Author Topic: You say 'chapatti', I say ... what?!!!  (Read 5174 times)

rogue_mother

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You say 'chapatti', I say ... what?!!!
« on: September 04, 2010, 11:12:14 PM »
Earlier this week there was a puzzle in the Your Puzzles section for which one of the less common words in the solution was chapati, the well known Indian bread. No issue here. I was pretty pleased with myself that I found it. But -- I missed the rosette by one word, and that word was chapatti! Who knew that chapati could be spelled with two t's? This is common? Maybe in Britain. If you search on chapatti in Google, it says "Did you mean: chapati?" Wikipedia spells it chapati or chapathi. I would like to suggest that this word be reclassified to less common.
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pat

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Re: You say 'chapatti', I say ... what?!!!
« Reply #1 on: September 05, 2010, 08:20:17 AM »
Maybe it is a British spelling - I wouldn't spell it with one t! Chapatti is given as the main entry in my dictionary with chapati and chupatti as variations. It appears to be a word that can be spelt in several different ways, so perhaps the fairest solution would be to have the various spellings as all common or all rare, as with other words that are spelt differently in different countries.

mkenuk

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Re: You say 'chapatti', I say ... what?!!!
« Reply #2 on: September 05, 2010, 11:46:12 AM »
For what it's worth: Concise Oxford (the fount of all knowledge) has only 'chapatti' (two ts). Chambers, the other fount of all knowledge, and the official reference dictionary for Scrabble (so it says on the cover) has 'chapati', 'chapatti', 'chupati' and 'chupatti', so all of those would be allowed in Scrabble. Worth how many on a triple word score?
Mike

rogue_mother

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Re: You say 'chapatti', I say ... what?!!!
« Reply #3 on: September 06, 2010, 12:42:17 AM »
Concise Oxford (the fount of all knowledge) has only 'chapatti' (two ts).

Mike, we have duelling founts. My (admittedly old, 1996) Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary does not have chapatti, just chapati. Its alternate spelling is chappati (2 p's).

Pat, I'm with you on this one. I think they should all be rare.
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cariboo

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Re: You say 'chapatti', I say ... what?!!!
« Reply #4 on: September 06, 2010, 08:19:27 AM »
I say roti--it's easier to spell!

rogue_mother

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Re: You say 'chapatti', I say ... what?!!!
« Reply #5 on: September 06, 2010, 09:41:26 AM »
At the Indian restaurants we usually go to at Inside the Beltway, the bread mostly seems to be called naan. I don't know if chapati or roti are different, or if it's just a regional term.
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Linda

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Re: You say 'chapatti', I say ... what?!!!
« Reply #6 on: September 06, 2010, 04:30:06 PM »
I say Yung Chow Fried Rice with bamboo shoots and water chestnuts ..... 'cos I don't like Indian food!!  >:D

technomc

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Re: You say 'chapatti', I say ... what?!!!
« Reply #7 on: September 07, 2010, 07:31:25 PM »
Naan and chapatti are quite different.....

Naan are usually quite thick, can have fillings, and are a funny shape..whereas chapatti are more like round pancakes [the thin crepe sort].

Naan are slapped onto the side of a tandoor oven and chapatti are..not...
At least i think so...please correct me if i'm wrong [at your peril!!]

Starving now, off for a biriani me thinks..... :-H

rogue_mother

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Re: You say 'chapatti', I say ... what?!!!
« Reply #8 on: September 08, 2010, 12:12:26 AM »
Thanks for that explanation, T! I only ever get naan, so I am not aware of what other bread types might be offered except papadum, which is sometimes provided as a freebie treat when we are first seated at our table.
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smaug

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Re: You say 'chapatti', I say ... what?!!!
« Reply #9 on: September 08, 2010, 08:48:07 PM »
Either chapatti should be rare, as naan and roti, imho

common maybe in the sub- continent

Crikey!!!

Alan W

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Re: You say 'chapatti', I say ... what?!!!
« Reply #10 on: September 15, 2010, 06:13:23 PM »
Chihuahua allows five different spellings, that I could see: chapati, chapatti, chappati, chupati and chupatti. But, as people have mentioned, some dictionaries offer additional variants, including h and/or y.

Crumbs!

The only version we treat as common is chapatti. I believe it should be brought into line with the other versions, and made rare.

It's probably not surprising the issue hasn't come up before, because there's only one nine-letter word seed that would allow the double-T version: apathetic. I'm surprised you could be bothered raising the matter, RM.

Pronunciations seem to be all over the place, too. Go to the Free Dictionary entry for chapati and click on the US and UK flag symbols, and the little speaker within the definition. Now try the Union Jack in the chapatti entry.

In Australia we seem to use both the chapati and chapatti spellings, but with a slight preference for the latter.
Alan Walker
Creator of Lexigame websites

rogue_mother

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Re: You say 'chapatti', I say ... what?!!!
« Reply #11 on: September 16, 2010, 09:30:32 PM »
It's probably not surprising the issue hasn't come up before, because there's only one nine-letter word seed that would allow the double-T version: apathetic. I'm surprised you could be bothered raising the matter, RM.

Yes, it was a struggle to break out of my cocoon, but I just didn't have enough energy to check how many seed words could produce chapatti. Not that I cared. ;)
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