Thursday, November 27, 2003

You say Nevada, I say Nevada

Yep, the pres did the unforgivable again. He mispronounced "Nevada". Say goodbye to the swing voters.

Actually his way isn't an uncommon error. And he wasn't that far off - once Jesse Jackson mispronounced New York City as "Hymietown".

Other states get mispronounced regularly too, like Louisiana or Oregon. But my native Illinois seems to be the champion because of that final S that some just can't keep from pronouncing. It's "ellenOY", heathens.

Often locals get to listen to outsiders telling them they're pronouncing or spelling the name of their place wrong. Sorry pal, but if they spell it "ghoti" and insist on pronouncing it "fish", or "ghoughpteighbteau" as "potato" they're right and you're wrong, and you and your carpetbag can just keep on moving. It is a handy way to detect outsiders, especially the insufferable ones.

So remember that if you ever go to Vienna IL or GA (it's VYE-enna), Cairo, IL (KAY-ro), New Berlin, IL (new BERlin), or...you get the idea.

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