How to pronounce "sweet potato"

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Opinions please on how to pronounce "sweet potato" (meaning the tropical root vegetable Ipomoea batatas). Specifically, should one put the stress on the "potato", as if one is referring to a potato which is sweet, or does the stress belong on the "sweet", as in the stress pattern of the bread and frankfurter snack known as a "hot dog"?

[ursus arctos]

In USian, the emphasis is on the sweet (as it almost always is)

Yam mileage may vary

[Sean of the Shed]

I have to say I have never thought about this ever until you brought it up. I would imagine you would put the emphasis on 'sweet', as it is the word that is differentiating it from a standard potato.
I do know people from the Black Country usually just say 'yam', though.

[delicatemoth]

It's the same as 'beat surrender', or indeed 'sweet surrender'.

[WOM]

If it's a southerner, it's 'sweetpuhtayta pie'.

[Patrick Thistle]

Emphasis on the sweet.

[Sporting]

Emphasis on sweet and second syllable of potato. With the t in sweet barely figuring due to the following word starting wuth a consonant

[DCI Harry Batt]

I'm not sure now. I've been saying it out loud for a couple of minutes, and I can't tell.

[San Bernardhinault]

According to George Gerschwin I pronounce it: Sweet Potahto

[Discordant Resonance]

I always thought neither word was stressed, much like you'd say "fried onions"?

[WOM]

According to George Gerschwin I pronounce it: Sweet Potahto

He's okay with you calling about such trivialities?

[andrew7610]

sweeper-tay-toe
All one word, with no emphasis on anything in particular.

[Greenlander]

I've no idea but that Thanksgiving thing with all the marshmallows can get straight in the bin.

[Sits]

Kumera. Emphasis on the first syllable.

[MsD]

I pronounce it "yum".

[Lymeswold Snork]

"Hot dog" shouldn't be stressed on the first word anyway. Revolting American habit: every time they mention a HOT dog or MICKEY mouse, it's like they feel they have to make it clear they're not referring to a cold dog or Minnie Mouse. And they do it to British stuff like ROBIN Hood as well. Becoming unpleasantly common over here, particularly in a motoring context for some reason (TOP Gear, GREEN Flag). Grr.

[G-Man]

"You say SWEET Potato, I say Sweet POTATO. SWEET Potato! Sweet POTATO! Oh let's call the whole thing off."

[Balderdasha]

I don't think I emphasise either word and I can't really see why there would be a need to.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

It's not really a question of "need", is it? I mean, to assist mutual intelligibility, speakers of a language tend to mutually conform with regard to pronunciation matters. The use of stress patterns divergent from the norm make it a lot harder to understand what somebody is saying. I recall a rather other-worldly language prof from my student days telling the class an anecdote about how he was on holiday in the US in his youth (in which era I think hot dogs may have been unfamiliar to Briiish people) and caused confusion and mirth by ordering a hot dog without shifting the stress to the first word.

Basically, I just wanted to know what people's experience of the general usage was. We seem to have got sweet potato a lot recently in a weekly veg box we get delivered, which has led to my saying the name out loud probably more in the last month or two than ever before in my life (as I would never choose to buy them myself so we've hardly had them in the house before). Perhaps from hearing Americans say the expression more than I have my own compatriots, I tend to say "sweet potato" with a marked stress on the first word, as ursus says above is the US norm. My wife will then respond with an irritated "it's sweet fucking POTATO for fuck's sake". Which prompted the OP query.

[pebblethefish]

Divorce her. It's the only thing you can do.

[Guy Profumo]

Yeah.

As other contributors have said, I don't stress any syllable, and off hand can't think of any instance where I've heard anyone who has?

[ursus arctos]

But you never listen to anyone, including yourself, so the second is a given for any pronunciation

[Jah Womble]

The emphasis in the UK would generally be on the 'potato'.

Which means you can pretty much guarantee that in American English it will be on the 'sweet'.

[Sam]

These are, obviously, rather more common in my part of the world than they are back in the UK – or rather, than they were in the UK during the first 26 years of my life – so I just refer to them as batata, even when speaking English (which is semi-obvious when talking to my girlfriend, who's called them that all her life, but I imagine I'd do so when talking to other Brits who live here, if it were to come up in conversation for some reason). If I say 'sweet potato' to myself a few times, though, the stress falls on the second syllable of the word 'potato'.

[Sam]

And en rules work now as well! This new forum server truly is wondrous.