Comments on: Scorn befalls those mispronouncing “Nevada”

By: Bob Carroll

Bob Carroll — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 22:25:29 +0000

No American state uses the Spanish pronunciation:

California, Montana, Florida, New Mexico, Nevada, Texas, Colorado - Spanish origin - English pronunciation.

Very few who have lived for a significant time west of Kansas ever had a problem pronouncing Nevada correctly: neh-VAD-uh (”A” as in cat)

This is mostly east coast arrogance and southern ignorance. The east coast media is proud that they can pronounce Kazakhstan but won’t take 20 seconds to learn how to properly pronounce Nevada, Colorado, and Oregon.

IMO, the country bumpkin who pronounces Illinois as “Illi-noise” is no worse than the equivalent east coast or Texas “educated” media bumpkin who mispronounces Nevada.

In fact, I give the country bumpkin a bit more credit because once informed of his error, unlike some east coast folks I have encountered, he is unlikely to have the chutzpah to tell a native Nevadan or Coloradan how they “should” pronounce their own states.

By: Robert Beard

Robert Beard — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 19:23:45 +0000

Words ending on accented -ada have traditionally been pronounced AH-duh, not add-uh: Armada, Grenada, Ramada, masada. It is not surprising that those who wish to speak English consistently would prefer pronouncing Nevada, Arvada, and Colorado the same way.

By: xia

xia — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 13:00:41 +0000

No 2 ways about it. These lands were Mexico and the language was Spanish/Indian. Nevada, phonetically correct will be nothing other than how it factually originated. What’s the big deal?

By: Johnathon Jones

Johnathon Jones — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 04:19:19 +0000

I agree with Michael. We pronounce the word as our language dicates, and that would mean using “Vad” instead of “Vahd”.

By: Michael

Michael — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 06:10:54 +0000

Newfangled? I’m 43 yo and my mother pronounced it Nev-VAA-Da and my grandmother pronounced it that way. That’s at least 125 years of history. Yes, it’s a Spanish word, but that doesn’t mean we ever intended to pronounce it the way they do in Spain! That’s like saying Texas should be pronounced Tejas. I challenge you to tell a Texan he’s pronouncing his state’s name wrong because he’s being ‘newfangled’.

By: Carlito

Carlito — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 04:11:36 +0000

I’m from Vegas, and this is really starting to irk me. How can a bunch of Yahoos determine that the wrong way to pronounce Nevada, is the only way? Michelle Obama, Brian Williams,and countless others had it right, and should have stuck to their guns! All the denying in the universe won’t change the fact that this great state(along with many others)was named by LATINOS, not clench jawed New Englanders with sweaters tied over their shoulders.

By: LGS

LGS — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 03:11:05 +0000

Wow, when did the preferred pronunciation change? It’s been several years since I was acquainted with any people from Nevada, but back then the scorn was typically directed to the ones who pronounced it NeVADDa.

I wonder if snowbirds have taken over Nevada now, like they have Florida and Arizona? This really sounds like a Northeasterner’s pronunciation to me.

I guess next we’ll be forced to pronounce it “Las VEEgas”.

By: Johnathon Jones

Johnathon Jones — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 02:16:14 +0000

It is time for “change”. Yes, they are ashamed of their history, and now they shall rectify it and speak English-the true language of the United States-and be ashamed no more. Ne-VADD-ah it is.

By: MC

MC — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 05:42:28 +0000

Is Nevada *that* ashamed of its Hispanic history?!

It’s been ne-VAH-da since 1864. The name is a Spanish word. Ne-VADD-ah is a newfangled innovation by people going out of their way to show that they don’t speak Spanish.