Pronunciation Guide

Sorry to say, but you had really terrible Latin teachers. There's simply no way that the first i in Plinius can be pronounced like an English long i sound, simply because the latter sound is a diphthong, and Latin speakers never represented diphthongs with a single vowel. Even in English that sound could never be achieved with a single letter until after the Great Vowel Shift in the 15th century: when Chaucer wrote "I" in the 14th century, he rhymed it with the modern English "tree."

In classical Latin the first syllable of Pliny, as (mis)pronounced by Vinny Cilurzo and those who chose to emulate him, would have been spelled Plae, not Pli. One could reasonably dispute whether the first i should be pronounced as a short or a long vowel, i.e. "ih" vs. "ee", but it can never become a diphthong.

So, to sum up: there's no controversy over how to pronounce the Anglicized name of the historical figure - it's with short i as in, well, "in." The only reason to pronounce the beer differently is the fact that its brewer was ignorant as to the accepted pronunciation of the historical figure after whom he named the beer. Personally, I don't feel that Vinnie's ignorance should take precedence over centuries of accepted pronunciation, and that if he wants to capitalize on an existing name he should be humble enough to admit his mistake and pronounce the name correctly. If he had genuinely made up the name, then he would have the right to dictate its pronunciation; he chose to name his beer after a preexisting figure, however, and thereby gave up his right to decide how it should sound since his creation came after the creation of the name.

So much for my subjective assessment of the matter; of far greater importance is the fact that this dispute doesn't matter in the least, and anyone who gets upset about it on either side is a pedantic asshole. You say Ply-nee, I'll say Plih-nee, and if you have the decency not to "correct" me I'll have the decency to do the same.

Either way it's delicious! Cheers!

 

"I'll name it what I want to name it, nerd."
--Vinnie Cilurzo

haha, he told you!

 

I was once in Brewdog Bar London and some Italian guys were ordering "Punk EE-PA".

 

vy-hen-ste-fan-air
:-) I think that's correct. hardly fluent in german, but honestly, I should be.

 

"Guimm-mi uh burr naohw gurd damm et. " Proper way to demand satisfaction in Pittsburgh, or anywhere else for that matter.

 

Ive been pronouncing Uinta wrong for a while without even realizing it.

How about this one Maredsous: Mare-D-Soo?

 

Not sure if this is true, but one explanation I heard was that Vinnie chose to call Pliny with long "i" so that it rhymes with piney.

 

Definitely WHO, not HOE. The oe spelling in Flemish represents an oo sound like in room. I know this because I got rather angrily corrected by a bartender in Leuven when I tried to order an Oerbier and pronounced the first syllable like the oar in a boat.

 

I hate splitting hairs but I have a feeling it might be different words. The beer style that everyone has trouble pronouncing is spelled "gueuze", not "geuze". Thus, it's said as multiple people have already said.

For some more help (and help with others): http://www.forvo.com/word/gueuze/

 

Nope. Gueuze and Geuze are both acceptable spellings. Try a Google Image search for each spelling and see all the labels that pop up.

 

What I love about that link is that when I watch it on youtube (rather than embedded), there are 20 related videos, 19 of which are about beer, but #2 of which is titled "The Wire - Stringer Wants Clay Davis Dead".

Even Slim Charles knew that was a bad idea.

 

I am so totally going to just call it Naked Island from now on.

 

I will continue to call it 'Ho'-garden' because, well, I like the imagery.

 

omg, so glad this was posted, late night tired = happy someone reads my mind

 

I've never been sure how to pronounce Yeungling, I would say Young-Ling, but that might be totally wrong for all I know.

 

I've always said it YING-LING. I learned how to say it from people who have lived in PA their entire lives, so I hope that they would know how to say it.

 

yes
YING-LING
LIN-KISS-TER (though everyone outside of PA says Lan-caster, including me)
CEILINGS GROVE

 

WEST-FLIT-ER-EN

Thats how people in the know say it. i.e. Vinnie from Russian River etc

Cantilion:
CANT-EE-YOWN.
That's how the owners/brewmaster says it himself.

 

FUG-ILLS