Dan Smith
Anglicized pronunciations of "Don Quixote," British versus US?

Do British speakers still pronounce the name in a completely Anglicized way, "kwik-sət?"

In the United States, the general custom is to use a rough approximation to the Spanish pronunciation; we say "key-ho-tee." Now that I think of it, it should be "key-ho-tay," but it isn't. "Quixotic" is always pronounced "kwik-sot-tic," never "key-ho-tic."

Feb 6, 2016 12:17 PM
Comments · 6
1

I agree with James and Michael.

 

The name of the book/character is pronounced 'Kee-hoe-tay' these days, making the whole name sound something like 'Donkey Hotay'.

 

The thoroughly anglicised pronunciation is only used for the adjective -  pronounces 'kwiksotic', to rhyme with 'exotic'.

 

Now, here's a question. How do you pronounce 'Quinoa'?

February 6, 2016
I have always pronounced it ' Don Key-hoe-tay ', but then again I was a foreign language major !
February 10, 2016

I've always said "Don Kee-ho-tay", but  I just asked my husband, who's never taken Spanish, and he said "Don Kee-ho-tee." I'm not sure I've ever said "quixotic" out loud, but if I did, it would be anglicized.

I pronounce "quinoa" as "keen-wa".

February 6, 2016

That's a very good question, Su.Ki. My wife who "discovered" the stuff (which is being heavily promoted in the U.S.) thinks it is pronounced "Keen-wa." However, a Mexican language partner did not recognize it when I pronounced it that way, and asked if I mean "Keen-oh-a." However that was a side issue and I didn't stop to be sure--it was actually a discussion of whether I was preparing a hot drink called atole, made with oatmeal and amaranth, correctly. 

Ahdictionary.org is showing both options: (kĭ-nōə, kēnwä). 

Where is the stuff from? Click:  "Andean region of Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador and Colombia", https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa , and it's Quechua word. So perhaps people in Mexico, who are tuned into Nahuatl but not Quechua, use a "hispanicized" pronunciation or something. 

February 6, 2016

I would expect to hear kee-hoa-tay and kwik-so-tik as well in the UK, so it's almost the same as in the US.

However, they are not common words.  I can't imagine hearing : "Our Wayne's been behaving a bit quixotically recently - I just don't know what to do with him!"

In my experience, people who are familiar with the words are likely to have some idea of pronouncing them correctly.

February 6, 2016
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