Language Matters | From chia to quinoa, how to pronounce the names of some nutrient-rich foods

Superfood mania has hit Hong Kong, where everything from açaí bowls and chia seeds to quinoa is easily found today. But figuring out how their names are pronounced – that’s the difficult part.

Many of these “rediscovered” ancient grains and fruits are native to Central and South America, so it should come as no surprise that their names originate in the languages spoken there.

Quinoa is the seed of a tall goosefoot valued for its high protein content, was originally cultivated as a food plant in parts of the Andes. It was written about in accounts – first in English translations from 1598, then in English – of European expeditions to the West Indies.

Originally from the indigenous language of South America’s Quechua peoples, the word “kínuwa” entered South American Spanish as “quínoa” or “quinua” and then Spanish as “quínoa”, from which it was borrowed into English (with varying pronunciations of “KEE-nwah”, “KEE-no-ah”, “kee-NO-ah” and even “kwi-NO-ah”). It was included in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1902.

The açaí berry is a small, blackish-purple, antioxidant-rich fruit from a South American palm species. Its name originated in Nheêngatú, a lingua franca of the Upper Rio Negro region. It entered Portuguese as “açaí” (also “assaí”/“açay”) and was borrowed into English. It was documented in Swiss-American biologist and geologist Louis Agassiz’s 1868 book A Journey in Brazil.