"Fung guy"

[James Harbeck]

I'm used to hearing "fung guy" and not used to hearing "fun jye", and
I'm inclined to believe the joke adverted to ("What did the mushroom
say to his date? -- How d'you like going out with such a fun guy?"
and variations) is quite responsible for it. I don't imagine the
Italian (funghi) has any real effect, or people would be saying it
"foong-gee". But I suspect -- though I'd need to actually try this on
people -- that most people I know would react to "fun jye" as a
mistake.

But nearly nobody takes Latin anymore in school, either, and people
seem in general to be pretty damn uncertain about all sorts of things
about it. (At least those too young to have had concerted exposure to
it.) Those who _do_ take it learn the classical pronunciation, too,
which is "foong gee", just to muddy the waters.

James Harbeck.

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