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Alright so after Godzilla I have to finally say it
- Thread starter lmpaler
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crisdecuba
Member
I'm not dictating anything or issuing a decree. It's a request. Here's the scenario I see:
The locals of a place are saying, "Hey, we pronounce where we live this way. This is our generally accepted form of pronunciation."
And I'm saying, "If the locals have an accepted form of pronouncing it, and you're aware of it, could you please follow that pronunciation?"
And from there people can do whatever they'd like. You, for example, have responded to the request with something that feels like, "No, you can't tell me how to pronounce your state." Fine.
lunchtoast
Member
It's pronounced, Idaho, not Ohio.
First off: Its a short A.
Secondly, even if you could prove that it wasn't a short A its irrelevent.
Every person from Nevada, including myself, uses a short A.
When people use a long A it gives the ever so condescending connotation that we don't know how to pronounce our own state. (Which i recognize is rarely the intent, but nevertheless...)
I'm sure there is more like it, but it is definitely one of the premier examples.
Its not like anyone says Ar-Kansas instead of "Arkansaw"
Secondly, even if you could prove that it wasn't a short A its irrelevent.
Every person from Nevada, including myself, uses a short A.
When people use a long A it gives the ever so condescending connotation that we don't know how to pronounce our own state. (Which i recognize is rarely the intent, but nevertheless...)
I'm sure there is more like it, but it is definitely one of the premier examples.
Its not like anyone says Ar-Kansas instead of "Arkansaw"
ThLunarian
Member
I'd like to know how the locals of Nevada started pronouncing the name of their own state wrong in the first place. It's not like the Spanish word for 'snowy' is difficult to pronounce. Was one guy years ago just like "ne-vah-da? No fuck that" and everyone else just went with it?
Weird.
Weird.
If a Latino person told me to call them "Josh" I'm not going to call them "Ho-suay" just because they are Latino.
The origin is irrelevent.
Edit: i realize that your just speculating, but I'm expanding a little further.
Weird. I've never heard someone butcher it the way you're describing. There is an absurdly high number of people who say "Chipolte" for some bizarre reason.
I think Edinburgh is much more likely to be mispronounced.
figadapaura
Member
Turns out I pronounce it that way anyway. Good.
Eedinberg.
Vincent Alexander
Member
People outside Illinois always pronounce it "Ill-ih-noise". I find it interesting more than anything.
This just blew my mind.
I'm not very good with writing things out phonetically, but it's more like 'edin-bur-ruh'
MEHR-KAH
I agree with you and I am not arguing we should do that. After all I pronounce in "x" in Texas and all that. I just think it's silly to get mad about people pronouncing a word the way it was originally pronounced while smugly declaring you're right when, historically speaking, you're really not.
ThLunarian
Member
I don't follow your example. Josh is an American name. People can go by whatever name they choose.
Nevada isn't some offshoot of another word. It's the actual Spanish word itself. At some point, someone must have just said "Fuck it I'm changing how I say it" and everyone else must have just followed along.
It's not "incorrectly" pronounced. It's pronounced as it would be in English. Are Spanish words incorrectly pronounced Latin words? Or an even better example, are Spanish speaking people in America pronouncing z incorrectly because they pronounce is like an s not a th? No, of course not.
OP:
If it makes you happy I pronounce it Nuhvaduh
figadapaura
Member
Haha I know, I was just typing out how it's mispronounced. In some cases anyway. It's usually the last bit that gets pronounced berg most often.
crisdecuba
Member
I think his point is that the person whose name it is should be able to determine the pronunciation of their own name. A better example would be, "If you ask to be called Chris (pronounced /kris/), I'm not going to call you Cris (pronounced /krēs/ -- the spanish pronunctiation) just because you're Latino)."
Similarly, the claim is that the people who actually live in a place should be able to determine what they're called.
No no, it's NEVADA.
figadapaura
Member
I clicked your profile after and saw Isle of Man so I figured you were just joking but I felt like I should leave it for others who weren't in on the joke.
OneEightZero
aka ThreeOneFour
There is not an incorrect pronunciation. It is a pity that these arguments continue to rise over words with more than one pronunciation when they are perfectly understood when spoken. These different ways of saying a word are linked to the same lexical items in your head. Both pronunciations of the word "Nevada" are equally understood. Why is this a problem?
Chastising a person for saying it one way or another should be stopped. It's a detriment to an already garbled language that is leveling itself. We are so effective at understanding when someone communicates with us that we understand what they are saying. Different pronunciations should be embraced. It is a mapping of how we use our speech. We should embrace the fuzzy, not hamper it.
Chastising a person for saying it one way or another should be stopped. It's a detriment to an already garbled language that is leveling itself. We are so effective at understanding when someone communicates with us that we understand what they are saying. Different pronunciations should be embraced. It is a mapping of how we use our speech. We should embrace the fuzzy, not hamper it.
Choosy perverts choose .gif....
That's how I've always said it, and that's how the creator of the .gif pronounces it.
Dark Octave
Banned
I say, Nuh-vah-duh.
Nah-vah-duh is also ok by me.
Any other pronunciation is just weird.
Nah-vah-duh is also ok by me.
Any other pronunciation is just weird.
Hypemaster
Member
I shall continue pronouncing it the way it is pronounced in Spanish.
figadapaura
Member
lol some of those words require context. Also a couple I'd never even seen before.
The problem is English has taken most of its words from other languages and not changed the spellings, so we just anglicise the pronunciations. There's also a lot of variation between location as well, which doesn't help.
Dark Octave
Banned
And how is that, Navaja or some shit?
crisdecuba
Member
And you shall continue to be wrong.
OneEightZero
aka ThreeOneFour
Why?
jetpacks was yes
Member
I lived in Colorado for 11 years but refused to call it ColoRADuh like so many locals did. And it's a Spanish word anyhow, so whatever is closest to that works for me.
OneEightZero
aka ThreeOneFour
I like that you're busting out the IPA. ^_^
er... but neˈβaða and ne-bada are totally different pronunciations.... and that's from your own post....
β =/= v or b
ð =/= d
OneEightZero
aka ThreeOneFour
Uhhhhhhh....
Pronounce it however you like. People will understand you. Neither way is wrong. ^_^
ThLunarian
Member
This is a good example, but it's weird because it makes arguments for both sides.
On one hand, we pronounce it differently and ignore the pronunciation of the people who live there (Point: Ne-vah-da)
On the other hand, it's a foreign word with a specific way to it should be pronounced, and yet we're pronouncing it the American way (Point: Ne-Vad-Uh)
I'm not sure which way to go on this.
I'm from Washington, and I've always pronounced it ILL-IH-NOY.
Now, what gets me is when people pronounce Washington as WARSH-ING-TUN
crisdecuba
Member
Because I believe that locals should be able to define the correct pronunciation of their state's name.
isn't that a borrowed word from náhuatl? I might be wrong though.
As for the discussion in the thread itself, I don't live in the US and I'm a native spanish speaker so I pronounce it the way it's written: NE-VA-DA.
Exactly! That's really what I was going for here.
There are reasonable arguments both ways and there's not a single right answer. If I say Nev-AH-duh or Nev-a-duh, people will know what I mean, and that's the most important thing.
OneEightZero
aka ThreeOneFour
Oh, I gotcha now. I misunderstood that post with the way it was written. Spot on. ^_^
You have more people worldwide pronouncing it the "wrong" way than you do "locals". In 50-100 years, the "wrong" way will be "right". Why bother with what's right and wrong? It is understood with either pronunciation. It doesn't truly matter in the grand scheme of speech.
That happens to me all the time when someone refers to me in Spanish. I don't find myself bothered by it. Same way I really wouldn't be bothered if someone called me Cristobal, though that has yet to happen.
The second isn't ipa. I was trying to get in the ball park since.
so yeah it's more like Ne-[bv]a-[dth]a or something
See this is why we should all stick to solely IPA.
Could you please translate for the rest of us as to what this means?
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