Superfood mania becomes a hit in Hong Kong. But, pronouncing some of these can be quite difficult at times. Some of the most common superfoods include açaí bowls, chia seeds, and quinoa. Pronouncing these nutrient-rich foods is hard to figure.
According to the South China Morning Post, the majority of these rediscovered ancient grains and fruits originated in Central and South America. So, it's not surprising that pronouncing their names originate in the languages spoken there as well.
The açaí ("ah-SAI-ee" or "ah-sai-EE") berry originated from a South American palm species. The name of this small, blackish-purple, antioxidant-rich fruit originated in Nheêngatú - a lingua franca of the Upper Rio Negro region. This fruit entered Portuguese as "açaí" (also "assaí"/"açay"), which was borrowed into English. The açaí berry has also been documented in Swiss-American biologist and geologist Louis Agassiz's 1868 book A Journey in Brazil.
Chia ("CHEE-ah") seeds originated from a purple-flowering plant native to Mexico, which are also being cultivated now from the southwestern United States to Argentina. Chia seeds were also the staple food of the indigenous Nahua peoples. The term "chia" originated from the Aztecan language Nahuatl and the Mexican Spanish "chía" - borrowed into English and appears in early-1800s writings on Mexico.
Meanwhile, quinoa ("KEE-nwah," "KEE-no-ah," "kee-NO-ah" and even "kwi-NO-ah") is the seed of a great goosefoot which is valued for due to its high protein content. The plant initially cultivated as a food plant in parts of the Andes. It has been written in accounts of European expeditions to the West Indies.
Quinoa originally came from the indigenous language of South America's Quechua peoples. The term "kínuwa" entered South American Spanish as "quínoa" or "quinua." After that, it entered Spanish as "quínoa," from which has been borrowed into English. In 1902, the name was included in the Oxford English Dictionary.
Although both açaí and chia first appeared in English in the 1800s, these two has been primarily used in geographical and scientific writings. They had only been in the mainstream in the new millennium as they were considered as superfoods. In 2007, both terms was became included as new entries in the Oxford English Dictionary.
High biological diversity regions including Amazon and Andes also show high linguistic diver¬sity, usually encompassing minority languages. Hence, indige¬nous language com¬mu¬nities tend to have traditional ecological knowledge of their flora and fauna. As modern appreciation for superfoods continues, having such heritage knowledge and languages are worth sustaining.
