On Wikipedia it is said there is a difference of pronunciation for 'oregano' in American English and UK English.
i looked up the difference of pronunciation of these two words. American English put the tense of the second syllable (RE), and the UK English put it on the third (GA).
History: English language used to say the French/Latin word "origan(um)" from the 13th century. In the latin word, the tense is on RI: oRIgan. So I guess the English would say "oRIgan", but it seems some people now say "Origan". (Why is that?)
Alas, according to etymonline, around 1771 (why?), the English decided to use the Spanish word orégano, and please note the Spanish word has got a tense of the RE: oRÉgano.
You may hear oregano in multiples languages (including American/British/Irish accents) on Forvo.
When I try to understand why the shift of tense happened, I come with those weak explanations:
* sometimes the American English kept older ways of pronouncing words. (Shakespeare pronounced every "r" letter, for instance.)
* sometimes the British try to mimic the French, and they put the tense at the end
* sometimes the American English use a foreign pronunciation (here Italian/Spanish) because there are many actual Italian and Spanish people in the US.
... but i don't even know whether the shift happend in British English or in American English. (Though, the evidence i gathered points at a shift from oREgano to oreGAno.)
Can someone help me with these crucial questions?
* Who changed his mind? The English speaking crowd from the UK or from the US?
* Why the change from origan to oregano?
* Who will win?
* How come some people say Origan now?
(...)
i looked up the difference of pronunciation of these two words. American English put the tense of the second syllable (RE), and the UK English put it on the third (GA).
History: English language used to say the French/Latin word "origan(um)" from the 13th century. In the latin word, the tense is on RI: oRIgan. So I guess the English would say "oRIgan", but it seems some people now say "Origan". (Why is that?)
Alas, according to etymonline, around 1771 (why?), the English decided to use the Spanish word orégano, and please note the Spanish word has got a tense of the RE: oRÉgano.
You may hear oregano in multiples languages (including American/British/Irish accents) on Forvo.
When I try to understand why the shift of tense happened, I come with those weak explanations:
* sometimes the American English kept older ways of pronouncing words. (Shakespeare pronounced every "r" letter, for instance.)
* sometimes the British try to mimic the French, and they put the tense at the end
* sometimes the American English use a foreign pronunciation (here Italian/Spanish) because there are many actual Italian and Spanish people in the US.
... but i don't even know whether the shift happend in British English or in American English. (Though, the evidence i gathered points at a shift from oREgano to oreGAno.)
Can someone help me with these crucial questions?
* Who changed his mind? The English speaking crowd from the UK or from the US?
* Why the change from origan to oregano?
* Who will win?
* How come some people say Origan now?
(...)
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