'Putin' Is 'Poutine' In French — Confusing Anglos On Twitter Who Just Want Fries & Gravy
Make poutine, not war!
You may have seen "poutine" trending on Twitter, spawning countless bad memes from anglophones who confuse the French spelling of the autocratic Russian president's name with the gravy-logged dish from Quebec. "Putin," of course, isn't how it's spelled, either.
Both spellings are just approximations roughly matching the native Russian pronunciation of his name with Roman letters that produce similar sounds in French and English. The French "Poutine" also conveniently avoids sounding too much like the favourite vulgar interjection "putain."
In Cyrillic script, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is written Владимир Владимирович Путин, according to the Kremlin's official website, which, save for a Google preview, is inoperable as of the time of writing thanks to the efforts of a group of crafty hackers.
To our non-specialist ears and according to news reports and amateur YouTube linguists, the Russian pronunciation of his name is somewhere between the French poo-TEEN and English POO-tin with an emphasis on the first syllable and a middle consonant that sounds a little softer than the French or English 't' — so POO-tchyen... kind of.
For the record, the Russian embassies to the United States and France seem to recognize Putin and Poutine, respectively, as official transliterations.
But someone should tell the internet. Confusion and jokes abound on social media over the French spelling.
The one unlucky Twitter user with the handle @poutine has even apparently become somewhat of a target online.
Someone tell French people I\u2019m not the president of Russia please I just really like French fries with gravy and cheese curdspic.twitter.com/DN8QkY45DP— M (@M) 1645824638
In the anglo world, the puzzlement seems to have reached new heights following this tweet from Canadian NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, which led many to discover the French spelling for the first time.
Vladimir Poutine s'est \u00e9loign\u00e9 de la paix et se dirige vers les horreurs de la guerre\n\nLe NPD condamne l'attaque contre l'int\u00e9grit\u00e9 territoriale de l'Ukraine \n\nFace \u00e0 la menace d'une nouvelle invasion, le doit veiller \u00e0 la s\u00e9curit\u00e9 et \u00e0 la souverainet\u00e9 du peuple ukrainien— Jagmeet Singh (@Jagmeet Singh) 1645495946
You can imagine the disappointment.
Saw #Poutine was trending & got excited for a cheesy, gravy covered tater-poutine from @MaryBrowns (highly recommend). Instantly hungry. \n\nI was led astray to see it was not about our Canadien cuisine, but a dictator.\n\nPoutine has done nothing to deserve association with that man https://twitter.com/theJagmeetSingh/status/1495944542310342656\u00a0\u2026pic.twitter.com/QRPVPgQJhJ— Brad Feltham (@Brad Feltham) 1645746007
And the bad jokes.
does it come with borscht https://twitter.com/theJagmeetSingh/status/1495944542310342656\u00a0\u2026pic.twitter.com/ZWx6kGcgxZ— marina \ud83d\udd4a\u262d (@marina \ud83d\udd4a\u262d) 1645557427
One poutine please, hold the Putin.
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- A TikToker Tried 50 Quebec Poutines In 7 Days, Gained 8 Pounds & Ranked The Top 5 - MTL Blog ›
- I Tried One Of Toronto's Top-Ranked Poutines & It Tasted Like Inadequacy - MTL Blog ›