When only white people are around, what is the best way to pronounce Spanish words?
I’d also say the characterization of this as a “white vs. Spanish” issue is somewhat inaccurate. The issue is more correctly how to render Spanish when in a predominately English environment, as the issue would be the same for a white, brown, yellow, or red person who spoke only English. More generally still, it is an issue of how properly to render foreign words when one speaks in one’s native tongue. Should you, as an English speaker, call Germany “Germany” or should you call it “Deutschland”, which is what the Germans call it? Should you, as an English speaker, roll your r’s when you pronounce a Spanish word? Should a Spanish-speaker not roll their r’s when they pronounce an English word? As to the implied question of why “correct” (or, perhaps, overcorrected) pronunciation is more common when English speakers speak Spanish, that may be because you hear it more, and it may be a bit of political correctness, given that Spanish is the second most common native language in the US. On t
When I first moved to California, I had a hard time learning how to pronounce spanish place-names in english. Vallejo was particularly hard, as they say “Vah-ley-oh”, instead of “Va-yeh-hoe”. I’m a bit late to the party, but the most funny pronunciation I can remember is when a friend of my father’s pronounced it “Valley Joe.” I speak French almost fluently (I was fluent a few years ago but haven’t used it much), so sometimes I can’t help but say French words using French pronunciation. I agree though that using the English pronunciation when there is a standard one is a good rule of thumb… I say “Mon-tree-all” and “Pariss” when speaking English. I too struggle with the pronunciation of crepe. Usually I say it the French way first, at which point my friends give me a puzzled look and I repeat it as kraype. Saying kraype is really weird for me.
Here in Portland, gyro sandwiches are pronounced “hero” sandwiches, which is I guess how they say it in Greece. But I can’t make myself say it. Where I grew up, back east, it was said like it’s spelled — “jie-roh.” I also learned to pronounce “coupon” as “que-pon” as opposed to “coo-pon,” thanks to the Detroit influence of my mom’s family. I always screw up and pronounce the football-playin’ university as “Notre Dahm” ever since I visited Notre Dame in Paree. Ever since having a roommate who had traveled widely in South America, I’ve struggled everytime I talk about the nation Chile. Is it “CHIL-lee” or “chil-LAY”? As an English major at an American university, I was taught that we were supposed to pronounce “Don Quixote” like the British — as “Don Kwik-zote,” not “Don Kee-ho-tay.” When I say something the way I want to say it, because that’s how I was raised, sometimes I feel like I’m being pretentious. It’s not that I think “que-pon” is better than “coo-pon,” it’s just that I think
Regarding the gyro – it’s not pronounced “hero” here, it’s pronounced more like “YEEroh” with a tiny “gh” sound on the “y” and a soft, short-rolling “r”. But when I go to the U.S., if want to get a gyro, I will pronounce it jie-row. Anyway, this brings up a funny thought – if we were really to try to pronounce all the English words that have been borrowed from foreign languages in their original pronunciation, the language would sound completely different — like gibberish, in fact; just imagine the Greek and Latin alone! That said, my feeling is that if something just really feels like fingernails on a chalkboard when pronouncing it the Anglicized way, go ahead and use the proper pronunciation. Swank6’s “crepe” example is good.
Andrew and Languagehat: “Proper pronunciation.” I’ve seen this debate many times so I’m not surprised that you might assume that, particularly given my complaints about anti-pointyheadedness and dumbing things down, that I meant that foreign place names should be pronounced other than the way the locals pronounce them, or that I meant Paris should be pronunced “PAH-ree” when speaking English. I don’t. My words were badly chosen, though. The “dumbing down” comment was not quite right. I probably should have written, “pronouncing based upon your own assumptions of language” or “pronouncing based upon the perceived ignorance of your audience.” That’s the kind of dumb work I hate. The proper pronunciation is, of course, dependent upon who you are talking to. So that means that those knuckleheads that stick to, for example, the Hispanophone pronunciation of certain California place names in spite of all evidence that they should be pronounced in an Anglophone manner, are pronouncing them wr
