Proper Pronunciation of "Colorado" (classes, paid, Americans)

[jazzlover]

About Durango: Like many Colorado towns, it was named by founder of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, General William Jackson Palmer, with a Spanish name. It was Palmer's original intent to connect Denver to Mexico City with his narrow-gauge railroad (which never happened, but that is another long story). Alamosa and Salida were two other still prominent Colorado towns named by Palmer and the D&RG (Salida being the Spanish word for "exit", for the town's location where the Arkansas River canyon widens; and Alamosa, the Spanish word for the cottonwood trees located along the Rio Grande River there). In my experience with Durango, which goes back to when I was a small kid, I heard many of the local natives pronounce it with the "a" between the "soft" Spanish pronunciation and the "hard" Anglo sharp "a"--sort of a compromise, I guess. That is how I usually pronounce it--I've never had a Durango native raise his or her eyebrow about that.

Not surprisingly, many of such Spanish named towns had their pronunciations "bastardized" by the Anglos who were the predominant new settlers in many of the communities. Most of those settlers had never been around the Spanish language, so ignorance could have led to many of the mispronunciations. More sinister, many of those early settlers were quite bigoted against the Spanish culture and sometimes deliberately attempted to expunge the Spanish pronunciation of place names as an affront to the Hispanic residents.

Nor were such mispronunciations limited to Spanish names. Some examples:

The river running through Trinidad was names the Purgatoire River by the early French trappers, the French word for "hell." The proper French pronunciation would be "Purga-twar," with the last "r" very softly pronounced, but that got bastardized into the Anglicized "Picketwire" River, a mispronunciation which persists to this day.

Or, how about the town of Nathop? It was to be named for the proprieter of the store owner that founded the town, a German Jewish merchant named Charles Nachtrieb. His last name was bastardized into "Nathrop" by the Post Office Department when they established a Post Office there.

Then there is the town of Paonia. Its founders wanted it to be named "Paeonia," named for the Latin name of the peony flower, which at the time was being commercially grown the area. The Post Office once again bastardized the spelling into "Paonia," which has been the name of the town ever since. Many of the long-time natives of Paonia (which, like in most Colorado places, there are few left) pronounce the town name as "Pee-own-ya," the correct pronunciation of the original Latin name intended for the town.

[rushhournewb]

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.

Huerfano>Where-fon-no, accent on the first syllable.
Saguache>Sa-watch, accent both syllables pretty much the same.
Costilla>Cos-tee-ya, accent on the "tee".
Colorado>Co-lo-ra-do, where the "ra" rhymes with "mad".

Do I pass the test?

[Dude111]

I suppose you could spell it this way also

Kallerahdough

[rushhournewb]

Originally Posted by Dude111

I suppose you could spell it this way also

Kallerahdough

And be phonetically wrong, yeah.

[Dude111]

Ah man!!

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by rushhournewb

And be phonetically wrong, yeah.

This whole thread is just plain WRONG.

[rushhournewb]

OK, will do. I was watching an interview with the coach of Illinois who is playing CU in a first round basketball game in the NCAA tournament, this Friday. The entire interview he pronounced our state name correctly, as in "Co-lo-ra-do". It was wonderful to hear.

[SouthXSW]

I hear Colo-rah-do most often on the local TV news in Denver, and on commercials. Honestly it's like people saying Missou-ree or Missou-rah, it all depends on where you live and neither is "wrong".

[rushhournewb]

I was down at the USA Bike race last week. I was City Park strolling around. I was browsing some booth when the lady next to me, who was shouting into her phone, said "I'm in Colorahdo". The signal must have broken up on her phone because she repeated herself, with a Mona Lisa smile "I said I'm in Coloraaahdo!" Yes, lovely exotic Coloraaaahdo. I was going to say something but didn't.

To make up for that, though, I listened to an interview this morning on NPR where the interviewer and the interviewed both pronounced our state's name correctly--Colorado. I love it when I hear that.

[davidv]

Originally Posted by rushhournewb

I was down at the USA Bike race last week. I was City Park strolling around. I was browsing some booth when the lady next to me, who was shouting into her phone, said "I'm in Colorahdo". The signal must have broken up on her phone because she repeated herself, with a Mona Lisa smile "I said I'm in Coloraaahdo!" Yes, lovely exotic Coloraaaahdo. I was going to say something but didn't.

To make up for that, though, I listened to an interview this morning on NPR where the interviewer and the interviewed both pronounced our state's name correctly--Colorado. I love it when I hear that.

Now, if we could only remind everyone that people who live here are Coloradans, not Coloradoans. The Coloradoan is a Ft. Collins newspaper.