Umami

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Umami

Postby Dr. Goodword » Fri Feb 10, 2023 8:36 pm

• umami •


Pronunciation: yu-mah-mee • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: No, today's word is not an illiterate reference to your mother, but a word representing what many believe is a fifth taste. The same taste is referred to as xian wei in Chinese cooking.

Notes: The consensus is that the human tongue can detect only four basic tastes: sweet, sour, bitter and salty. All other tastes are combinations of these plus smell and texture. Some Japanese, however, contend that we have a fifth taste, that of savory, and they have named it umami "scrumptiousness."

In Play: Recent years have seen an upsurge of Japanese and Chinese restaurants. Could we be witnessing a umami tsunami?" Since the meaning of today's word is narrowly limited to the Japanese and Chinese fifth sense of taste, we have little opportunity of using it figuratively: "Everyone, who knows what it is, has a different idea of which foods have umami."

Word History: The Japanese word umami is a derived noun based on uma- "scrumptious, delicious" + -mi "ness", although the character for the suffix is often replaced by the character for mi "flavor". Around the turn of the century, Professor Kikunae Ikeda of Tokyo Imperial University began boiling seaweed called kombu in search of a fifth taste the tongue could identify. He found what he thought was that taste associated with a protein building-block, an amino acid called glutamate, as in monosodium glutamate, a common ingredient in Eastern cooking. Whether glutamate is a fifth flavor or just a natural flavor enhancer is still controversial, but those who support the Fifth Flavor Theory claim it is a meaty or savory flavor. (We are happy that Jim Wilcox of Eugene, Oregon, had the uncommonly good taste to share his discovery of today's word with us, and that Juliet Carpenter provided her editorial services.)
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Slava
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Re: Umami

Postby Slava » Thu Jul 20, 2023 8:27 pm

On pronunciation, I say oo-mah-mi, not yu-. Anyone care to chime in?
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Re: Umami

Postby bbeeton » Thu Jul 20, 2023 8:59 pm

I haven't studied either Chinese or Japanese, but I'm pretty sure that the "yu" pronunciation doesn't exist in either. So I go along with your "oo".

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Re: Umami

Postby Dr. Goodword » Fri Jul 21, 2023 6:43 am

You are both absolutely right. I don't know how that Y slipped in. I don't even pronounce it with a Y.

I've corrected it in the GW dictionary.

Thanks for the catch.
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Re: Umami

Postby bnjtokyo » Fri Jul 21, 2023 9:41 am

If you want to pronounce it in English as it is in Japanese, you need to know Japanese has only five vowels and no diphthongs. Wikipedia describes the high back vowel /u/ as follows:
/u/ is a close near-back vowel with the lips unrounded ([ɯ̟])[43][44] or compressed ([ɯ̟ᵝ]).[5][45] When compressed, it is pronounced with the side portions of the lips in contact but with no salient protrusion. In conversational speech, compression may be weakened or completely dropped.[45] It is centralized [ɨ] after /s, z, t/ and palatalized consonants (/Cj/),[43] and possibly also after /n/.[45]

Me again --
Practice with a word like Fuji with the /f/ a bilabial frictative instead of an English labial dental. That /f/ will put your lips in the right shape to right into the /u/ without moving your lips or tongue.

Or you could just go with the /u/ of the "boot" with the lips less rounded.

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Re: Umami

Postby Slava » Fri Jul 21, 2023 9:52 am

Doesn't a bilabial fricative make f a p? Is Fuji closer to Puji?
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Re: Umami

Postby bbeeton » Fri Jul 21, 2023 10:40 am

Eek! "p" is not a fricative! "p" is a plosive!

"f" is a labiodental fricative.

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Re: Umami

Postby Slava » Fri Jul 21, 2023 10:53 am

Sorry 'bout that one. :shock: :oops:

I'm still trying to figure out how to make a bilabial f, though. All I can come up with is something along the lines of 'pff'.
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Re: Umami

Postby bbeeton » Fri Jul 21, 2023 5:30 pm

I think there isn't any bilabial f in any language I know, although it probably exists in some language I *don't* know. There is probably a symbol for it in IPA. but I don't know that either.

It's clearly possible to produce such a sound, and I'd watch and listen for it in a baby's babbling.

One possibility is with some variation on what's usually written as "whew!" -- that's a really imprecisely recorded utterance.

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Re: Umami

Postby Dr. Goodword » Fri Jul 21, 2023 6:27 pm

You are both absolutely right. I don't know how that Y slipped in. I don't even pronounce it with a Y.

I've corrected it in the GW dictionary.

Thanks for the catch.
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Re: Umami

Postby bnjtokyo » Fri Jul 21, 2023 7:26 pm

Voiceless bilabial fricatives are somewhat irrelevant to the pronunciation of the /u/ of "umami." I merely mentioned it to get your lips in a position suitable for making the unrounded vowel [ɯ].

Nonetheless, here is a Wikipedia article on bilabial voiceless fricatives. Note the list of languages that have a voiceless bilabial fricative in their inventory includes some dialects of Spanish.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless ... _fricative

And as for how to make one, may I quote Lauren Bacall? "You know how to whistle, don't ya, Steve? Just put your lips together and blow."
https://www.facebook.com/xvintageglamou ... 469794686/


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