I’m English and confused. Is jalapeno spoken with the sound ‘jal’ or ‘hal’? ‘Hal’ is how Spanish people pronounce it, but I’m English. If the answer’s ‘hal’, do I say I’m going to ‘Paree’ instead of Paris? Do we pronounce differently based on a Person’s name, Country/City or food?
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I reckon When is it appropriate to use the original pronunciation of a foreign word versus the English pronunciation? answers this question. – Andrew Leach May 01 '14 at 09:06
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1‘Jalapeño’ does have an established English pronunciation: [ˌhɑləˈpeɪnjoʊ] ha-luh-pain-yo. Pronouncing it with a [ʤ] sound would not be an ‘English’ pronunciation, but a spelling pronunciation, akin to pronouncing Worcestershire sauce as [ˈwɒ(ɹ)ˌsɛstə(ɹ)ˌʃaɪə(ɹ)] war-sester-shai-er sauce, rather than [ˈwʊstə(ɹ)ʃə(ɹ)] wooster-sher sauce. – Janus Bahs Jacquet May 01 '14 at 09:23
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1The pronunciation of every single word is figured out individually for that one word. Not based on whether it's a country or a dish. Some say tomato, others say tomato, and then over the course of time one happens to prevail. Or not. And this is actually true of all words, not just the borrowed ones. – RegDwigнt May 01 '14 at 10:49