Pronouncing Leghorn

[MKetter]

Do you say

a) Leg-horn or
b) Leggern?

Does pronunciation vary by geographic region?

 

[cavemanrich]

In my area we say Leg-Horn.
I suppose if you live where the peeps have highly tanned back of the neck, it would be Legurn


WISHING YOU BEST,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,and

 

[Crazy Chicken Keeper]

LEG-HORN. In NZ we say word how they sound but we pronounce the 'WH's in Maori as 'PH' in Taranaki (we're unique from the rest of NZ). But since Leghorn is English it is LEG-HORN

 

[Callender Girl]

I'm voting for Leg-horn -- because I grew up watching cartoons featuring Foghorn Leghorn, the big white rooster!

 

[McChooky]

Do you say

a) Leg-horn or
b) Leggern?

Does pronunciation vary by geographic region?

We call them Leggerns in Southern W V . I added a Legbar rooster in a small flock of brown leghorns so I'll get white, green or blue eggs

 

[BigBlueHen53]

Leggern. I grew up in Denver, raised my family in New Mexico and now live in Missouri, and have always pronounced it that way, and have only heard it pronounced that way, and I don't consider myself a redneck by any stretch of the imagination, thank you, @cavemanrich.

 

[saysfaa]

Leggern. I'm not remotely Southern.

I remember my grandparents correcting my pronunciation when I was a child reading it (many decades ago). They were not remotely Southern either.

It is like Chianina cattle - not pronounced in English like it is spelled in English because it is based on Italian. For the leghorn especially, the Italian roots came across unevenly as far as spelling vs pronouncing go.

However, I think that will change because sources like the internet "how do native speakers pronounce" websites get it wrong most of the time. They are native speakers who just read the word without actually knowing how to pronounce it. Like they all pronounce "Au Sable river" or "Au Sable lighthouse" wrong. It is Sahbl. Not Sayble.

That might be the correct pronunciation for some other river or lighthouse with a name spelled the same but the one that highly irritated me specified the river in Michigan.

 

[CombNWattles]

Leggerns!!!

 

[saysfaa]

For what it is worth, I spoke about "dash hounds" before meeting someone who had a docks hund.

 

[AinaWGSD]

I pronounce it leg horn because when I look at it my English speaking brain sees a compound word (leg and horn)

It is like Chianina cattle - not pronounced in English like it is spelled in English because it is based on Italian. For the leghorn especially, the Italian roots came across unevenly as far as spelling vs pronouncing go.

Oh! That makes so much sense. I never connected the dots that the "leggern" pronunciation is due to a difference in pronunciation between English and the language native to the country of origin. It just also happens to sound like the way certain American dialects sometimes drop sounds. Learning something new every day.