On dictionary.com this morning.... bone up noobs
 

Penny-farthings to Panniers: 7 Cycling Words by Dictionary.com

Never hurts to speak the language... You know "walk the walk; talk the talk".:rolleyes:

This actually helped with one thing: my wife and I used one of those "creative pronunciations" for pannier up until right this moment. We just assumed it was some French-derived term and pronounced it pan-ee-ay. Nice to have a correction.

Hmmm. I've always heard it as you describe. As a French word your version would certainly be right.

Now I'll have to look it up in a different source.

@J.Oxley - I pronounce them the way you do. The way French would pronounce.

pain - is French for "bread".

Same here.

I always pronounced it as "pan ee air", which is totally wrong. That's before I understood the the last letters in a French word were meaningless, as far a pronunciation goes.

If I recall, if there were an "e" at the end of pannier, then you woulb pronounce the "r". Oh well, nobody at any LBS's knows what I'm talking about anyway if I don't pronounce the "r".

Y'all must be noobs if you pronounce pannier as in French!

This is the best line of the whole thing and can apply to lots of bike related things.

" This sense is still used (and creatively pronounced) by English-speaking bike enthusiasts. "

I've always heard every one call them "Puh-neer"

I'm way off. I say "Sad-dull-bags". Freedom saddle bags, to you, Jean'Claude.

I have always pronounced panniers this way. But I think someone said it to me first. Now we need to get Timbuk2 to say it correctly. ;)

Panniers is in use for motorcycles too. I usually see it in regards to hard cases, whereas soft bags are saddlebags, which come in pairs that drape over the back seat, more like the horse version than the bicycle version.

Also, there is a long and very English tradition of deliberately mispronouncing French words as they are spelled.

I thought it was the other way around.

The Monty Python and Holy Grail, The English meet the French castle - French subtitles

:roflmao2:

Forvo only has one pronunciation:
pannier pronunciation: How to pronounce pannier in English
They need more.

I always pronounce it "PAN YEAR" whether that is close to right, I really don't care. Wow, just checked the site, I am actually pretty close...

Are your cycling friends Indian?! ;p

Try about the first minute of the Looney Tunes "French Rarebit". Champs eloyzes, monsoors and mademoizels, and so on. My dad would say "Mercy buckets" and of course there's "hinky dinky parley voo"

And don't forget that French delicacy: Horse de ovaries.