Via Drudge, I see some Democrats have seized upon another pressing issue for the 2004 elections:
Nevada memo to George Bush: When making a first presidential visit to a state, use the right pronounciation of its name.
Bush, in Las Vegas on Tuesday, repeatedly said Ne-vah-da. To properly pronounce Nevada, the middle syllable should rhyme with gamble.
Mispronouncing the state’s name “sets people’s teeth on edge,” said state Archivist Guy Rocha. “He’s the president, and he ought to get it right. Nothing personal.”
State Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, said the mispronunciation shows Bush, who won the state in the 2000 election, doesn’t care much about the state.
By this logic, Arnold Schwarzanalphabet absolutely hates Caleeeeeeefornia, and both Jimmy Carter and the Current President Bush must have unprintable opinions about nucular weapons.
Michael Demmons
So, it should be Nevambleah?
:-)
lunacy
Webster has two pronunciations.
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/audio.pl?ggneva02.wav=Nevada
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/audio.pl?ggneva03.wav=Nevada
MommaBear
Dina lives in a perpetual state of confusion, methinks !!
Xrlq
It might also be a good idea for the Sun to consider using the correct spelling of “pronounce” and “pronunciation.”
Matthew Stinson
“Nevambleah” — sounds like a club for man-boy love and gambling
Charlie
I wonder if these folks in Nevada know the proper pronunciation of “chinga te madre, pendejo”?
HH
The most pressing issue of utmost importance since Bush saying “Pakis” and the horrible scandal that was Bush’s height being reported as possibly an inch too tall. Good to see the Dems continue to bring our attention to this.
Kimmitt
Isn’t it “Chinga tu madre, pendejo”? One ought to get these details right, I think.
Darmon Thornton
As a Nevadan, I don’t really care how people pronounce the word.
A lot of overblown hype (especially from Dina Titus), IMHO.
Andrew Lazarus
How do the candidates do with “Oregon”?
Xrlq
Actually, it’s “chinga a tu madre, pendejo.” All human direct objects take “a,” you just don’t hear it in this case because it glides together with the final “a” in “chinga.”
Kimmitt
I knew I was forgetting something, thanks.
The Commissar
Thanks for the Spanish lesson.
(Still confused about that Nevada/Nevambledah pronunciation.)
Charlie
Actually, in the local dialect (which preserves a lot of the Spanish of the 17th century in a matrix of amazing loan words from TV) the second person intimate pronoun is pronounced “t-schwa”, ergo often transliterated ‘te’.
Xrlq
Which local dialect are you referring to? And what do you mean by “intimate” pronoun? Possessive, or something else?
Kimmitt
“Intimate” as versus “formal;” its a distinction which has meaning in romance languages and used to have meaning in English back a few hundred years ago but no longer does.
Xrlq
OK, but in that case the definition is not specific enough. There is a second person “intimate” (familiar/informal) pronoun “te,” it’s just the objective form, not the possessive. E.g., “fuck you” would be “chingate.” “Chinga te madre” would not make sense, however, unless the speaker was addressing his own mother, and telling her to go fuck herself.
dex
this is not overblown at all. I can’t tell you how much it annoyed me & other St. Louisans when Bill Clinton pronounced Missouri “missour-uh” over and over.
Seattleite
When Clinton was campaigning in Seattle at the Pike Place Market, He said how pleased he was to be there at PIKES PEAK market. Wrong state!!
Of course, tourists always call it Pikes Place Market, with an extra “S”