I use a Swarovski AT80 HD spotting scope for digiscoping and a Swarovski 8x32 EL as my primary birding binocular. Working at Eagle Optics for nearly a decade, I thought I would share some of the ways I've heard 'swarovski' mispronounced over the years. The variety seems almost endless and perhaps it contributes something to the mystique of Swarovski in the optics and crystal markets. It's probably easiest to break down these offenses by syllable mispronunciations, but I'm sure I haven't covered the full realm. One of the most bizarre ways I've heard 'swarovski' mispronounced is 'swarovstika.' This is awful because it's actually a Polish name, though the company is headquartered in Austria.
1st syllable (rhymes with):
Sah - la
Zah - la
Sha - la
Svar - bar
Swar - bar
Zwar -bar
Swarv -bar
Svarv - bar
Shwar - bar
Skar - bar
Shar - bar
Shore - or
Swore - or
Shwor - or
2st syllable rhyme (sometimes omitted!):
Ov - of
Oh - owe
Voh - owe
Aw - draw
Ah - la
Var - car
Off - cough
Koff - cough
3rd syllable rhyme (least amount of variants):
Skee - knee
Skees - knees
Combining the three syllables, we get examples like:
Shore • var • skee
Sha • var • skee
Shwar • koff • skee
Zah • var • skee
Zwar • voh • skee
Shar • ov • skee
Swar • skees (second syllable omitted)
Shore • skee (second syllable omitted)
Link: How do you pronounce 'Swarovski'?
© 2009 Mike McDowell
