Patina Pronunciation
Just vote before reading the below blather. I'm using u for the schwa sound because i'm uneducated and never could decipher the pronunciation code.
IIRC, patina is one of the words that the late Paul Fussell used in his early 80's book on social class in the part about speech. I won't spell out how I recall this and how it changes my pronunciation just yet.
So ignore that first sentence, as I'm burying the lede. Nobody reads this anyway. Maybe save this and come back for the rest of the story later.
23 comments
Sort by
Tudor
Started as a quartzbro goofing on the mechanical snobs, wrote for thetruthaboutwatches.com, and lately started finding forgotten familial vintage watches in need of love.
Member since
Last active: 1 hr ago
6.50” / 16.51 cm
The 1st one is definitely wrong!
However you pronounce 'patina' it should be consistent with the way you say 'patinate'
Pa-ti-na. Oh wait..
Patina comes from the latin word patena/patina which was the name given to some hollow plates in the XIIIth century.
Later, in the XVIth century it became a common Italian word to describe the discoloration that would form on copper, bras and gold plates (patines) due to chemical reactions.
The rest of Europe borrowed the word and nowadays it's used to describe all sorts of color or texture change of an object due to wear or aging (ie copper, stone, wood, leather, etc.).
So wait, I’ve been saying it wrong all this time … Pa-Tina? 🫢
Pat Tie Nah.
PAT-in-a is the correct pronunciation if you're from England.
PAT-in-a is the correct pronunciation if you're from England.
I was going to say that the British soften everything, but then I remembered how they say process. Anglophilia may be at the root of Mr. Fussell's claim of a status shibboleth in the pronunciation.
Pa-TEEN-ah
Pa-TEEN-ah
@Warrior75 are you seeing this? @Cantaloop , note that he's a Londoner!
This does give me the chance to use the joke that just because the British pronounce it that way doesn't mean it's wrong!
@Warrior75 are you seeing this? @Cantaloop , note that he's a Londoner!
This does give me the chance to use the joke that just because the British pronounce it that way doesn't mean it's wrong!
That's so true. London has at least 3 dialects!
I was born in Lancashire, then formative years near Newcastle, teens in Yorkshire, young adult life in London, latter years in Royal Berkshire and Surrey. That's 5 English dialects, though Newcastle and Yorkshire do have translation phrasebooks to English...
When I moved to Yorkshire it took months for people to understand me. When I took the Mrs (west London) to meet family in Newcastle she was nodding along politely and then asking me for a translation.
... and we have the nerve to make fun of American pronunciation!
I pronounce and spell it as "corrosion". 😉
I've always thought it was pronounced R-U-S-T aka "ruhst"? 🤔
Or
O-X-I-D-A-T-I-O-N aka "aak-suh-day-shn"....😬
@Warrior75 are you seeing this? @Cantaloop , note that he's a Londoner!
This does give me the chance to use the joke that just because the British pronounce it that way doesn't mean it's wrong!
@Justingalore is obviously very posh lol, I'm from Essex ;-)
@Justingalore is obviously very posh lol, I'm from Essex ;-)
I’m from West Ham but have inherited a few weird pronounciations from my parents. My dad called pla-stic plaw-stic his entire life and now I do too..
@Justingalore is obviously very posh lol, I'm from Essex ;-)
This is interesting as it conflicts with what I read in, wait let me check the title, Class: A Guide Through the American Status System. Oh, well that was for America, and in the early 80's. Anyhow IIRC he stated that the lower class pronunciation (and current majority winner) was A with the accent on a hard E sound, whilst (😜) the higher class was accent on a soft a in the first syllable and a soft i.
Attention everyone: above was my buried lede, the personal blather. I was hoping someone, or maybe two dozen, would actually bookmark the dang thread because there's a badge for that, but whatever.
Anyway, I'll derail my own thread and ask @Cantaloop if it is true that all the cartoon pigs in Peppa Pig's family speak with different regional accents. Someone I knew claimed this, but I lack the ear to tell.
Back on topic, I'm sad to report that dictionaries say either is correct, or at least acceptable.
This is interesting as it conflicts with what I read in, wait let me check the title, Class: A Guide Through the American Status System. Oh, well that was for America, and in the early 80's. Anyhow IIRC he stated that the lower class pronunciation (and current majority winner) was A with the accent on a hard E sound, whilst (😜) the higher class was accent on a soft a in the first syllable and a soft i.
Attention everyone: above was my buried lede, the personal blather. I was hoping someone, or maybe two dozen, would actually bookmark the dang thread because there's a badge for that, but whatever.
Anyway, I'll derail my own thread and ask @Cantaloop if it is true that all the cartoon pigs in Peppa Pig's family speak with different regional accents. Someone I knew claimed this, but I lack the ear to tell.
Back on topic, I'm sad to report that dictionaries say either is correct, or at least acceptable.
I'm afraid the closest I've come to Peppa Pig is buying a DVD for a neighbour's child's birthday.
The film Babe has a slight irritation for me, despite using several dozen Yorkshire pigs during filming, and using the quintessential Yorkshire phrase "That'll do", there's not Yorkshire accent to be heard throughout, tha'nos. That be reyt.
Pu-tina
I am french I don't have this prononciation problem 😅
Patina was invented in 1786 by Anton Lume who named it after his wife Pat Tina.
We could be boring and just look it up.
Merriam Webster says puTEENuh for US and PATinah for UK.
Vocabulary.com says puTEENuh for both US and UK.
So that's three votes for puTEENuh and one vote for the wrong way.