On the Official Irritation Scale (which I understand is kept by some cow emperor), right between repeatedly calling you by the name of someone you hate and playing country music in public, is grossly mispronouncing the name of your city - on television, by an announcer who darn well ought to know better. Look, if you don’t want to pronounce it Los Angeles (las an-gel-ess), then you darn well ought to be pronouncing it the Spanish way (Lohs Ahn-hell-ace). It is not, by any measure, intended to be pronounced Los Angeleeeeez. Now, I let that fly with Brits, but come on, you’re an american announcer, and for crying out loud, it’s LA! It’s not like it’s some po-dunk town in rural Montana that nobody’s every heard of!
I’m sure the Chicago residents can sympathize with me here.
Seriously though, the last two shows in a row on the history channel have had this fuckwit of an announcer. I mean, the story of the night stalker is interesting and all, but it’s REALLY grating on me at this point. Can’t fuckwit at least say L.A.?
OT:
Ooh, Ramirez was taken out by an angry mob, that’s pretty sweet (I was too young to remember much about it)
<<hoping the next show fuckwit announcer is doing doesn’t mention LA>>
Sort of like people calling Atlanta “Hotlanta”. It’s only mildly annoying, and if that’s the worst thing to happen all week, then I’ve had an excellent week.
Now, when someone says “…IRREGARDLESS”, that’s when my panties get in a twist, and my face goes into full Vlasic mode.
You must be young, ** Morrigoon**, if you don’t remember the late Sam Yorty (“Mayor Sam”) who always called it Los Angeleeez. If it pissed anybody off, it didn’t stop them from keeping him in office for twelve years (1961-1973).
It always jarred me a little to hear it, but it’s better than a president who says NU-KEW-LER.
I’ll second Desert Geezer. I don’t remember Sam Yorty, but some oldsters I know (who are natives of L.A.) pronounce it “Los Angeleeez” or “Los An-gulus”. (The “g” is like in “gus”.)
I think I’ve heard it pronounced this way sometimes in old movies. I haven’t kept track, though. These other pronunciations also sound “normal” to me, because so many older L.A. natives I know use them. However, I always pronounce it the “normal” way.
Yosemitebabe, I think I remember a Bogart movie where he pronounced it “Las Angle Lees.” The movie is so old that he gave a dollar for a tank of gas and got back change.
How would you pronounce “Knoxville”? Many of the natives pronounce it “Knoxvul” or even “Knoxful.”
You’d go nuts over here;)
We Brits have great problems with Michigan (pronounced as if there were a t before the ch) and New Orleans (all the emphasis ends up on the leans bit) among others. I have to confess however, that I still can’t quite bring myself to pronounce Houston ‘properly’. It just seems so wrong! Of course no American has ever pronounced Lancashire correctly (Lanky-she, as in shirt with no -rt, there’s no shire (like wire) sound)…
I didn’t notice the Los Angeleeeeeeeeeeze phenomenon until right after I read this thread and watched the History Channel’s “Infamous Murders”.
Were you watching Infamous Murders too Morrigoon?
