February 19, 2007: Ivrea, Italy food fight with oranges

[monster]

Originally Posted by Sundae Girl

I give up. How on earth do Americans pronounce orange then?
I've been trying as many different ways as I can think of and they all seem improbable....

Well Bruce was alarmingly close with his door hinges. But I can't even do it, let alone describe it!

However, never one to resist a challenge (and all y'all in the chosen land please remember I'm surrounded by Michigandans, Canucks and U of M students, so when it comes to representing the whole of the county ymmv.....)

Say "oar" and then try to picture that the sound is above your tongue towards the back of the mouth. Now say it again, but put the sound under the tongue (this may make you push your chin forward) and breath out as you say it. Then say Eng as in engineering -exactly as you would say it in engineering -same stress.

It's bizarre that such a simple word should be so hard, but kids make great litmus paper and mine assure me that orange is a word that reveals me as a foreigner. (Squirrel and Mirror are the other two that come to mind right now)