Proper Pronunciation of "Colorado" (Denver, Durango: store, post office, trees)

[Josseppie]

Originally Posted by rushhournewb

Thank you thank you thank you. Did you vote?

Yes I did vote.......

[rushhournewb]

It was gratifying hearing our governor speak at the DNC. Pronouncing our state name correctly. Yes, it was gratifying.

[Mezter]

Don't know why, but it annoys me when people say it with the A rather than the O.

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by Mezter

Don't know why, but it annoys me when people say it with the A rather than the O.

There is a discussion on the California forum that may shed some light on this. Apparently many places are undergoing what's know as a "vowel shift" where vowels originally pronounced one way transform to a different pronunciation. It's possible this A and O difference is a result of that. What to an older person's ears sounds right, like Colo-rad-o, may sound odd to a younger one. I'll bet if we were able to dissect the poll results by age this would become apparent.

http://www.pbs.org/speak/ahead/change/changin/

[rushhournewb]

Remember, I didn't bring this thread back up. But here it is so I'll comment again:

I was listening to a story on NPR recently. The host pronounced our state's name somewhere "ah" and "a", not quite wrong, not quite right. Hey man, you live here, you're in the public "ear" come on!! He was interviewing a government official from Colorado Springs who was commenting on possible job losses at Fort Carson.

The CSprings guy pronounced it correctly every time "Co-lo-ra-do" and the host, bless his heart, started saying it correctly by the end of the story. Sort of. He's backslid since but there's hope, at least he's said it correctly a few times.

I met a lady from England a few weeks ago. She'd just moved here. In the course of our conversation I said "oh yeah, by the way, the correct pronunciation of our state is Co-lo-ra-do. Say it. Say it!" She flustered and blustered and finally said "I don't think I CAN say that!" So maybe it's a problem at the cellular level, those who cannot pronounce our state's name correctly.

edit: I just saw the current poll votes. I wonder if the vote on the Chicago poll has "Chi-cay-go" winning, or the vote in the Texas poll has "Tay-has" winning.

[lovethehighcountry]

I don't even know how people can continue on this thread ... the phonetics aren't even close!

Pronounce ... RA ... and record it and I bet you'll get ten different sounds ... you just can't use that combination of letters to indicate a certain sound.

Oh, and the reason I say that, is because of the Egyptian sun god, Ra. Who is pronounced nothing like the ra in rad.

[rushhournewb]

Originally Posted by lovethehighcountry

I don't even know how people can continue on this thread ... the phonetics aren't even close!

Pronounce ... RA ... and record it and I bet you'll get ten different sounds ... you just can't use that combination of letters to indicate a certain sound.

Oh, and the reason I say that, is because of the Egyptian sun god, Ra. Who is pronounced nothing like the ra in rad.

We ain't speaking no Egyptian here. If you record ten people saying Colorado and any of them pronounce it Co-lo-rah-do, well, they're wrong, it doesn't matter if they think they're pronouncing it like that sun god's name and therefore think they're right.

I see the vote for the wrong pronunciation has gone up to 78. Worse and worse.

You all do know that Nevada is pronounced Ne-va-da, not Ne-vah-da, right? Same thing here.

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by rushhournewb

You all do know that Nevada is pronounced Ne-va-da, not Ne-vah-da, right? Same thing here.

Not disagreeing with your pronunciation but sometimes the locals in two spots may pronounce their similar spellings differently. Amarillo and Camarillo come to mind.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by rushhournewb

We ain't speaking no Egyptian here. If you record ten people saying Colorado and any of them pronounce it Co-lo-rah-do, well, they're wrong, it doesn't matter if they think they're pronouncing it like that sun god's name and therefore think they're right.

I see the vote for the wrong pronunciation has gone up to 78. Worse and worse.

You all do know that Nevada is pronounced Ne-va-da, not Ne-vah-da, right? Same thing here.

I don't know (and I don't care) where you live in Colorado, but you obviously have never spent much time in southern or western Colorado. If you had, you would not be so stinking headstrong about the idea that pronouncing Colorado so that it rhymes with "mad" is the way all native and long-time Coloradans pronounce it. It's NOT.

You'd probably pronounce Huerfano County "Hew-er-fay-no" County, too. (For the record, it's "Where-fuh-no.") Or how about Saguache? "Sa-gow-chee?" It's "Suh-watch." By the way, Saguache was the SPANISH phonetic spelling of a Ute Indian word, and the Anglos phonteically spelled the same name as "Sawatch." Or Costilla? You'd go for "Co-still-a," right? Not "Co-steeya."

You live in a state where nearly half the land area was once part of Mexico, with innumerable Spanish place names, and a substantial NATIVE Hispanic population. Get over it. By the way, I'm Anglo, but I respect the beauty of the Spanish language and see no reason to butcher the pronunciation of Spanish Colorado place names like some Midwestern hillbilly.

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by jazzlover

I don't know (and I don't care) where you live in Colorado, but you obviously have never spent much time in southern or western Colorado. If you had, you would not be so stinking headstrong about the idea that pronouncing Colorado so that it rhymes with "mad" is the way all native and long-time Coloradans pronounce it. It's NOT.

You'd probably pronounce Huerfano County "Hew-er-fay-no" County, too. (For the record, it's "Where-fuh-no.") Or how about Saguache? "Sa-gow-chee?" It's "Suh-watch." By the way, Saguache was the SPANISH phonetic spelling of a Ute Indian word, and the Anglos phonteically spelled the same name as "Sawatch." Or Costilla? You'd go for "Co-still-a," right? Not "Co-steeya."

You live in a state where nearly half the land area was once part of Mexico, with innumerable Spanish place names, and a substantial NATIVE Hispanic population. Get over it. By the way, I'm Anglo, but I respect the beauty of the Spanish language and see no reason to butcher the pronunciation of Spanish Colorado place names like some Midwestern hillbilly.

I'll remind my "Dur-Ahn-Go" cousins that they and their elders have been mispronouncing these Spanish names for the past 130 years.