Proper Pronunciation?

[Daniel Fraley]

Hi All, I was hoping the FTLOP community could assist me here... I would love to know the correct pronunciation of the noble grape varieties. I've asked around but thus far no definitive answer. I'm spreading the word daily about Madeira, it'd be great to sound educated! Here's what I've gathered so far, please correct/amend?

Sercial (SER-She-all)
Verdelho (VER-Day-lo)
Boal (BWAL)
Malmsey (Mahm-Zee)
Terrantez (Tear-un-tez) Tear as in shed a tear?
Bastardo (Bas-tar-doe)

[Roy Hersh]

Sercial (SER-She-all) - proper Portuguese pronunciation is: SIR-cee-al.
Verdelho (VER-Day-lo) ... this one should be: VER Day-yo
Boal (BWAL) ... on the islands they say: BuWAL, with just a very short inflection of the "u" after the "B". The English spelling is Bual, often seen screened on stenciled bottles and labels, but I like the Portuguese spelling you used.
Malmsey (Mahm-Zee) - this is an English word, not really Portuguese ... just a derivation used. The grape is actually Malvasia, and often is seen using the English spelling: Malvazia. The proper pronunciation of this is: MAL-va-zee-yah
Terrantez (Tear-un-tez) Tear as in shed a tear? - actually it is more like the word "terra" - as in: TER-ron-tezsh
Bastardo (Bas-tar-doe) - correct

[Daniel Fraley]

Thanks Roy!

[Roy Hersh]

Daniel, we aim to please. I hope you will continue to come back and post your questions or impressions on great bottles that you've enjoyed!

[John F. Newman]

Sercial (SER-She-all) - proper Portuguese pronunciation is: SIR-cee-al.
Verdelho (VER-Day-lo) ... this one should be: VER Day-yo
Boal (BWAL) ... on the islands they say: BuWAL, with just a very short inflection of the "u" after the "B". The English spelling is Bual, often seen screened on stenciled bottles and labels, but I like the Portuguese spelling you used.
Malmsey (Mahm-Zee) - this is an English word, not really Portuguese ... just a derivation used. The grape is actually Malvasia, and often is seen using the English spelling: Malvazia. The proper pronunciation of this is: MAL-va-zee-yah
Terrantez (Tear-un-tez) Tear as in shed a tear? - actually it is more like the word "terra" - as in: TER-ron-tezsh
Bastardo (Bas-tar-doe) - correct

Roy,

these are words that I haven't had in conversation with native speakers, but looking at:

"verdelho" from my studying the language (and - I add - at the beginner level of understanding - in US terms: "Portuguese 101," maybe "Portuguese 102" course.) the "LH" together make a "LY" and the O an "oo" sound, combining together to sound like "lyoo." The "L" of the LH being very lightly pronounced.

Also both of the "E"s in verdelho being more like an "eh" sound. As to the stressed syllable, I don't remember the reason for the rule, but in this case, the emphasis of the word would be on the penultimate syllable. Upon reading verdelho (and not ever hearing it pronounced), I would think: vehr-DEH-lyoo. Accent on the first syllable makes me think of an Indian dish.

As to Bastardo, stress again on penultimate. Sercial on the last syllable (like the words "Boal" and "Portugal" em português is emphasized on last syllable - I believe that there is a general rule that words ending in an "L" are emphasized on the last syllable).

Malvazia and Terrantez, I don't venture a guess.

I am also assuming that there are no accent marks over any of these words which may put accent on that syllable.

Any thoughts?

[David Spriggs]

I believe that vehr-DEH-lyoo is the correct pronounciation, but I haven't heard anyone on Madeira say it that way. People in other parts of Portugal do say it this way, but everone knows exactly what you are talking about either way you say it.

[Jon D]

When I was at Madeira, I heard Verdelho pronounced quite often as "ver-VEH-lyo", which I thought was quite odd. I think it's pronounced ver-DEH-lyo.

Terrantez: Chris Blandy pronounces it as "tekr-en-tesh", there's a soft guttural "k" sound for the double R - youtube Terrantez. Stress seems even across the syllables.

[Timothy B.]

What about Colheita?

[John F. Newman]

What about Colheita?

I believe it is:

Kohl-YEAH-tuh.

[Miguel Simoes]

Wish I could just add a voice note to this...

Some of these sounds simply don't exist in English, like the "lh".

Colheita: coo-lyay-tuh (not exactly it but close enough)
Terrantez: te-ran-tesh (problem here is the "r", which in Portuguese and French is more of a rolling sound. Not sure there is a similar sound in English)
Bual: boo-wahl (two separate syllables)

Hope it helped...

[Glenn E.]

Colheita: coo-lyay-tuh (not exactly it but close enough)

For a native English speaker, I find it is easier to explain this way:

Start with coal YAY tuh, but ...

The 'o' is closer to the 'oo' in cool than the 'o' in coal,
and don't fully pronounce the 'l' in "coal" or the first 'Y' in "YAY".

I start with coal instead of cool because many people pronounce cool as if it has two syllables - coo well. You don't want to start there when saying colheita.

That comes pretty close to the "lyay" that Miguel is getting at.