Rant: LOCAL news and pronunciation (SW especially)

[blondeatlast]

This seems to be happening daily, if not more frequently.

You're a newscaster, in the Southwest, a region with a very large Latino/a population. You are getting paid boatloads of money, whether you are on radio or TV.

Would it be too much to ask of you to learn the Spanish phonetic alphabet?!

My six year old kid knows most of it and we aren't native speakers, although I am reasonably proficient.

Rah-ool Gree-HAHL-vah, not Ra-uhl GRI-hal-vaa.

That is just one. I don't rag on newcomers to the area (not about this anyhow :evilgrin:), but if you are in the braodcasting field, you owe it to listeners to learn how to pronounce Spanish names.

GGGGGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

[GOPisEvil]

1. Not just limiting this to broadcasters...

Here in Austin we have the following roads:

Manchaca - Mahn-chah-cah, easy right? Noooooo the white people here decided that Man-shack was easier. :wtf: I cringe every time I hear that.

Guadalupe - Gwah-dah-lou-pay, easy right? Nooooo...we have Gwah-duh-loop. :argh: What's ONE SYLLABLE?!?!?!

Of course, back in San Antonio, there was a reporter who used Spanglish pronuniciations until it got to her own name - THEN it became a spanish pronunciation lesson. }(

[blondeatlast]

5. I used to live in Casa Grande, Arizona.

You know, KAAsaa Graaand.

This is even from the NATIVES (well, many of the Anglo ones).

And I'm an Anglo.

[Richardo]

8. Houston: San Felipe = "San Fillipy"

Colorado was the worst though:

Salida = Sal-EYE-duh
Buena Vista = Bee-YOU-na Vista
Pueblo = Pee-EB-lo
Table Mesa = pronounced correctly, but it means "Table Table" :shrug:

California's big offense is "San PEE-dro"

[blondeatlast]

9. I used to live in Pee-EB-lo!!!

I was very small, but I had no problem. Just remembering it makes me cringe.

BTW, we have a Table Mesa, too. I have to think that was somebody's idea of a joke; at least I hope so.

[Richardo]

11. Hey blondeatlast!

:hi:

[GOPisEvil]

10. California (the LA area) has Los Feliz, too...

...los fell-is...Argh!

[Lars39]

12. hehe. There's a little community near us named Buena Vista.

It is pronounced locally Beuunie Vissta, or Beuunie for short. :)

[CO Liberal]

20. No One Can Agree on "Pueblo"

I've lived here since 1995, and I've heard the following pronunciations:

PWEB-low
Pee-EBB-low
Pee-EBB-uh-low
Poo-EBB-low
Poo-EBB-uh-low
Pebb-low

I've heard NEW York called "The City So Nice, They Named It Twice". I refer to Pueblo as the city so nice, the pronounce it six different ways......

:-)

[Richardo]

13. Reporter: Like "Man-dah-LEEK Del-BARRR-co" on NPR

(RRR=rolling R's) :D

[displacedtexan]

2. they all have practice tapes

of names in the news, weather terms (like el nino), and place names, which they are supposed to use to prepare for braodcasts. if they don't, it means that they just don't care.
those tapes, btw, have been around at least since detente days.

[TlalocW]

3. There was a skit...

Either SNL, Mad TV, or House of Buggin' (Hispanic/Latino-themed "In Living Color"), where a Mexican-American joins a TV newscast team and thinks he's being discriminated against because the only way the white newscasters can pronounce the Spanish words that come up is with a very thick, over-exaggerated Mexican accent.

Somewhat similar to what you're experiencing.

"After the show tonight, let's go get some EEEEEN-CHEEEEE-LAH-DAS!"

TlalocW

[qb]

4. I can sympathize - I listen to a lot of books on tape.

A slip-up here and there is excusable, but when they mispronounce the same word or name a dozen times I'm ready to smash my walkman!

[Kat45]

6. It doesn't even have to involve a foreign language.

Here in the Boston area, broadcasters habitualy pronounce the names of a number of towns wrong. A related thing that bugs me is that they use their own regional pronounications of words instead of adapting to their new locale.

I mean, c'mon these people work hard to get rid of their accents and assume the generic broadcaster voice, I don't see why they can't learn that in this area we pronounce route as 'root', not 'rout', etc.

[Gringo]

7. I hate it when they say:

eateen, instead of "eating". Why can't people pronounce the "g" anymore?

(And I don't mean "eatin'" I mean: "ee-dean" for "eating",
"play-een" for "playing"

Sounds sooo airheaded.

[amazona]

14. tee hee...i have a winner

This might be a "reverse" example. There is a town in southwest Louisiana called Iowa.

Pronounced ee-OH-uh.


i've seen purple gallinules in that area

[Interrobang]

16. Heck, that's nothing...

Here in Ontario, we have a town called Merlin, pronounced mer-LIN to rhyme exactly with Berlin; another town called Orono, pronounced OR-no; a Delhi pronounced DELL-high, and a whole bouquet of regional mispronunciations to boot (if I hear one more person tell me they're "goin' to the liberry," I'm going to kill myself).

That said, I still remember being in NYC and having someone tell me the the "FOY-err" of the building had been remodelled (they meant "foyer," but...), and encountering a woman from MA who kept talking about making clothes for her "fehts" -- it took us just minutes to figure out she meant "ferrets," so it takes all kinds, I guess.

[Japhy_Ryder]

15. In Central Virginia

There is a town named Buena Vista. When we got here, we pronounced it as, of course, Bway-na Vee-sta. But everyone around here says it Byou-na Vis-ta. I laugh every time I hear it.

[kmla]

17. Shucks, ma'am. That ain't nuttin'.

Here in the Hoosier state, we have many cities that have intercontinentally peculiar pronuciations.

Versailles = ver-SAILS
Peru = PEE-roo
Milan = MY-lunn
Fiat = FYE-utt
Russiaville = ROOSH-uh-ville

I could just go on and on...

But I still love this state - even though we pronounce some of our cities names like goobers...

[Richardo]

18. Reminds me of "Palis-teen" Texas

And Kay-ro (Cairo), IL.

[BQueen]

19. I'm in the midwest, and they can't even manage English!

There was a story about 4 teenage idiots ODing on Jimson weed, and it took the local newsreader 5 times to get the m and the n in the right order. (Kept thinking of chinese food.) This is just the most recent and memorable. I swear she could give Dumbya a run for his money on coming up with non-existent words.

Might help if some of them actually reviewed their on-air copy before it scrolled down the teleprompter...

You're right about your region, with a significant Latino population, it's only good form to learn how to pronounce the names correctly. It's a sign of respect that people really do appreciate, especially if their name is regularly mangled. (I remember calling out a traffic case in court after working through how I thought the name should be pronounced, and the guy leapt up in surprise, exclaiming, "That's right!" Probably the only time I ever got a round of applause in court.)