The problem with "using Hindi pronunciation" is 3-fold. a) it is hard to get consistent answers about the Hindi pronunciation. This seems to be partly vexed by the assumption on the part of some of the people that I have asked that I want to know the way that native English speakers mis-pronounce the word.
b) when I do get plausible answers about Hindi pronunciation, the dipthongs involved are very difficult for speakers of European languages who do not speak Indic languages. I usually do well at imitating difficult sounds, but I confess that it is difficult to avoid making Hindi speakers laugh when I try this word. c) elephants are mostly found in southern India where Hindi isn't even the dominant language. In the end, I tend to say that anybody who contributes to the project can say it any way that they want. But I do like to point out the pun on a Hebrew word that is available if you use the fruit-rhyming alternative. See the wiki page that Dawid refers to for more info. On Sun, Feb 10, 2013 at 10:27 AM, Daniel Donahoe <[email protected]> wrote: > We had some debate on how to pronounce "Mahout". Is the Hindi pronunciation > generally used, and if not, why? >
