Pronunciation

Texas40 said:
JFK pronounced CUBA as CUBAR...if that makes a difference
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Yankees in general and Bostonians in particular add Rs where none are called for and drop Rs where they are needed.

Cubar. Louisianar. Etc

But they Pawk their caws in the caw pawk.

Brits tend to do the same thing.
 
handejector said:
Help me out here-

ALL my life, it has gone this way when I walk up to someone who is taking names:

Name please?
Lee Jarrett.
Is that with a G or a J?

(I'm thinkin) HUH? :eek:
I want to say "With a J. I'm not related to Pat Garrett", but that would inspire more useless conversation, like "Is he here too?" :rolleyes:

Maybe it's gust me. ;)
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When I met you I asked for the Big Gorilla:D (with a G)
 
jgh4445 said:
Just out of Monroeville Alabama is a community named Mexia..and they DO pronounce it Mex e a. Speaking of the Brits, how bout when the call a jaguar a Jag-U-R?
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Well, it's a Spanish word so in Texas, which is about 65% Hispanic, it's pronounced Me Hay a.

Of course, that doesn't always follow. Our famous battleground (San Jacinto) which produced Texas' freedom from Mexico is pronounced "San Ja sinto" but the correct pronunciation would be "San Hah seento."

We make up our own rules in the Republic of Texas.
 
jgh4445 said:
Just out of Monroeville Alabama is a community named Mexia..and they DO pronounce it Mex e a. Speaking of the Brits, how bout when the call a jaguar a Jag-U-R?
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There is a Mexia, TX. Mexia, Texas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia I like their motto "A great place, no matter how you pronounce it.".

There is an old joke about a couple traveling through Mexia and they pull over to eat at a fast food restaurant. After they order their burgers and fries, they ask the cashier... How do you pronounce the name of this place? The cashier says Dairy Queen.
 
kwselke said:
There is a Mexia, TX. Mexia, Texas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia I like their motto "A great place, no matter how you pronounce it.".

There is an old joke about a couple traveling through Mexia and they pull over to eat at a fast food restaurant. After they order their burgers and fries, they ask the cashier... How do you pronounce the name of this place? The cashier says Dairy Queen.
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Yes, I shared that joke about 30 posts earlier.
 
Alpo said:
On that "Bois D'Arc" - in French, when a word starts "D' ", it is not pronounce separately. The young guy in The Three Musketeers was not called "Dee Artanyan", his name was "Dartanyan", even though it was spelled "D'Artagnan".

So, yeah, that's "dark", not "dee ark".
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As I understand it that is sorta true.

I believe that when pronounced with a correct French accent, there is kind of an inflection or hesitation after the pronunciation of the D sound and before the letter that follows it isn't there? That's the reason for the accent mark, right?

So while "Dee-Arc" isn't quite phonetically correct, "Dark", with no inflection after the D, isn't quite right either. There really isn't a way to type it phonetically correct in English without the ability to type all the accent and inflection marks.

I also believe that in French the "Bois" part of the name has a very soft "s" sound at the end (kind of a faint, breathy, "z" sound) that can't be correctly typed in normal English characters either. It would really be closer to "bwausz".

A french accent is pretty hard to type in English...
 
It's always kinda bugged me that it's "pro-nuhn-see-a-shun" instead of "pro-nown-see-a-shun".

But I reckon that's that's just me.
 
Think of D'Arc in musical terms. It would not be one
"half note." The "D'" would be more like an eighth note and the "Arc" would a dotted quarter note. You just barely touch on the "D."
 
There is a town in central Texas spelled Mexia and pronounce ma-HAY-a. Every time the Waco tv stations get a new wether person they always pronounce it mex-EE-a till some irate viewer call up the station and sets 'em straight. :D
 
BC38 said:
As I understand it that is sorta true.

I believe that when pronounced with a correct French accent, there is kind of an inflection or hesitation after the pronunciation of the D sound and before the letter that follows it isn't there? That's the reason for the accent mark, right?

So while "Dee-Arc" isn't quite phonetically correct, "Dark", with no inflection after the D, isn't quite right either. There really isn't a way to type it phonetically correct in English without the ability to type all the accent and inflection marks.

I also believe that in French the "Bois" part of the name has a very soft "s" sound at the end (kind of a faint, breathy, "z" sound) that can't be correctly typed in normal English characters either. It would really be closer to "bwausz".

A french accent is pretty hard to type in English...
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I don't think that is an accent mark. It's an apostrophe, and just like the one in "it's", it is taking the place of a letter - in this case "E" - and it's a contraction. De Arc becomes D'Arc. And just like "it's" is not pronounced "it is", "D'Arc" is not pronounced "De Arc".
 
I had an uncle that was 2nd generation Italian raised in the Bronx during the depression. It used to drive him crazy when my hillbilly Idaho relatives would refer to him as the "Eyetalian". He tried to educate them on the differences in languages and was from that point on was referred to as "The Dago" by his wife's brother. He was a prince of a man and one of my favorite people in the world, the one thing his family regarded above everything else was respect..."You can't expect to be treated with respect unless you are willing to show it to others."
 
Town just down the road a piece. Blountstown.

Everyone in NW Florida knows that's Blunt(like "not pointed)s-town. But we got some Yankee weather girl in here a few years back and she kept talkin' 'bout "Blow(like "ow, that hurts")nts-town. Frustrating. People called the TV station and complained. Didn't help.
 
Some of the British 'shires are almost impossible to pronounce by the average yank. I think we finally figured how to say Worcestershire.:)

There is a town in southern Illinois called Cairo. It is called Kayro here in the midwest.
 
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Alpo said:
I don't think that is an accent mark. It's an apostrophe, and just like the one in "it's", it is taking the place of a letter - in this case "E" - and it's a contraction. De Arc becomes D'Arc. And just like "it's" is not pronounced "it is", "D'Arc" is not pronounced "De Arc".
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That makes sense. There are a large number of French place names in and around the St. Louis area where I grew up. Maybe the folks in St. Louis are the ones who were pronouncing it wrong! Maybe the folks pronouncing it "BowDark" are right, but is sure doesn't sound right to hear a French word pronounced that way in a hillbilly twang!

Kensterfly said:
Think of D'Arc in musical terms. It would not be one "half note." The "D'" would be more like an eighth note and the "Arc" would a dotted quarter note. You just barely touch on the "D."
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Sorry, now you're speaking another language I don't know - I don't read music any better than I read French - probably not as well even. There are at least a few French words that I recognize ;)

Old TexMex said:
Bois D'arc is pronounced " Osage orange".
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Yeah or "bow wood" (meaning the wood that bows are made from)
 
I'm sure it's the folks in St. Louis that are pronouncing it wrong. I bet they even say they live in Saint Lewis, right, instead of Saint Lou-EE. :D
 
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