Back in my innocent youth in suburban Texas, I was partial to girl scout cookies known as Tagalongs. As in, Tág-alongs, with the accent on the first ‘a’.
At some point in late high school – browsing, I believe, the internet’s helpful trove of recordings of the Communist ‘Internationale’ in various national languages– I realized that there is such a thing as Tagalog, spoken by a lot of people in the Philippines.
And, no matter how closely I peered at this new word, my brain invariably wanted to insert an extra ‘n’ in there, or at the very least to keep that accent on the first ‘a.’
But then, in college, at least if my learned-seeming colleagues were to be believed, it transpired that it was pronounced Tagálog, accent on the second ‘a’, and that I had been doing it wrong the whole time.
And so, after that, every time I saw the girl scout cookies, I would accidentally pronounce it Tagálongs in my head, forgetting all I once knew.
But now I live in New England, and they are called “Peanut Butter Patties,” and all has come to darkness.
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