Date:  Tue, 3 Oct 1995 07:49:31 -0500

From:  "Dennis R. Preston" <preston[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]PILOT.MSU.EDU>

Subject: Re: 'chili' or 'chile'



Bob,



I have encountered no such regularity (although, as you well know, the folk

repondents you may have heard would, like all other nonlinguists, have

wanted to impose some).



Here is what I know:



chilli (Nahuatl) for the pepper itself.

Variants in both Spanish and English include (at least) chilli, chile, and

chili; I do not know about the Spanish dialectal distribution; I assume the

spellings in Spanish reflect real pronunciation differences but that they

do not in English (see just below).



I personally always say 'chili' (chilly) in English and 'chile' (CHEE-lay)

in Spanish for everything - the pepper, the dried powder, the dish (whether

soupy or thick, with (ugh!) or without (yum!) beans, etc.... I use these

pronunciations regardless of spelling.



Of course, there are North and South Chili ('chay-lie') New York (outside

Rochester), but that is another matter.



Dennis Preston (not a southwestern dialectologist)

preston[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]pilot.msu.edu>





>Dictionaries seem to list these as variant spellings, but I seem to

>recall from a cooking class I once took in Santa Fe that 'chile' refers

>to the pepper and the powder and 'chili' to some strange kind of soup

>made in Texas.

>

>Can any southwestern-savvy dialectologist come to my rescue?

>

>Bob Wachal