What is the correct pronunciation of Parmesan?

Question

I get really quite cross when I hear it said like "Par me jhahn". I thought it was "Par me zan", but am prepared to be corrected. :)

Answer 1

It's par-muh-ZAN. To claim that it's pronounced par-muh-ZHAN because it's French would amount to what linguists call a "hypercorrection" (the same way people mispronounce "lingerie" as LAWN-zhe-RAY instead of the more phonetically correct LEn-zhe-REE).

Yeah, mispronunciations like this are grating to the ears, but it's a sad fact of life. Even Mark Bittman pronounces it with the soft zh sound. Sigh.