Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Subway's Poor Portmanteau Choice

Am I the only one who has a problem with the name of Subway's new menu item?


There are just too many options for the phonetic realization of the neologism.

To start with, where are the syllable breaks? Is it fla/ti/za or flat/iz/a? Which syllable should be stressed? Also, if it is made to rhyme with pizza, it sounds like either fla/teets/a or flat/eets/a, depending on the syllable break.

I get that it is a portmanteau of flatbread + pizza. But it sure is a phonetically problematic portmanteau.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It will be fla.ti.zza regardless, because the onset is always maximized.

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