There was once heated debate over how to pronounce “Los Angeles.” Although the name is now commonly pronounced “Loss An-je-les,” its original Spanish pronunciation is “Loce Ahng-hail-ais.” Non-Spanish speaking Angelenos seemed to prefer the harder-sounding anglicized version. During the 1920s and 1930s, the Los Angeles Times vigorously defended the Spanish pronunciation and printed directly below its editorial page masthead, “LOS ANGELES (Loce Ahng hail ais).” When the U.S. Geographic Board recognized the anglicized version in 1934, the Times was outraged, declaring that the pronunciation made the city “sound like some brand of fruit preserve.” The newspaper further suggested that Easterners plotted to deprive the West Coast of its softer-sounding Spanish names, proposing that California would next have to tolerate such place names as “Sandy Ego,” “San Joce,” and “San Jokkin.” In all fairness, however, the Times did not express the same distain for the prevalent pronunciation of San Pedro as “San Pee-dro” rather than the Spanish “San Pey-dro.”
Not to mention La Jaw-la (La Jolla) and (I heard this on TV once) El-K-Jon (El Cajon). It’s La-Hoy-ya and El-Ca-hone.
Our very own Albuquerque was AlbuRquerque until the Anglos came along. But I live in Bernalillo County, still pronounced Bur-na-leo.
My favorites are Loss Gattus and Loss Bannus.
How about Am-uh-rill-0h?
How about El BOSS-KEE? My personal California favorite is Paso Row-bells instead of Paso Row-bless.
San Pedro (the community now within the city of LA that houses the port) is pronounced San Peedro because it was mainly settled once by Italian immigrants and was named for San Pietro. There aren’t so many Italians around now. Spanish speakers in the area assume everything is tied to the Spanish language.
Nonsense. San Pedro bay was named by Cabrillo in 1542 and the San Pedro land grant was in 1784. Richard Henry Dana was there in the 1830s.
Italians settling there in the 20th century may have changed the pronunciation but they didn’t name the place.