Naming the states

From The New York Times:

Mr. Kerry was taken to task in Wednesday’s Las Vegas Review-Journal for mispronouncing Nevada (it’s Ne-VAH-da, not Ne-VAD-uh) and its Yucca (he said YOO-kah instead of YUK-ah) Mountain. “I’ve got to stop saying Ne-VAD-uh the way they say it in Massachusetts,” he said the next day. “Ne-VAH-da.”

Let’s hope they coached him before he said Or-eh-GONE in Or-eh-GUN.

And I don’t even want to think about WARSH-ing-ton.

Update: Actually, NewMexiKen doesn’t think the Times helps much with pronouncing Nevada. It’s Ne-vad-a (vad rhymes with dad), not Ne-va-da (va rhymes with ma).

4 thoughts on “Naming the states”

  1. Actually, according to Merriam-Webster, either way is acceptable.

    Although, when talking about residents of the state, both Nevadan and Nevadian are pronounced with that ‘a’ as in ‘dad’ sound, so I’m going to go along with you on this one.

  2. The word nevada is Spanish, basically meaning snow covered, or snow fall. Therefore, Nevada should be pronounced neh Vah dah [not rhyming with dad]. I don’t care what the people in Nevada say.

    This is like so many bastardized words in the West. Paso Robles pronounced Pa so [like Cat] Row bels in California, or Guadalupe (Guad ah loop in Texas and California). Despite what many Americans want to believe, Spanish, not English was and is spoken around here and pronounced like Spanish, not English.

  3. Next thing you know you’ll be telling me Amarillo is supposed to be pronounced ah-mah-ree-yo. 😉

  4. Having lived in Ne-vad-a (vad rhymes with bad) and also having visited many times, I don’t think I’ve ever heard a resident call it Ne-vah-da (vah rhymes with ha!). Likewise, when I lived near Casa Grande, if I pronounced it correctly (meaning in Spanish: ka-sah grann-day), people from the area looked at me like I was nuts. To them it was Cass-a Grand. (Cass rhymes with bass.) Unless you want to seem like an outsider, you go with the prevalent pronunciation wherever you are, even if it sounds wrong. However, if you’re around people who speak Spanish, then you can switch if you don’t want to sound like a gringo. In Madrid, NY, it’s Mad-rid, not Ma-drid.
    There’s just no accounting for colloquialisms, but it’s good to be aware of them.

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