Quote:

On this one OED says that the spelling "fillet" supplanted "filet" (except as a French affectation, as which it never went away) during the 1600s, which of course is roughly when US English was forked. It's possible that US English always spelt it "filet", but originally pronounced it fillet, with the French pronunciation filtering down from pretentious restaurants to supplant the phonetic reading.



Fair enough. It never sounds genuinely French the way I've heard it pronounced in American restaurants - the final syllable gets too much emphasis and goes on for too long.

So, how does an American say filleting or filleted? Is it fill-utt-ing (like it is in the UK) or fill-ay-ting?

Mike.