Name That Pizza Stand
Sbarro.
Its pizza stands are ubiquitous ... malls, airports, sports arenas. The stores have a consistent look. The food looks pretty appealing to me, usually. Though I will admit that I rarely eat at a Sbarro store.
Crazy as it might sound, for me, it's about the name. How do you pronounce it?
Is it with the "sh" sound, as in "shuh barro?"
Or is the "S" silent, perhaps, resulting in a "barro" pronunciation?
Maybe the "b" is the silent letter? "Sorrow?" Unlikely.
Could it be that the "Sb" dipthong is pronounced with a buzzing "zee-vee" sound? This would make it "Zzzh varrow."
If I can't pronounce the name of the restaurant, I am not eating there. Call me weird.
posted by Skip Lineberg at 8:38 PM
11 Comments:
I feel the same way about Au Bon Pain. I took Spanish in school and I've always been a little self conscious pronouncing French. I looked up the words on the Babel Fish translator, and I know it means "with good bread", but I feel silly pronouncing it.
10:28 PM
I don't care what they call it, I call it "some of the best pizza I've ever had!" and eat there whenever I can.
12:20 PM
Au Bon Pain = Aw Bawn Pawn
Sbarro = Subarros or Suhbarros, at least in my circles. And, I too have heard Sbarro makes some really amazing pizza. Try them out sometime, pronounciation be damned!
9:50 PM
I'm a General Manager at one, and its pronounced Sabarro. It sounds like there should be an A in there that isn't.
2:02 AM
If you think Sbarros is good pizza you haven't ever had pizza before.
11:54 PM
Sbarro is Italian. The pronunciation is to simply tack on a a "s" to the beginning of the "bar" syllable.
9:31 PM
Im a Managing Partner for a casual dining restaurant for Sbarro in NY and I know the family, in fact Mama Sbarro dines in my restaurant every other saturday, and the correct way to pronounce it is exactly the way it is spelled "SBARRO" not "SAHBARRO" you pronounce the "S" and then it rolls right into the "BARRO".(and if you want to pronounce it like a real Italian make those "R's" roll of your tounge) There is no sound between the S and the B. Sorry Sean you should know the way to pronounce our company name and we are all family so that makes "Sbarro" our family name aswell. by the way what area are you in?
2:10 AM
Its pronounced zah-BAHR-ro. It says so right here :)
5:50 AM
boynevs,
Thanks for your comment. I cannot believe how this blog post continues to draw interest 4 years later!
Skip
4:20 PM
So I study linguistics, and, indeed, the "Italian" way of pronouncing this is with no vowel in between the 's' and the 'b'. And, actually, the 's' in this context becomes a 'z'. (For a similar word, see "sbaglio" ['error].)
It should be noted that, in Italian, another variant is "isbarro," since some dialects/speakers also do not like the 's'-followed-by-a-'b' thing.
In English, you can pronounce it however you want. Saying "Sah-ba-ro" employs a certain method of repair to the first syllable called epenthesis, so it's okay in my book.
3:27 AM
Tedcito got it right people. The rest of the posts are just plain silly.
Read tedcito for the correct answer.
9:11 PM
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