Being in Arizona can lead one to learn new Spanish words. My mom and gramma, however, are pronouncing them all wrong and it's driving me up the wall.
Examples:
La Quinta Inn. Michelle, you probably know the correct pronunciation of orthographic . I'm no expert on romance languages, but I'm pretty damn sure that it's [ki], not [kwI] (that's a large i...I don't have ipa characters right now). They are continuously saying 'La Qwinta'. No matter how many times I correct them, they roll their eyes and continue to say it incorrectly. The only satisfaction I get out of being right in the whole situation is mumbling 'Quinta' the correct way underneath my breath.
Secondly, again Michelle, correct me if I'm wrong....but they pronounce orthographic such as in Javelina, as [ʤ], rather than [h]. '[ʤ]avelina?!' Are you fucking kidding me? I just---I don't understand! And I don't even speak Spanish.
It makes me crave nicotine. How ridiculous is that? Craving cigarettes because people don't pronounce shit right? What's going on? Does this mean that I'm truly becoming a linguistics major? When I crave nicotine due to ridiculously wrong pronunciations?
Must be.
This reminds me of when I would say "La Kwinta" in my obnoxious southern accent every time I saw one. Hey, "Lakwinta" sounds like the name of a large, black woman. Hey, why is every large, black woman with children in public ALWAYS angry at them? I mean, I have NEVER seen a counter example. Have you? I saw just this scenario today on my bus. One of the children does so much as move to look out the window, and "I DID'N TELL YOU TA DO DAT!!!"
ReplyDeleteIt's funny that you mentioned that. I had a similar experience on the CTA (bus) today!
ReplyDeleteHowever, mine was a counter example. They were being silly and laughing, and coming from the zoo. (Absolutely positively NO racist pun intended!) It made me smile, even though I think tiny human beings are kind of strange. They smell bad, and 78.3% of the time they are moderately to extremely frustrating.