'Kinuwa,[1][2][3][4] Kinwa,[5][6][1] Kiwina[7] icha Kiwna[7]' […] .

 I assume these are dialectal variations. This page favors "kinwa".

November 30, 2015 @ 5:21 am · Filed by Victor Mair under Borrowing, Pronunciation

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