Cumin - how do you pronounce this seasoning?

[Pegasus]

DH is Egyptian, and they use a lot of cumin in their food.  He pronounces it more like cah-moon.  

 I think I'd adopting this pronunciation. I like it!  Almost sound Jamaican to me.

[Tanaqui]

Actually, the preferred spelling everywhere except North America (as well as in scientific publications within North America) is aluminium.

 

Of course, our spelling is first. I believe the -ium pronunciation and spelling was adopted for reasons of consistency.

 

[kewb]

Y'all need to stop black clouding my theory.

[Tsuga]

Coo-min and coo-pon

 

 

 

 

Actually, the preferred spelling everywhere except North America (as well as in scientific publications within North America) is aluminium.

The original and correct spelling however is aluminum. ;)

[Tsuga]

Zeera is also the word my Indian friends use. Need to check with my Pakistani friends and see if it's Zeera as well in Urdu.

 

It is and also the Bangladeshi language my colleague spoke. I lived with Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Indian staff for over a year overseas.

[luuknam]

q-min and coo-pon

 

I retain the right to mispronounce anything though, since English is not my first (nor second) language.

 

In Dutch, cumin is komijn - more or less koh-mine (no real translation for ij sound). In reality though, I don't really talk about that spice ever. https://nl.wiktionary.org/wiki/komijn

 

Speaking of ingredients, when I first moved to the US (to Corpus Christi), I confused my MIL by saying vuh-nee-yah. The Dutch word for vanilla is vanille, and is pronounced vuh-nee-yuh (well, more of a schwa at the end), since it's a loan word from French, so the two Ls in ille are pronounced as a /y/. Not sure why it doesn't work in English vanilla.

[Tanaqui]

Speaking of ingredients, when I first moved to the US (to Corpus Christi), I confused my MIL by saying vuh-nee-yah. The Dutch word for vanilla is vanille, and is pronounced vuh-nee-yuh (well, more of a schwa at the end), since it's a loan word from French, so the two Ls in ille are pronounced as a /y/. Not sure why it doesn't work in English vanilla.

 

Most likely, because the English pronunciation is based off the spelling, as for a time more people became familiar with the spice (herb?) via reading than speech. We see the same thing in the British pronunciation of "herb", which generally pronounces the h. (Americans leave it silent. Our pronunciation is the older one.) Or, for a non-food example, the word "ski", which was originally "shee" in English as well, until it became more popular.

 

Alternatively, our pronunciation is descended from an older French pronunciation. There are many words in English like this, however, this strikes me as less likely here because vanilla is a New World plant.

 

There is a third possibility, which is that the original speakers who knew the word's etymology chose consciously to Anglicize the pronunciation. That has frequently been fashionable and prestigious in English speech.

[Lady Florida.]

I always said coo-min. I've heard people say cue-min and wondered if I was pronouncing wrong. I looked it up. I'm right but apparently so are the others. 

 

Also - Q-pon