Religious Controversy

Jo, our chief carer is a Polish Catholic. She annoys me anyway with all her incessant chatter, chatter, chatter. (Dear Jo, if I want to know what your cat- the English blue-  has been up to I'll ask you.) This morning she started off about the beatification of Pope John Paul and how wonderful it was and if I hadn't checked myself and held up my hands and said, "No, lets not argue about religion," I'd have descended into the maelstrom...

Balls

My mother- picking her way line by line through the Telegraph-  came, as she sometimes does, across a word she didn't understand.

"What are cojones?" she asked.

I took a deep breath, couldn't locate an escape route, and told her.

"Oh," she said, vaguely. Her eyes wandered sideways. It took her a few seconds to recoup her forces.

"So how do you pronounce it?"

Which stumped me. Because I don't think its a word I've ever had occasion to speak out loud. Does one go for the full Spanish, or sound the last syllable like a Welsh surname or opt for something in between?