A pronunciation question

[pat]

A question for you Americans. I always thought that Mount Rainier in Washington State (where the most delicious cherries in the world are grown - have you tried them?) was pronounced as it's spelt, i.e. as in meaning 'more rainy', but I heard it pronounced 'Raneer' on TV this evening. What's its correct pronunciation?

[Alonzo Quixote]

I have always heard it pronounced as you heard it on TV—  'Raneer'.

I have never heard it pronounced as in meaning  'more rainy'.


It's true that Washington state is well known for its cherries.  They also provide very good apples.

[TRex]

A question for you Americans. I always thought that Mount Rainier in Washington State (where the most delicious cherries in the world are grown - have you tried them?) was pronounced as it's spelt, i.e. as in meaning 'more rainy', but I heard it pronounced 'Raneer' on TV this evening. What's its correct pronunciation?

I've heard it pronounced both raneer and rayneer, two syllables.

[anonsi]

I've heard it both ways, too, TRex.  Never the more rainy way, though, Pat.

[birdy]

Agree, TRex and Anonsi.  Though, given Northwest Coast weather, it probably deserves the "rainier" reason for its name, it was actually named by British naval explorer George Vancouver for his friend, Admiral Rainier.

[nineoaks]

Dear Pat:

Well, so far, it's unanimous: /ray-neer/, with the accent on the second syllable.

Best wishes,

Petra

[a non-amos]

I went to Seattle on a business trip several years ago.  They pronounce it /ray-neer/, with the accent on the second syllable.

I did suggest that its name be changed to ranier, and they seemed to be amused.  Maybe they were being polite?

They do seafood rather extremely well over there . . . I might have made off with a decent recipe . . .

 

- A

[pat]

Thanks, everyone. Having never heard the name spoken until last night on TV, I made the wrong assumption as to its pronunciation. If only English were a phonetic language... 

I didn't know they grew good apples there, too, AQ. Do they have a name? Until a couple of years ago, Rainier cherries (I'm salivating at the thought of them!) used to appear in only one store that I knew of, although a couple of the big supermarkets now have them too. They're very expensive though, so it's probably just as well that their season is very short given that I eat pounds of them! They're even nicer than Bing cherries and they're pretty special too.

[Alonzo Quixote]

pat—

The only variety of apples from Washington state that comes to mind is red Delicious apples.  I'm sure there are other varieties.

I enjoy Gala apples and it should be noted that many different varieties of apples are grown in my home state of New York.

I believe that many varieties of pears (Bosc, Comice, and Bartlett to name a few) are grown in Washington state as well. 

There are many televisions commercials which talk about "apples from Washinton state"  much like the commercials which talk about potatoes which come from the neighboring state of Idaho.  It seems to me that the actual variety of apples or potatoes is not highlighted in these commercials—it's more about the goodness of apples or potatoes from these two northwestern states.

[nineoaks]

Dear Pat:

If you go to bestapples.com (which is the website of the Washington Apple Commission), and, under Apple Info, choose 'apple varieties', you will see photos of nine apple varieties grown there.

Our local paper showed a photo from the 1910 Watsonville Apple Show. There, 12 growers from our small county in the Sierra Nevada foothills (Tuolumne County, California), displayed 52 varieties of apples!

A few independent growers here are preserving some of those heirloom varieties, but, alas, most are gone.

Best wishes,

Petra

[birdy]

Hi Petra, great minds thinking alike and all - I just googled <apples washington> and came up with

http://www.bestapples.com/varieties/index.shtml

which shows some of the varieties grown there.  That may be the same site you were thinking of.

There were two varieties I wasn't familiar with, but I think all the other varieties are grown here in NYS too.  I also suspect that these are varieties that mostly ship well.  I was surprised that they didn't list any of the ones that are very common here, like Macintosh or Macoun.  And I noticed that they list Granny Smith, which can be found in any supermarket, but not Greening/Rhode Island Greening, which the Brooklyn Botanic Garden listed as far superior in the booklet on apple varieties they produced a few years ago.

[pat]

Isn't it amazing how much you can learn just by posting a simple question on this forum. So many knowledgeable people.

AQ - not only are Rainier my favourite cherries, but Comice are my favourite pears. If you tell me that they grow figs in Washington too, I'm going to have to move there!

[ensiform]

I lived in the Pacific Northwest for over a decade, and no joke, that's where I've had some of the best figs (and peaches) I've ever encountered anywhere.  Mmmm.

[birdy]

I'm getting hungry...

[pat]

I think fresh figs are my mostest absolutest favouritest fruit of all. Those big blackish-purple ones (don't know what type they are), when they're really soft and just at the point of going off... deLICious! The ones we get in the supermarkets here are greenish tasteless things and ridiculously expensive, given the quality.

The best place to get figs over here is from the street fruit stalls in Oxford Street in London. They have lots of different exotic fruits, including the aforementioned deLICious figs and fresh dates, another treat. Yum yum!