Citrus mysteries
How do you pronounce that Euro car, the Citröen? And did I put the umlauts in the right place? And should the word umlauts have umlauts? Ãœmlauts? And does Citröen mean lemon in whatever language it’s in, like citron does in French? And do other cultures use the word lemon to mean a bad car? And how did that get started, anyway? And is that urban legend true about the Chevy Nova being renamed in Spanish-speaking countries for obvious reasons?
I wish I had a car that was a lemon. I’d bring some Splenda and we’d have a joyous lemonadey day as I zoomed around town, chewing on its inner surfaces.
Also, I like lemon curd. Maybe when our garden raspberries are ripe, I’ll make some mini cheesecakes and top them with a layer of lemon curd and some raspberries.
This post has been brought to you by the letter Spazz.
Funny bit from Wikipedia:
Citröen is a French car company, last I knew, owned in part or in large part by Peugeot. I always pronounced the name as the Spansih do, si-tró-en. And poo-zho. Though, in my head, I always say pe-u-jhe-ot. Boy, I cannot spell phonetically in Spanish. The sounds just aren’t there. Bummer.
Citroën looks like a typo to me, as there is no such thing as an umlauted “e” in German, the only umlauted language I know anything about. Actually, “citroen” would be the German alternative spelling for “citrön”, usable in situations where umlauts are not available. “Citroën” just looks silly.
But, then again, “citrön” is not a German word either.
Wikipedia makes it sound like “citroën” is a French thing, and I don’t speak French.