On an earlier show, Martha mentioned the Middle Eastern detergent called Barf. Martha shares email from listeners who say that although the word spelled the same as English barf, the Farsi pronunciation is somewhat different. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Farsi Pronunciation of “Barf””
I ride an old thing, I lead an old dance.
I’m off to Montana, want to throw the Julien.
Speaking of linguistic false friends, those words that look like they are English words in other languages but really aren’t.
A few weeks ago, we were talking about the popular detergent in the Middle East that’s spelled B-A-R-F.
Barf?
Barf.
Looks like barf?
Well, the word looks like barf.
The detergent is white because the Farsi word for snow is spelled that way.
If you Romanize it.
If you Romanize it.
But quite a few speakers of Farsi wrote and phoned to tell us that it’s not pronounced barf, it’s pronounced barf.
So it’s not really washing your clothes in barf.
It’s washing your clothes in baref.
Yeah, but so much humor depends on willfully misunderstanding, doesn’t it?
Yes, especially for Americans.
So my apologies, Halim Amnun, and merci for correcting us.
We always like your corrections, 1-877-929-9673.
And we appreciate it when you call us up short or when you email us, words@waywordradio.org.
