At a recent wine tasting we were challenged on the correct pronunciation of Verdelho. I had been told it is Ver-day-o and that the "lh" are pronounced like a Y. Others insisted that it is Ver-del-o and that the 'h' is silent. Can you please let us know which is right. Thanks!
Answer From Expert Roger Bohmrich MW
How is your Portuguese? Mine is non-existent, but I have listened to native speakers say "Verdelho" and it is not at all the way those who do not speak the language tend to say the word. With credit to Oxford Dictionaries online, here is the phonetic pronunciation: v???d?lju?, -lj??. That might not help, so I think it's perfectly acceptable to use a straightforward version such as Ver-del-o if your native tongue is English. After all, proper names are frequently changed as they are used in languages other than the original; for example, should you say Pa-ree or Pa-riss for "Paris"?
