What's with the NeVAHda pronunciation? mcCain keeps using it.

[mwb970]

I just heard mcCain discussing nuclear waste storage on NPR and he kept referring to NeVAHda. As far as I know, this is not how the name of that state is pronounced (although it is nice to hear Gramps refer to a geographical entity that actually exists!). The NPR people presenting the story all pronounced it correctly and then there would be mcCain with NeVAHda again.

I hear this wrong pronunciation on cable news all the time.

I know it's asking a lot for someone like mcCain to get a pesky detail like this right, but um, doesn't Nevada border mcCain's home state of Arizona (or Arizuna, or whatever it is)?

[ChazII]

1. Living here in AZ

for all of my 50 years, I have heard it pronounced both ways.

[CreekDog]

4. one of those two ways being the *wrong* way

:eyes:

[ChazII]

14. sort of

like 'aunt' - ant or /awnt/

The critter way is wrong. :evilgrin:

[Kaylee]

2. Not to be dense, but how are you supposed to pronounce Nevada?

:shrug:

[mwb970]

3. It's supposed to be "Ne-VADDA" not "Ne-VAHDA".

My impression is that residents (or some of them at least) are bothered by the mispronunciation. mcCain has been chastized for this before. Here he is, in Nevada, correcting himself emphatically:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8SwhmJMi-8w&feature=related

Despite this, he's back to the wrong pronunciation again now. You just can't teach an Old Dog new tricks!

[Uben]

9. According to dictionary.com.....

...both pronunciations are correct.

Ne·vad·a - Show Spelled Pronunciation Pronunciation Key

Busted!

[mwb970]

13. Boy, you're really determined to discredit my post, aren't you?

Talk about needing a hobby!

I wasn't talking about what dictionary.com says, which is why I didn't mention them. I was talking about my perception of the way people in Nevada feel about the "Nevahda" pronunciation, based on what I have read online. Can you at least see how I might think it matters to the locals after reading many, many items like these?

OTOH, Joe Scarborough has NEVER pronounced NEVADA correctly. Frankly, it is
irritating for a lot of those in the American West that much of the eastern
media establishment seems to disrespect our region of the country.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/las-vegas/235233-nbc-news-my-mini-campaign-pronounce-2.html

Gambling and prostitution are nothing here - Michelle Obama committed the real local sin by mispronouncing the name of the state. She was introducing her husband, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, by saying how happy she was to be in Nuh-VAH-duh. The crowd at the University of Nevada Reno immediately burst into heckles. Locals don't like it when visitors pronounced the state by using a soft a, like in "baccarat." The correct pronunciation in these parts is Nuh-VAD-uh, with a hard a, like in "craps" or "blackjack."

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/blogs/hbo/archive.asp?postID=20587

Q. When/why did so many people start pronouncing Nevada as NEV-ODD-A (wrong) instead of NEV-ADD-A (correct)?

A. The name Nevada comes from Spanish, and many people give it the Spanish pronunciation, which is incorrect. Most states with Spanish names don't have this problem. (California, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, etc.) I have lived in Nevada most of my life and we pronounce it with the short a (Nev ADD a).

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070129142749AA3pFZz

I'm with April, though. As someone who grew up in Nevada...it is EXTREMELY annoying to me when I hear people say Ne-vaw-duh instead of Ne-va-duh. You can say you are pronouncing it the spanish way all you want...but ne-vaw-duh still wouldn't be correct. What really gets me is when a story is based there and they still say it wrong. The correct pronunciation of a state is the way the people who live their pronounce it.

http://poopandboogies.blogspot.com/2008/06/data.html

Hate it when people say “Ni-vaw-duh.” Nevada isn’t anywhere close to Boston. The middle syllable is the same a sound you make in cat or bat. Ni-va-duh. (That’s how you know someone is a transplant.)

http://www.mormonmommywars.com/?p=543

Correct pronunciation: Ne-va-duh ("a" as in cat)

The far too common incorrect pronunciation of our state has been perpetuated by the provincial nature of the East Coast news media. East Coast "talking heads" learn how to pronounce Kazakhstan but won't take 20 seconds to do a little regional research to learn how to pronounce western states Nevada and Colorado.

Any news anchor who would mispronounce Illinois as "Illi-noise" or New Hampshire as "New Hamp-shy're" or Des Moines, Iowa as "Dez Moynz" would be laughed at. That person would not likely be working very long on television if it became a habitual mistake. Yet almost half of the national news media have not made any effort at basic regional education about proper pronunciation of Nevada and Colorado.

IMO, national journalists disrespect the western United States when they don't care enough to be educated about this region of the country. They also serve as bad examples to the average citizen, who unfortunately rely on them for a presumably "better informed" knowledge of world events and culture.

When George W. Bush came to Nevada in 2003 and repeatedly mispronounced Nevada, he was rightly criticized by local media, including the conservative Las Vegas Review-Journal. Why should we hold a bumbling Bush to a higher standard than the national news media?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x4041480

Now who's busted?

[SaveAmerica]

16. I saw the crowd yelling at Michelle's pronunction and I thought it was very rude.

I can't describe which word is best to describe this need Nevahdians have to correct everyone saying a word in it's correct Spanish pronunciation - it borders on irrational.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0854966.html

Nevada Spanish: “snowcapped”

For once, McCain is correct.

[a la izquierda]

5. Growing up in NJ

we pronounced in NeVAHda. When I moved to California, I got used to hearing it the other way (NeVADDA).

But technically, if you pronounce it as it should be in Spanish... I'm just sayin'. :)

[Youphemism]

6. Hillary also got flak for saying "Nevahda"...

Interesting that McCain would even touch the Yucca Mountain storage issue. He's in favor of it, and Nevada is a battleground state. Naturally, not many of the residents there are wild about having radioactive waste stored there.

Honestly, it probably is the best place to store the stuff, since you have to store it somewhere, but it's certainly not something to emphasize when you're trying to compete for Nevada.

It's not as if this wins him votes elsewhere because people are saying "I'll vote for the guy who sends spent plutonium to the Sierras."

[elocs]

7. Hell, we can't even decide upon the proper way to pronounce "Iraq".

Many names from other languages than English often get anglicized (Paris, for instance), but at least the pronunciation should be consistent. Newspeople are not even consistent in how they pronounce "Iraq" and you would think there would be some consensus about that country and how to say its name.

[Uben]

8. If you are hung up on pronunciations.....

.....you really need to take up a hobby or something. Nevada has been pronounced both ways forever and you're not going to change that fact by pointing out the way "you" want it to be pronounced. There is about a hundred percent chance that you yourself pronounce something wrong, so get over it! We fired the grammar police years ago!

[mwb970]

11. To be honest, the mispronunciation wasn't really my point.

Of course you're right in what you say, although for some reason you reacted very defensively, as if I were attacking you rather than mcCain. I don't even know who you are, so calm down.

My point is that mcCain made a mistake, corrected it, and then went back to making it again. And what can you expect? In anyone his age, the grooves in the brain are worn deep and are difficult to shift. There are other examples. mcCain mentioned the non-existent Czechoslovakia recently, was corrected, and then mentioned it again. He confused Shia and Sunni, was corrected by our friend Mr. Lieberman, then confused them again. There are other examples of mcCain's inability to learn new things, including his statements that he is "trying to learn to get online" (how hard is it really?) and his statement that he "doesn't know much about economics."

We have had eight years of a president who can't, or won't, learn anything new. Why replace him with a person who is physically incapable of assimilating new facts?

The back-and-forth on pronouncing Nevada is one symptom, not the problem. Sorry I wasn't as clear as you needed me to be.

[kiva]

19. Ummm, people outside of the state may pronounce it both ways,

but here only one way--Nevadda. You may, of course, pronounce it as you choose, but most politicians are smart enough to pronounce it the way that residents prefer.

[PBS Poll-435]

10. Wait for this shit....

A small town in Collin County, Texas is pronounced by the locals as "Ne.Vey.Duh".

Drives me FUCKING crazy. Especially since I lived in the west. ;-)

[EstimatedProphet]

21. Same as in Nevada, Missouri

[PM7nj]

12. That's how we say it here.

:shrug:

[polmaven]

15. Psst..

As a life long resident of "Massatwoshits", may I say we may not want to go there.....?

[slackmaster]

17. It comes from being proficient in Spanish but not familiar with the culture of the state of Nevada

I did the same thing myself until someone corrected me about 30 years ago.

There's a town called Nevada in Iowa BTW - They pronounce it NeVAYda.

[RNdaSilva]

18. Now how does Arnold pronounce it?

That's the key.

The penultimate northern county, on California's pacific coast, Del Norte, is always mispronounced by the natives.

I pronounce Nevada both ways...depending on the mood - peon or elitist.

[Arugula Latte]

20. Obama won points here in Oregon when he pronounced the state name correctly.

It's said "Ore-uh-gun" not "Ore-uh-gone"

:)

[Bonobo]

22. Your state, my pronunciation.

No one cares how YOU pronounce it here. Get it?

[VolcanoJen]

23. The way Michelle Obama responded to the pronunciation still cracks me up.

It was adorable.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=bUROOtYKk9Q

Nevada, Nevada, Nevada!!!!!!

[sourmilk]

24. No particular offense meant, but USAmericans tend to mispronounce...

or misspell a whole lot of proper nouns...

[PurityOfEssence]

25. Linguists agree: the way locals pronounce a name is the correct way to pronounce it

Thus, even though it's "incorrect" in Spanish, the locals win.

To lessen confusion, here goes: residents pronounce it with the first "a" sounding line Bugs Bunny's "Aaaaah, what's up, Doc?", whereas the pronounciation with an "ah" like "The Wizard of Oz" is deemed incorrect.

Locals win. Period.