Pronunciation of Wort - Tomato Tahmahto?

[worlddivides]

So far I've read 2 and a half books on brewing and watched quite a few shows and documentaries on the subjects.

All three books emphasized that "wort" is pronounced like "wert" and not like "wart," but I've noticed in interviews and documentaries that quite a few people working in the beer industry (even the presidents of a few craft breweries) pronounce it like "wart."

I found this to be weird since all 3 books I've read have emphasized that it's pronounced like "wert" and NOT like "wart."

I looked the word up in 5 different dictionaries and the results were:
2 said it is pronounced like "wert" ([wurt] and [wɜːt]).
3 said it is pronounced like "wert" or "wart" ([wurt, wawrt]).

So why do so many books say it ISN'T pronounced like "wart" when so many people in the industry pronounce it that way and dictionaries say that the "wart" pronunciation is also valid?

(more linguistics than brewing, I guess, but I find the emphasis that many book writers make to be quite unusual when you think about this).

I would imagine more people on this site pronounce it like "wert" than like "wart," but what do ya say?

 

[MindenMan]

If I am around beer-nicks, I pronounce "wert", but I do not ever want think I have 5 gallons of nasty skin flaps. Wert wins.

Kind of like "trub", the correct pronunciation is "troob", not t plus rub.

 

[BigEd]

"Wort" like many brewing words is German. The o is pronounced like a short e in English (wurt). As to professional brewers who mispronounce it I can only assume they either don't know or don't care as many words borrowed from other languages ultimately morph into an English pronunciation. I suppose even the w should have more of a "v" sound to be more precise. I like the more German sound myself but it probably doesn't matter as long as they know what you are talking about.

 

[worlddivides]

"Wort" like many brewing words is German. The o is pronounced like a short e in English (wurt). As to professional brewers who mispronounce it I can only assume they either don't know or don't care as many words borrowed from other languages ultimately morph into an English pronunciation. I suppose even the w should have more of a "v" sound to be more precise. I like the more German sound myself but it probably doesn't matter as long as they know what you are talking about.

Not really. I mean, technically "wort" entered English from High German over 1,100 years ago when it was "wurz" in German, so it is more English than a lot of more common words that entered the language from French or German much more recently but that people think of as quintessential English.

And interestingly enough, the modern German word for "wort" is very close to the "wurz" of 900 AD. The modern German word is Würze. Danish is closer to English where it is Urt.