Port-related Pronunciation Guide

[Roy Hersh]

There are many tricky names in Port. Not only producers, but also things that are related to Port.

How about we start a "Pronunciation Guide" for these items.

I'll start off with the producer Pocas, which in proper Portuguese is Poças.

I've heard many strange pronunciations for this, but the correct way to say it is: pOh-saah-sh.


On our recent Port Harvest Tour I heard one of our guests consistently pronouncing the name Symington incorrectly. As he is a long-time FTLOP'er, I did not want to embarrass him by correcting him whilst on the tour. So here goes: Instead of ... sIme-ing-ton -- it is actually: simm (as in simmer)-ing-ton.


Hey, it took me 25+ years of saying Kopke (cop-key) to be corrected by Glenn E. (who has a good understanding of German) to learn that it is really pronounced: cop-kah. Even the vast majority of folks at Kopke had been saying it "wrong."


Please feel free not only to add pronunciations to this thread ... but please DO ask any Port-related words that you would like to know the proper pronunciation of.

[John M.]

I just spoke with Marjorie Lumm's company while ordering glasses yesterday. I found out Riedel is properly pronounce Ree Dle as opposed to Rye Dell.

Also, I believe Warres is pronounced Wars (as in Love & War), not Wares as in house-ware.

[Derek T.]

This is definitely a thread where our friends in the Douro and Oporto could help us out!

Perhaps our friendly shippers could chime in with the phonetics of the quintas they own

[Gary Richardson]

I read in one of my Port books that Calem is pronounced "car-lane". Can anyone confirm or correct that?

What a great thread!

-- Gary

[Eric Menchen]

Also, I believe Warres is pronounced Wars (as in Love & War), not Wares as in house-ware.

Yes on that one, as someone from the Symington group explained in this forum. Perhaps it was Dan Carbon.

Cockburn - CO-burn.

An issue with some of the names is that they may have had a pronunciation based on origin, but the pronunciation itself may have changed over time to be made more Portuguese. There are some towns here in Colorado with Spanish origin names, but the "correct" pronunciation is an Americanized version. Personally, I still pronounce them in the Spanish, but this is a probably hyperforeignism.

[Derek T.]

Quinta = Keenta

Vesuvio = Viz-oo-veo

Vargellas - Var-je-las

Canais - Can-eye-sh

I think

[Glenn E.]

I read in one of my Port books that Calem is pronounced "car-lane". Can anyone confirm or correct that?

I don't think that's quite right.

Given my limited knowledge of Portuguese, it should be pronounced CAH-leem. However, the second syllable should be shorter than "leem" makes it appear, to the point that the long 'e' sound is difficult to hear. Further, "leem" is an approximation for English speakers. In reality, the second syllable is pronounced without a trailing consonnant and with a distinctly nasal intonation to the long 'e'. (Think French.)

[Derek T.]

I read in one of my Port books that Calem is pronounced "car-lane". Can anyone confirm or correct that?

I don't think that's quite right.

Given my limited knowledge of Portuguese, it should be pronounced CAH-leem. However, the second syllable should be shorter than "leem" makes it appear, to the point that the long 'e' sound is difficult to hear. Further, "leem" is an approximation for English speakers. In reality, the second syllable is pronounced without a trailing consonnant and with a distinctly nasal intonation to the long 'e'. (Think French.)

I have it on good authority that it is pronounce "ca-lane".

[Glenn E.]

Quinta dos Malvedos is KEEN-ta doosh mal-VAY-doosh. But both "doosh" sounds should be short and almost clipped. You could probably get away with "dosh" rhyming with the 'o' in ocean.

[Glenn E.]

I read in one of my Port books that Calem is pronounced "car-lane". Can anyone confirm or correct that?

I don't think that's quite right.

Given my limited knowledge of Portuguese, it should be pronounced CAH-leem. However, the second syllable should be shorter than "leem" makes it appear, to the point that the long 'e' sound is difficult to hear. Further, "leem" is an approximation for English speakers. In reality, the second syllable is pronounced without a trailing consonnant and with a distinctly nasal intonation to the long 'e'. (Think French.)

I have it on good authority that it is pronounce "ca-lane".

To be honest, that's not far from what I'm trying to say. It's difficult for me to describe the sound because it really doesn't exist in English.

It doesn't help that various Portuguese speakers say it slightly differently as well. My above description is how Oscar Quevedo told me it is said (which also agrees with the pronunciation guide that came with my Portuguese language tapes), but at the Calem lodge on the Harvest Tour it sounded a little more like what you're describing.

The accent is definitely on the first syllable, though.

[Glenn E.]

On our recent Port Harvest Tour I heard one of our guests consistently pronouncing the name Symington incorrectly.

LOL that was probably me! I'd been saying it wrong for so long that even though I now know how to say it correctly habit causes me to mis-pronounce it a lot.

[Eric Menchen]

I read in one of my Port books that Calem is pronounced "car-lane". Can anyone confirm or correct that?

I think that's the Boston Portuguese pronunciation

[Daniel R.]

I don't think that's quite right.

Given my limited knowledge of Portuguese, it should be pronounced CAH-leem. However, the second syllable should be shorter than "leem" makes it appear, to the point that the long 'e' sound is difficult to hear. Further, "leem" is an approximation for English speakers. In reality, the second syllable is pronounced without a trailing consonnant and with a distinctly nasal intonation to the long 'e'. (Think French.)

I have it on good authority that it is pronounce "ca-lane".

To be honest, that's not far from what I'm trying to say. It's difficult for me to describe the sound because it really doesn't exist in English.

It doesn't help that various Portuguese speakers say it slightly differently as well. My above description is how Oscar Quevedo told me it is said (which also agrees with the pronunciation guide that came with my Portuguese language tapes), but at the Calem lodge on the Harvest Tour it sounded a little more like what you're describing.

The accent is definitely on the first syllable, though.

It is spelt Cálem. Pronunciation is cah-lem, the tonic syllable being "cah" as in the word "cat" and "lem" is very short, the "m" practically silent.

[Peter W. Meek]

It might help if we agree to use the'@' in place of the schwa (which is usually represented by an upside-down 'e'). It is an indistinct vowel sound, often written as 'uh' or eh'.

Here are a list of words with the schwa sound (borrowed from Wikipedia):

like the 'a' in about [əˈbaʊt]
like the 'e' in taken [ˈteɪkən]
like the 'i' in pencil [ˈpɛnsəl]
like the 'o' in eloquent [ˈɛləkwənt]
like the 'u' in supply [səˈplaɪ]
like the 'y' in sibyl [ˈsɪbəl]

In brackets are the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet, which is hard to learn and not available on all computers).

As you can see, any vowel can be sounded as a schwa, so trying to represent the schwa by other letters is ambiguous.

[Daniel R.]

Hey, it took me 25+ years of saying Kopke (cop-key) to be corrected by Glenn E. (who has a good understanding of German) to learn that it is really pronounced: cop-kah. Even the vast majority of folks at Kopke had been saying it "wrong."

This is an interesting one as Kopke was originally a German firm, was later on bought by an English family, but has been in Portuguese hands since the mid-twentieth century (today Sogevinus). In Portuguese the pronunciation is cop-ke. Similar is Krohn, which has been Portuguese since the early twentieth century. In Portuguese it is pronounced kró-ne. No idea how it sounds in Norwegian...

[Roy Hersh]

Peter,

Does that work for schwag, too?