On Pronunciation

Living in the United States, running into people from foreign countries, and traveling abroad, one comes into contact with different accents all of the time. In the United States alone, we’ve managed to bend and twist the English language into all sorts of dialects, from Texan, Southern, New York, Eastern, Northeastern, Midwestern, West Coast, etc. Throw in English, Australian, New Zealand, and Canadian accents, and things can get confusing. Add in slang and you’ve got a headache.

Last night at dinner I had to explain to an English couple, who had traveled through California and Nevada and Arizona for the past three months, what the word ‘gnarly’ meant. And if you really have to sit down and explain it and think about the word, it’s a hard one to define.

Anyway, the accents don’t stop with English, and Spanish is a whole new problem for me. In school, I guess I learned Mexican Spanish, and I learned that the double L is pronounced like a Y sound. “What’s your name”, or Como se llama, is pronounced, Como se YAMA. But, in Argentina, that apparently wasn’t acceptable and all double L’s are pronounced with a SHZ sound. Como se llama turns into Como se SHZAMA. When Chris and I were trying to get to Rio Gallegos, we were convinced everyone was stupid and trying to send us to a town called Rio Gashzegos. We kept telling them we didn’t want to go there and wanted Rio Gallegos, they must have thought we were the idiots.

Today, we took a boat trip through the Beagle Channel on a boat called the Tango. It was a small boat, with two crew members and approx. 10 tourists on board. There was a large Argentinean family, two Japanese guys, and myself and Chris. When one of the Argentine men asked Chris his name (como se SHZAMA), Chris just stared at him. It took us a good 45 seconds to figure out what the guy was saying and that’s a really easy basic question, we actually know that one!

Later on, the son of the Argentine man asked one of the Japanese tourists how old he was. He answered first in Spanish (trente y dos – which is 32) and the kid looked confused so he told him in English, “I surty two.” The kid just got up and walked away. Thank god I can pronounce my TH’s.