The first time I met Danish people, we were all teenagers.
Here's how it went:
Irish: Hey!
Danes: Oh, you don't have an American accent. We only speak to people with American accents.
Irish: ****
Yes. They wanted to sound American.
It was important for them to pick up an American accent.
And sadly, that ruled out being friends with me. Because my accent was Northern Irish.
Later I met lots of other Danes with all kinds of accents.
Especially, Danish ones.
Nice people though.
But let's get on to the great divide between British and American English.
Actually...
There is none.
Really.
There are infinitely more similarities than differences, but having said that, those differences can stump not only a language learner but also a native speaker like me.
And nowhere are the differences more blatantly obvious than in the world of vegetables.
Ha. You didn’t see that coming.
Well… you DID because the title of this blog post is about when vegetables divide us.
So, let’s just see how divisive they are.
DARN TOMATOES...
The Aztecs and Incas of Mesoamerica got there first. The word tomato originated with the Nuhuatl word tomatí and as the fruit was modified to be bigger and sweeter by the Aztecs, they changed the name to xitomati or jitomati. The fruit was brought to Spain after the discovery of the Americas and is first mentioned in European literature in 1544. The Spanish brought it to the Phillipines. From there it made its way to China and the rest is history.
Except… that we never quite agreed on the pronunciation.
Americans say /təˈmeɪtoʊ/ (tuh-máy-toe) while in British English, we say /təˈmɑːtoʊ/ (tuh-máh-toe). Such was the confusion that George Gerswhin even based his 1933 song Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” on just that subject. You might even hear somebody use the phrase “Bah, ‘tuh-may-toe’-‘tuh-mah-toe’” as a way of saying “Who really cares?” or “What does it matter?”
And does it really?
Well. My advice is to pick one and stick to that.
Or, if you are neither American nor British, use ‘tuh-may-toe” if you are in the States and ‘tuh-mah-toe” if you are anywhere else.
AUBERGINE or EGGPLANT?
It all depends where you are from, and which territories have traditionally influenced the language spoken in your country.
I describe the vegetable shown in the picture as an aubergine.
Aubergines are not traditional to Ireland or to the UK, and we very often took our cues from the French. (Yeah, we always sullenly accepted that they might be better than us).
They called this vegetable the “aubergine”, a word which they had borrowed from the Arabic al-bāḏinjān and which the Arabs had borrowed from the Persians who in turn had borrowed it from the Sanskrit…
Eggplant is what this vegetable is called in the United States, and this is quite simply because to the early modern Americans, this vegetable resembled a goose egg. And well, it does.
You choose.
I´m going to stick with aubergine for now.
COURGETTES
or ZUCCHINI?
The English turned to the French when they weren’t sure what to call something and this vegetable surely came to England from the sunnier climes of neighbouring France. Originally, in French it was called a courge, which was their word for gourd. Being, noticeably smaller than a gourd, it soon migrated to courgette or “little gourde”.
The United States, having a sizeable population of Italian emigrants, opted for an Italian word – zucchini, which originates from the Italian word for gourd, zucca. Italians coming to the United States called these smaller versions of the gourd zucchini and Americans liked it and it stuck.
For non-Americans, zucchini hardly registers at all. We only ever hear the word on American TV shows and even then, we are slightly mystified as to what it might be.
So… choose carefully when speaking. If not, you might confuse people.
Even more than they already are.
DO YOU PREFER ROCKET OR ARUGULA?
I’m not going to lie.
Rocket is my least favourite salad leaf.
The haters can come for me. I don’t care.
The English word rocket stems from the French word roquette, which itself is a derivation of the Italian rochetta. So far, so good.
So then, why is it that in the United States, this salad is called arugula.
What the hell is that?
Well, the Latin name for this plant is eruca and in 1970s Italian dialect, the word arugula appeared.
And it resonated with Americans.
And it stuck.
So, learn it. You’ll need to know it if you go to the US of A.
If not, stick with rocket.
Or just go for Cos or Lambs Lettuce or just about ANY OTHER LETTUCE LEAF.
Yuck. I HATE ROCKET.
WHEN IS COS LETTUCE, ROMAINE?
Speaking of which, Cos is another kind of lettuce, which has some connections to the Greek island of Kos, a beautiful place to visit. For that reason, this salad is commonly known as Kos in most parts of Europe. That or the fact that the Arabs called this salad khus or خس .
Curiously enough, mid-Atlantic, this transmogrifies into the somewhat longer and much less Greek Romaine.
What the hell?
Well, before we get into the Atlantic, we need to take a step back. The salad was introduced to mainland Europe via Rome where it was known as lattuga romana (Roman lettuce) and in deference, the French duly called it laitue romaine (Roman lettuce). So, what other choice did the poor Americans have? They just dropped the word lettuce. I mean, they liked to abbreviate everything and it was clear to everybody that it was lettuce. So, just Romaine.
IT'S CORIANDER, NOT CILANTRO! RIGHT?
So, what is it? Coriander or Cilantro?
Once again, it all depends on where you are from.
Coriander is the word du jour in the UK and countries where British English is spoken. It appears in the English language in the 14th century and derives from the French word coriandre, adapted from the Latin Coriandrum, which was itself a derivation of the Ancient Greek koriandron … which some experts state had its origins with the very fetid and annoying bed bug (or koris to the Ancient Greeks). Today, in British English, coriander refers to the plant and any foodstuffs made from the leaves, stalks and seeds of the plant.
Clear?
Okay, good.
In the United States, coriander is also used, but only to describe foodstuffs made from the seeds.
The fresh leaves and stalks of the plant are known as cilantro, a Spanish language word, which clearly crossed into the United States with the many visitors to the country from neighbouring Spanish-speaking territories.
Let’s do one more.
One that shares its name with a nationality.
DO YOU PREFER TO EAT SWEDES or RUDABAGAS?
Yes, it’s everyone’s favourite. The Swede.
Not that the Swedes had any choice in the matter. They had a vegetable that grew easily in Sweden's cold northern climes and was widespread up and down the land. In Swedish dialect it was known as a rotabagge, rot translating as root and bagge as bunch. So, a ‘rootbunch’.
It didn’t sound great.
Try going to the supermarket or the greengrocer’s and asking for a “rootbunch”.
But, they were known to grow widely all over Sweden, so… in English, they started to call them Swedish turnips… which eventually settled into Swedes. After all, the Swedes introduced them to England. What better way to honour them?
The American English version of the word, rudabaga, (which incidentally, sounds likes some something you might have at a party organised by a disgraced Italian politician), was also introduced by Swedes. It was taken to the States by Swedish immigrants. Their Swedish rotabagge didn’t undergo huge changes… so, if you are ever talking to an American President about this topic, remember to mention rudabagas and not to mention anything about Swedes. He won’t know what you are talking about.
Well.
Who knew?
Vegetables are a lot more decisive than any of us knew, especially me.
I had to sit down for hours and hours and read and research and edit and re-edit. And now you are here.
Please feel free to share this on your social media accounts.
Like it.
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But most importantly of all, keep improving your English every day.
One great and fun way to do this is by watching short, informative videos online. If you are interested in vegetables, cooking, baking or gardening and find an American accent easier to understand, I can’t recommend Kaleb Wyse’s channel WyseGuide on YouTube enough.
Seriously, once you start watching the videos, you won’t be able to stop.
Have a great day.
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