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I'm from California and pronounce the three states as the audio did. Actually, most Texans I know pronounce them "wrong" especially Nevada and Colorado. Sometimes I hear, "Cod-o-rah-do." How about these that one hears a lot in Texas:
Mass-a-too-sits (This one drives me the nuttiest).
Ha-wa-ya
Loo-zee-anna
It's funny and sort of like you say "pa-tah-toe" and I say "po-tay-toe."
so what is the correct way to say MA? I pronounce it the way you spelled it.
I will always refuse to pronounce Nevada and Colorado the way the clueless "natives" say it. They are both Spanish words. I don't say TAAAA-CO. I do say PLAAAZA, so I guess I'm selective.
In Pennsylvania, they insist on pronouncing Versailles as VER-SAILS. It bugs me, but I don't go there so I don't have to deal with it.
The majority isn't always right, even if they live there.
The only way to pronounce Oregon is Ori-gun. Or Ora-gun. Or -gin, I guess. It all sounds the same, really.
I will always refuse to pronounce Nevada and Colorado the way the clueless "natives" say it. They are both Spanish words. I don't say TAAAA-CO. I do say PLAAAZA, so I guess I'm selective.
The majority isn't always right, even if they live there.
The only way to pronounce Oregon is Ori-gun. Or Ora-gun. Or -gin, I guess. It all sounds the same, really.
Ugh. At least you pronounce my state correctly (yes I said the C word).
Though "Or-gin" is REALLY sloppy and NOT the same.
Quote:
Originally Posted by desert sun
so what is the correct way to say MA? I pronounce it the way you spelled it.
Massachusetts is phonetic: "Mass-uh-choo-sits," though from the Bostonians I associate with it sounds more like "Mass-uh-choo-sis" on good days and "Mass-uh-chooss" on bad ones.
When I was a young'n I couldn't remember which sounds went where and so it came out more like "Mass-uh-two-sh*ts."
Last edited by backdrifter; 08-18-2008 at 10:09 PM..
Reason: oops
Colorado and Nevada are both Spanish words. If one follows the strict Spanish pronunciation for Colorado, it would be pronounced "Koh-law-rah-doh." "Rah" rhymes with "awe." Nevada would be "Nuh-vah-da." Most visitors and many locals do not pronounce it that way. In Colorado, the most common local pronounciation is Cah-la-rah-do--pretty much like the pronunciation in the sound bite. Some pronounce it Cah-la-raa-do, ("raa" using a short "a") which just grates on me like fingernails on a chalkboard.
Another pet peeve of mine is the widespread use of "Coloradoan" to describe one from Colorado. Proper Spanish would be "Coloradan." We don't call people from Mexico "Mexicoans," now do we?
.
No, we don't!
But, after some digging, we may ALL be getting "Colorado" wrong, except for Mario in the afternoons on AM 760 in Denver. He says it per the Spanish pronunciation guide below: (click on the speaker icon for audio)
I say CAH-luh-RAA-do, Nuh-VAA-duh, and Ore-GAHN. I know it's probably incorrect, but everyone pronounces it that way here in the Midwest.
HA! That's exactly how I say them. Everyone around here (Michigan) pronounces it NevADDa, which the same way that they do in Nevada... probably because that short "A" sound is our specialty here! There's no way we could screw that one up.
And I definitely say OregON, and it rhymes with ENRON. Sure, it's probably wrong, but that's how most of us say it here.
Colorado... that one's pretty straightforward IMO.
It also confuses me that a bunch of you say that you pronounce Oregon as Ore-Gone. Around here, we pronounce the word "gone" as GAWN (rhyming with yawn or dawn). And I've never heard anyone pronounce it Oregawn.
Last edited by michigan83; 04-16-2009 at 09:51 AM..
Saying "oh I'm going to pronounce this however I want, despite what the local pronunciation is" is being willfully ignorant, and that's fine if you want to be that, but calling the locals "clueless" about their own pronunciation is straight-up disrespectful.
Sometimes it seems to me that Westerners on these boards have more grievances with mispronunciations and what you should call things in general (eg. Nev-add-a, never say Cali!, don't call it Frisco or San Fran), but then I think about the correct pronunciation here in the East, of places like Newark, Worcestershire, Houston Street, and how grating it would be for someone not from here to tell me how I should be pronouncing the names of these places. Despite etymology, local pronunciation is correct pronunciation. I know places in the West are all Spanish words and I know how to pronounce them in Spanish (I am hispanic), but that does not mean the name of the place is pronounced that way.
I had a friend who moved to NYC last summer and kept calling it the Metro, and I had to constantly correct him and tell him its Subway here. It does become really annoying after awhile, so I feel you, Nevada people.
Wow, that was weird. I didn't even look at Rachael's post before I made mine, and they are almost the same.
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