I’ve always heard it as “Louie.” Then I read about an article back in his day that incorrectly identified him as “Lewis.”
How did his contemporaries address him, and did he have a preference?
When he sings “Hello, Dolly,” he says “Lewis.” (Here is a clip. Scroll down.)
However, that may be how the song required him to say it.
For that matter, when it comes to almost anyone named Louis, no one seems sure when to pronounce the -s, e.g. how come Louis Freeh is always Louie? (Edit: I mean how come it’s always spelled “Louis” and pronounced “Louie”?) There must be some linguistic term for this influence across languages… I think Americans are aware on some vague level that the French pronunciation of Louis is [lwi:] so Louis is almost inadvertently turned into Louie without giving it much thought. This is one of those matters that doesn’t seem like a puzzle until you stop to think about it.
Likewise, I wonder about dropping the -n- from Christine Todd Whitman, it seems like they always call her “Christie” but without spelling it that way. She has a silent -n- like Louis has a silent -s.
My completely uninformed WAG is that “Lewis” was the original English spelling. “Louis” became popular originally as a novelty Frenchified spelling, but didn’t necessarily indicate use of a Frenchified pronunciation. Then, some Louises wanted the Frenchified Louie pronunciation as well as the spelling Frenchified. Now, there’s no way of knowing whether Louis sounds like Lewis or Louie.
The original tune from the show did not have that line in it; Armstrong changed it. So one would assume that if he wrote the line, that is how he pronounced his own name. (Dolly was singing to a group of waiters.)
In the Ken Burns Jazz series on PBS, thy made a point of saying the correct pronuciation was “Lewis” and that’s how they pronounced it in all their narations.
He was from New Orleans, Louisiana (note the pronunciation of the state) during a time when his parents would have had an even more strong French influence than today. All of the monuments to him throughout the city including the airport are most definitely pronounced “Louie” and there are plenty of people still alive that knew him. He might have used both names. I do something like that myself and it isn’t rare at all.
I know, but the waiters sing, too, and IIRC, the waiter refers to himself as “Lewis.” However, that was after Armstrong’s hit, so it may have been a change made to match Armstrong’s pronunciation.
The song is a very strong bit of evidence in favor of “Lewis,” but only about 90% conclusive.
I’ve always thought that Louie was a nickname for Louis, and that similarly, Christine Todd Whitman might go by Christie sometimes. When nicknames are casual, people might use them verbally but use the full name in writing. For example, a former boss of mine preferred to use her full name, Judith, when it was in writing, but was almost exclusively called Judy.
As someone who grew up in St. Louis, I always pronounce the ‘s’ on the end - that’s just how you say the word! ('Meet Me in St. Louie" aside.)
How about Louisville, Kentucky? The S is always silent, right?
According to my aunt, 100 years ago, the only pronunciation for Louis was ‘Louie’. Louis was almost exclusively French or French influenced, so it was pronounced the French way. The variation of pronouncing the S came about later. (In the U.S., this may be specific to the south or even more specifically, Louisiana)
Louis Armstrong was born over 100 years ago (1901) so it was probably originally pronounced Louie. When he moved to New York, where there was very little French influence, he probably resigned to Louis with the S pronounced because the people there read and pronounced it like that.
My only cite for this is my aunt who is very old and was around when the S was never pronounced.
That is more than a bold and ignorant statement based on where he was from based on the fact that there is a major city, New Orleans, with a lots of monuments including a major airport that use the pronunciation “Louie”. New Orleans is French influenced but they don’t automatically translate names to the French pronunciation unless it is warranted. He probably used both pronunciations at different times and it is likely that his birth name was pronounced “Louie” and he may have modified it at times for whatever reason. Learn some Louisiana history please before you crap out your own made up statistics like “only about 90% conclusive”. This is the SDMB, not a personal blog.
I found this little quip which supports the use of both names which again isn’t uncommon. I still say that his birth name was probably pronounced “Louie” based on New Orleans history at the time and he modified it at will based on family and professional circumstances. The “Lewis” pronunciation doesn’t show up until well after he moved out of New Orleans.
"Is Louis’s name pronounced “Lewis” or “Louie”?
Judging from home recorded tapes now in the Archives, Louis pronounced his own name as “Lewis.” On his 1964 record “Hello, Dolly,” he sings, “This is Lewis, Dolly” but in 1933 he made a record called “Laughin’ Louie.” Many broadcast announcers, fans, and acquaintances called him “Louie” and the Armstrong Archives has a 1983 videotape of Lucille Armstrong in which she calls her late husband “Louie.” Musicians and close friends usually called him “Pops.”
http://www.louisarmstronghouse.org/smartfaq/smartfaq.cgi?answer=1137535794
Don’t be a jerk. I made no suggestion that the pronunciation of his name was due to any factors in his backgroud or how it was prounounced in New Orleans. My point was
- Louis Armstrong pronounced his name “Lewis” when he sung “Hello Dolly.”
- That is evidence that he may have pronounced his name that normally.
- There may be counterevidence, since he may have chosen to prounounce the name in the song a different way. For instance, in her version of “Leader of the Pack,” someone calls Bette Midler “Betty,” but that was how the song was sung, not how she pronounced her name."
Thus the evidence was good he prounounced his own name “Lewis,” because he chose to pronouce it that way in the song, but it wasn’t 100% conclusive because of point 3. I chose 90% as an arbitrary number in case someone could come up with a counterexample
This is what I get for not just stating the fact and showing the evidence. Evidently a thoughtful discussion based on a recording of Louis saying his own name is not allowed.
And now I see you are making exactly the same point I was making in my posts, yet catigated me for. :rolleyes:
I am truly sorry in general. It was just this little blurb I was reacting to.
There can’t be any 90% conclusive evidence because he, his family, friends and fans used different versions of his name at different times. There was his birth name and then his professional name(s) through many decades. There is no conclusion to be based on that and that is very common. All we can say is that most people choose “Louie” when honoring him these days yet we have firm evidence that he chose Lewis for times outside of New Orleans. His wife apparently knew him as “Louie” however.
The pronunciation of the name of the state has no relevance in French. The ending ‘s’ isn’t pronounced because it’s an ending ‘s’; putting it in the middle of the word is entirely different.
One of the stadiums where the US Open tennis is played is named Louis Armstrong Stadium after him. Commentators have made a point of saying that it should be pronounced “Lewis”.
Oh, now I have to throw down the boxing gloves and step up because I am from Louisiana and do…something. I can’t speak a word of French but everyone has been impeccably nice to me every time I go to France contrary to stereotypes. My wife however is fluent in both France-French and Louisiana French. My daughter is in French immersion school as well. My wife is away but my daughter is right here. I have no idea of what you are saying is right but you are about to have a 5 year old to contend with if I can transcribe a decent counter-argument from her.
She is taking a bath so you are off the hook…for now.
I remember back when Armstrong was alive, and was often a guest on tv talk shows and variety shows. He was ***always ***introduced as Louie Armstrong. The only time I ever heard the “s” pronounced was in the “Hello Dolly” song. It seemed like he was taking on a slightly more formal identity for the occasion.
This is a rather bizarre digression. If one was to take the pronunciation of his name from the state, then he’d either be Loo-eez or Looz.