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NASA's first 2-man spacecraft has a bit of a controversy about how to pronounce Gemini.
To the entire rest of the world it's pronounced Jem In Eye.
To insiders and cool kids at NASA it's said Jih mih nee.
I think it's linked to the brand new control center in Houston and Texans inability to pronounce common words, like Manor or Texas. (X is pronounced as a hard H in Spanish).
Like skipping the beans in chili, they think it's cute and endearing, but it's really just making them look stupid.
It'd be one thing if they were preserving the original pronunciation and everyone else had changed. Lost in the Pond on YouTube details a lot of cases like this where American English is preserving how something was originally said and England has changed.
But Texas keeps changing the pronunciation of words, with no clear logic or rules.
It's not a case of using Spanish rules on English characters, or vice versa; except sometimes at random (Texas is said English and spelled Spanish for example but Manor is not pronounced English OR Spanish).
My pointing all this out just makes them double down and have another bowl of salsa.
And if you think all I do is shit on Texas; them fuckers have nailed BBQ. Do like unto Texas your brisket!
Not a native Texan, I just live here now but... I'm sure your bean stew is wonderful, but it is not chili :-) Of course, they also point out (often) that they broke away from Mexico to form their own country for a bit before joining the US, so NOT pronouncing it as proper Spanish would dictate is likely a long standing choice... Dunno, just the way they say it and I've not often heard Texas called "Tehas" even from native Spanish speakers here... Might not be a thing this far north though...
ReplyDeleteAs chicken broth is not soup, the chili sauce from Texas is not chili.
DeleteThey're bases. You add things to them to complete the dish. Though you can eat them on their own, it's not how their meant to be eaten.
There's a linguist who tracked this down. Beans get removed from chili recipes when the Texas prison system decided that beans were too expensive to waste on prisoners.
The key discovery was that there's chili con (something) for everything BUT beans. Chili con carne. Chili con queso. Chili con pollo. But never chili con frijoles.
That's what we call an indicator. It means, that tossing a few beans in didn't merit mention; but expensive shit like meat or cheese did.
Hey guys, I am a born and raised 100% bilingual, fluent in both without any thought process involved, benefits of growing up British/Spanish household, had to speak to Gram in Spanish (she did not speak English) and Grandad spoke Brit English and learned Spanish to be able to speak to Gram - fun times.
DeleteIn any event, the "H" in Spanish is silent, never pronounced and frankly I never understood why the language uses it so much. So, in Spanish, Texas is Teh-J(deep in the throat)-as.
In Spanish I would write TEJAS for the correct sound, but English does not have that sound like prepping a lugie in the throat for the "J" BTW, tejas is also the name for the red terracotta tiles on most hot/rainy climate house roofs (in Spanish, obviously). ;-)
And the damned twin space capsule has always been Jem In Eye - hell I listened and watched that space program on live TV and Houston sure pronounced it that way as did "Uncle" Cronkite.
Tejas would be Tehas. Texas should be Techas (X and German CH being similar).
DeleteHere in Seguin (and Hondo and Port Aransas....and Houston) everyone I know calls it TeXas.
DeleteManor is a guys name- which is why it's pronounced MaYnor.
Chili was developed on the cattle trails and the main ingredient was dried beans (probably onions and whatever the cook had on hand plus the plentiful chilies growing on bushes. I use beans in my chili. I also use cinnamon and Grahm Marsala.
The way you can tell a white (or black) guy from a Mexican is how they pronounce words. Refugio is pronounced "Refurio" by Anglos and "Refugggggio" by Mexicans
When I win the lottery I'm opening a Hotel near Austin and call it the Manor Manor of Manor, Texas.
Delete"Say it correctly three times fast and you get a complimentary breakfast!"
Notice that you had to add a Y to the name to get it pronounced correctly? We call that an indicator.
Like when you ask is "gif" pronounced "gif" or "jif."
Manor was named for James B. Manor who settled on Gilleland Creek west of present-day downtown Manor.
DeleteWhen it's named after someone, you generally want to pronounce it the way they say it.
If you want people to say your name right, you should spell it like it sounds.
DeleteIf you don't, you don't get to put on airs when people say it like it's spelled. Especially when it's named after someone who doesn't even rate their own Wikipedia entry and is only mentioned in the history of the town on the web.
Dude's not famous, so don't act like people who don't know who he is should have known how to say his name.
My real last name is butchered frequently, but I know how people make the mistake from how it's spelled and don't even bother to fix it half the time anymore.