|
Post by Geoff on Jul 6, 2010 4:56:19 GMT
I was making a shopping list recently and wanted to buy some fruit. I hesitated as I added mandarines to the list. What was the correct spelling, mandarin or mandarine? I wrote mandarines on the list and was satisfied that it was correct when I saw the same spelling used at the supermarket.
Out of curiosity just now I went to Dictionary.com to, hopefully, get further confirmation of the spelling; but no, Dictionary.com has the spelling as mandarin and no listing for mandarine. I checked in the Macquarie dictionary and there, in the listing for mandarin, as though it's a derivative of mandarin, is the definition for mandarine, the fruit.
I'm still curious. Is this a regional thing? Do you know the fruit as mandarin or mandarine, and how do you pronounce it? Obviously, mandarine is man-dah-reen; but is mandarin (if that's how you know the fruit) pronounced the same way, also?
|
|
|
Post by TfS on Jul 6, 2010 5:31:49 GMT
I'va always known the fuit as (spelling) mandarin, (pronunciation) man-dah-rin, in UK English.
TfS
|
|
|
Post by Dave on Jul 6, 2010 6:41:30 GMT
I've seen only mandarin, but one of my Webster's shows mandarine defining it as: "a mandarin orange."
|
|
|
Post by Geoff on Jul 6, 2010 6:51:52 GMT
Without worrying about the spelling, I have to admit I slip between man-dah-reen and man-dah-rin when I'm speaking of the fruit. I can't be sure how I've spelt it in the past, but I believe it would have been mandarine. I don't know why I hesitated over the spelling this time; the fact is, I did.
|
|
|
Post by Twoddle on Jul 6, 2010 15:03:50 GMT
Just buy satsumas in future, Geoff.
|
|
|
Post by Geoff on Jul 6, 2010 22:30:49 GMT
Always one with the good advice, eh, Twoddle.
|
|
|
Post by Sue M-V on Jul 7, 2010 1:38:25 GMT
I also spell and say "mandarin" with the stress on the first syllable. Perhaps you're confused by "tangarines", Geoff.
Sue
|
|
|
Post by Pete on Jul 7, 2010 8:02:13 GMT
I also spell and say "mandarin" with the stress on the first syllable. Perhaps you're confused by "tangarines", Geoff. Sue And I. I can't tell the difference between mandarin(e)s, tangerines or satsumas.
|
|
|
Post by Alan Palmer on Jul 7, 2010 9:37:48 GMT
I suspect Pete gives a clue there. You are mixing together mandarin and tangerine.
|
|
|
Post by Geoff on Jul 7, 2010 22:47:15 GMT
I suspect Pete gives a clue there. You are mixing together mandarin and tangerine. Who is the you to whom you refer Alan? If it's me, then I can't agree. I think my spelling problem arises from the fact, as I indicated before, that I say both man-dah-reen and man-dah-rin. Obviously the two spellings exist: mandarine is in the dictionary (some dictionaries) and is used in (at least) one local supermarket. I might visit a couple of others when I'm out and about today just to see how they spell it.
|
|
|
Post by Verbivore on Jul 7, 2010 23:20:41 GMT
It seems to me that both spellings are common in Oz; however, I'm sure I hear man-da-reen more often than man-da-rin. As a child I said man-da-reen (mimicking Mater*) but for as long as I can remember as an adult I've said man-da-rin (having discovered the "mandarin [as in Chinese] orange" concept). And let's not forget the two greengrocer versions: mandarine's and mandarin's. *Mater also said dawg (for dog) and sorlt ( salt). By the time I was 10 I was challenging almost every usage and pronunciation of Mater's; partly from picking up alternatives at school but mostly, I suspect, reverting from my early-conditioned speech to the "inborn" -- i.e. the speech styles of my birth mother, whom I didn't meet until I was 42. It was then I discovered that Mother (not Mater) and I spoke identically except for voice pitch. But that's another story which I've probably told before.
|
|
|
Post by Geoff on Jul 8, 2010 6:56:49 GMT
I'm sure you're right, Verbivore. Of the three shops selling fruit that I visited today, two had mandarines and one had mandarins. I don't think the signs in any of the shops used the plural. Perhaps today's greengrocers are learning to spell.
|
|
|
Post by Verbivore on Jul 8, 2010 7:18:06 GMT
[...] Of the three shops selling fruit that I visited today, two had mandarines and one had mandarins. What -- no mandarine's or mandarin's? Perhaps greengrocers are finally figuring out correct apostrophe use! ;D My Firefox spelling checker -- for what it's (not) worth -- doesn't like mandarine. Macquarie Australian gives mandarine as an alternative spelling; main entry is mandarin. Macquarie International gives only mandarin, but states its import path as "from French mandarine". Collins Australian gives only mandarin. Collins English gives only mandarin. SOED gives mandarine as an alternative spelling; main entry is mandarin. Oxford Illustrated gives only mandarin. Concise Oxford (4th edn, so 40+ years old) gives mandarine as an alternative spelling in line with main entry mandarin. Merriam-Webster's Collegiate gives only mandarin, but states its import path as "from French mandarine".
|
|
|
Post by Alan Palmer on Jul 8, 2010 13:19:56 GMT
I was referring to you (Geoff) and the supermarket. I wasn't aware that the mandarine spelling is common in Oz. I've never come across it in the UK.
|
|
|
Post by Geoff on Jul 11, 2010 2:11:59 GMT
Today, that supermarket is selling mandarins.
... and my new Firefox Oz dictionary rejects mandarines.
|
|