When I was a graduate student, I went to a scientific conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico and hung out with a posse of grad students from the UK. One was a young English gentleman in the RAF who regaled us with stories of his randy exploits, daring feats, and improper manners, including once greeting the queen of England with, “How’s it going, Lizzie?” Another was an Irish woman with a sharp wit and a lightning-fast banter. The third was an incredibly attractive and somewhat bubbly young Welsh woman. They were all great fun, and they made the stodgy conference completely bearable. My only complaint about them, and truth be told it should have been a minor complaint, was that they pronounced the ‘l’ in tortilla chips. Every time they said “toriLLuh” (which was quite often, since we were in Santa Fe), it was like fingernails on the chalkboard of my soul.
This is exactly how I feel every time I hear Americans mispronounce “houmous”. Fingernails. Soul. Screeeeetch.
I wouldn’t mind if Americans mispronounced something I didn’t have any interest in, like steak tartare. But I have a deep-seated love for houmous, especially when spread in a large fluffy pita bread stuffed with falafel. Add some cucumber, tomato, and onion. Maybe some hot sauce.
Excuse me…I need to take a minute.
To be fair, “hummus” is a horrible transliteration of the word. For a five-minute lesson on how to pronounce this most wonderful blend of chickpeas and sesame seed, I recommend this wonderful video from Maha Yakoub. As you can hear, a better English transliteration would be “houmous” or maybe “hohmohs”. Since “oh” and “oo” seem to be the same in Arabic, the pronunciation varies between “hohmohs” and “hoomoos,” and in reality, lands somewhere in between. If you listen to the various Arabs and Israelis in the video, “Why did the Israelis steal hummus from the Arabs?” you will understand what I mean.
And, spoiler alert, Israelis didn’t steal it from the Arabs. Apparently, the origins of hummus can be traced to 13th century Egypt. It was then adopted by all cultures in the Middle East. Groovy, eh?
But the horrible transliteration led to horrible pronunciations. Companies like Sabra, who honestly should know better, have perpetuated this skin crawling utterance, further ruining it for those of us who truly care. Their commercial from the 2020 Super Bowl is so stomach churning, that it almost puts me off my houmous.
Get it right, people. Show houmous the respect it deserves. Houmous is a delicious and nutritious taste of Middle Eastern culture that can be dipped with pita bread or vegetable sticks, spread on sandwiches, or just eaten straight with a spoon. “Huhmuhs” should only be served with “tortiLLuh” chips.
Wolfsong Diner 