Mispronounced Localities in NM (Santa Fe, Ruidoso: property, accent, summers)

[malamute]

I think many of those places have more than one pronunciation depending on who is speaking. It's like San Antonio Tx, it can be called San Antone. I think it can sound kind of funny when an English speaker, speaking English goes far out of their way and tries to mix Spanish pronounciation when speaking English.

Or just pronounce in Spanish when speaking Spanish and pronounce in English when speaking English.

[Zoidberg]

My non-Webster pronunciation guide for locals:

Tesuque (teh-soo-key)
Pojoaque (poe-waw-key)

The key's at the end can sometimes be kay's, depending on who's doing the butchering..

[sjbasin]

Dzilth-na-o-dith-hle

That's the English spelling of a little place near Huerfano (south of Bloomfield). It's a Navajo name. Most folks don't even try to pronounce it.

[Tim Rankin]

Originally Posted by Zoidberg

My non-Webster pronunciation guide for locals:

Tesuque (teh-soo-key)
Pojoaque (poe-waw-key)

The key's at the end can sometimes be kay's, depending on who's doing the butchering..

(teh-soo'-key) as above, with the accent/emphasis on the 2nd syllable. Don't know about Pojoaque.

p.s. An interesting addition to this thread would be street names, eg. Juan Tabo, (won-tuh-bo')

[lisdol]

Yeah, years ago, I thought Juan Tabo was pronounced "won TAH-bo".

I still cannot say Ruidoso correctly, or at least I think I can't. I really don't know how its pronounced as I learned it from locals (ABQ) who say - "Ree-uh-doso".

[nmguy]

One that's always puzzled me is the pronunciation of the state capital, which natives pronounce "Sánta Fe". In Spanish, it's pronounced with the stress on the second word.

I'm not arguing; just mentioning it.

[jsc23]

The town Jal in SE NM, often mistaken to be Spanish place name so pronounced "Hall", but name comes from initials of early railroad exec who was Anglo, so pronounced with soft j and short a- rhymes with "pal"

"La Cienaga" seems commonly rendered "See-uh-nay-guh"

A lot of Eagle Nest residents I know get very irritated by "Eagle's Nest"
Between Clayton and Raton is the town of Des Moines pronounced Deh Moinz

[jsc23]

Originally Posted by nmguy

One that's always puzzled me is the pronunciation of the state capital, which natives pronounce "Sánta Fe". In Spanish, it's pronounced with the stress on the second word.

I'm not arguing; just mentioning it.

You may be right, but in Spanish, the next to last syllable of a word is stressed unless otherwise marked. I could be wrong, but I don't ever recall seeing the last syllable of "Santa" marked for stress... which would indicate stress on "San-"...

[desert sun]

When I lived in Portales I heard people from out of state or when placing phone orders call it Por-tuls, rhyme with mortals.

and Ruidoso is pronounced Ree-uh-doso, I've never heard anyone say it differently, we use to play them in high school and I knew many people who go camping there and we all pronounce it the same.

Dzilth-na-o-dith-hle- Ive seen that little place south of Bloomfield and I have no idea how to say it, it is probably the countries most unique village.

[crazyme4878]

I'm in SE Arizona, and came from the northern midwest, so all the Spanish names/terms throw us for a loop. I'm getting better, though--and this thread has proved some insight.

The big problem was that we didn't know how to pronounce Huachuca--and my husband's job is working in the Huachuca. We absolutely butchered the name--ending up in giggling fits over our ignorance (acutally we gave up and called it something completely different)--until he clarified it with his new boss!

Oh, and you should have heard me try to pronounce octillo!

One more time for clarification--how do you pronounce Ruidoso?