How do the British pronounce tomato?
Why is tomato pronounced differently?
Tomato originated from Central/South America where they call it tomate (pronounced as doh-‘mah-deh) in Spanish. English borrowed the spelling, altered the ending a bit and kept the pronunciation as intact as possible, thus to-‘mah-to. Not sure about the potato part.
How do the British say avocado?
Is it pronounced potato or potato?
Normally, the word “potato” is exclusively pronounced with a long A (/ej/), in both American and British usage. Various dictionaries list only this pronunciation. The Gershwin song intentionally uses a non-standard pronunciation as an exaggeration of the sociolectal differences between the two characters.