If you’ve never been offered a ‘hang sangitch’ in your Aunty Mary’s house then you’re not really Irish.
While the word ‘sandwich’ appears pretty straightforward to the naked eye, a large number of Irish people have always struggled with it.
The issue was brought up on Reddit yesterday by user Irishane who posed the question:
“Do any of you say “sangwedges” or “sangedges” instead of “sandwiches”?”
Of course, people were quick to get their opinions out there and it’s fair to say things got a bit meaty.
“Who doesn’t love a good hang sangwitch??”
“Only if they contain hang.”
“I may be guilty of ‘sangwiches’ but sure look.”
“Sang-witch” sometimes when my inner Kerryman escapes, but I try to contain him.”
“No. They’re sandwiches, dammit. …sometimes they’re sammiches.”
It didn’t take long for the sandwich debate to move onto the pronunciation of other words.
“My Dad says sangwidges and calls Chicago, Chicargo. Makes me want to disown him sometimes.”
“My old man calls dundalk dundork. Does my head in tbh”
“Ah, that’s fine though. My gripe is with those that put letters in words that were never there to begin with. Another is when people order a “Kompenberg” when they really mean “Kopparberg”.”
This input by fartinburp (nice) has to be our favourite. Just why?
“My mother pronounces the letter Z as “eh-zed”, and hence zoo becomes “eh-zoo”, zip “eh-zip” etc. No idea why and I’ve never heard it anywhere else.”
Luckily, someone who seemed somewhat educated in the subject offered some logical reasoning.
granular101:
“There’s a phonological reason for this: Assimilation.
It’s natural to change an “n” sound to and “m” before a “w” sound, because they’re both pronounced with the lips, while the “n” is pronounced with the tongue on roof of the mouth.”
Every day is a school day. You can check out the full debate by clicking here.
After all that, we now want to find a definitive answer and would hugely appreciate if you took part in our potentially groundbreaking poll below:
Now that’s done, we’re all off for a hang sanger.
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