Calvados

[Jan Ivarsson]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Laurence Horn" <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: den 4 december 2000 09:14
Subject: Re: Calvados


> At 9:36 PM +0100 12/4/00, Grant Barrett wrote:
> >I just spent the weekend in Normandy. My host served me home-made
> >Calvados brandy.
> >Enough of my esophagus remains intact that I can ask: How is the
> >word "Calvados"
> >pronounced in Anglophone countries? My host and the other (French)
> >guests all pronounced
> >it something like "cal-VAHD". Or was I also mis-hearing their
> >pronunciation? The host
> >and guests are from all parts of France.
>
> In France, calvados is pronounced [kalvados], but it's often called
> "calva" for short (not, I don't think, "calvad").  In English
> speaking countries it's basically pronounced in the same way, mutatis
> mutandis (aspirated [k], digraph for first /a/, schwa for second /a/,
> first syllable stress, dark [l], etc.).
>
> Larry

Perfectly right, but be prepared:
If in France you order "un Calvados", the waiter will without fail answer "Un Calva". If instead you order "un Calva", he will of course confirm by answering "Un Calvados". Just to let you feel how superior spoken French is to your poor foreigner's language.

Jan Ivarsson, Sweden (who has lived for 15 years in Paris).