# Hugo Chavez, Spanish, and newspeople **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 8, 2012, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hugo-chavez-spanish-and-newspeople/637095 "2012-10-08T15:27:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2012, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hugo-chavez-spanish-and-newspeople/637095/1 "2012-10-08T15:27:15Z")
I took two years of Spanish in high school. I remember ch as being its own letter in the alphabet. So were ll and rr and the n with a tilde. As I recall, ch in Spanish is always pronounced like ch in choose or chance. Why are so many newscasters pronouncing Chavez with a “sh” sound? ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2012, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hugo-chavez-spanish-and-newspeople/637095/2 "2012-10-08T15:38:40Z")
My guess would be spillover from the French pronunciation. For many people, to see that spelling in a foreign word makes one think of “chic chardonnay” rather than “Chico and the Man.” ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2012, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hugo-chavez-spanish-and-newspeople/637095/3 "2012-10-08T15:52:08Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > I took two years of Spanish in high school. I remember ch as being its own letter in the alphabet. So were ll and rr and the n with a tilde. As I recall, ch in Spanish is always pronounced like ch in choose or chance. > > Why are so many newscasters pronouncing Chavez with a “sh” sound? Rr is its own phoneme but has never been considered a separate letter for alphabetization purposes; ll is a separate phoneme (slowly being lost in most dialects, merging with consonant-y) but it’s not considered a separate letter any more for purposes of alphabetization; ñ is both a separate phoneme and a separate letter. Ch is indeed always pronounced like in chocolate, which I still haven’t heard anybody pronounce with an initial k (just give 'em time). As to why are people pronouncing Chávez with the wrong initial sound, and why Sh? Apparently because they don’t know it’s a CH but someone informed them that it’s not a K, so they had to come up with a third option. Keep in mind that the ch group seems to be one of the most confusing ones in English: is it kastity or chastity? Karity or charity? I’ve heard both… FTR, I’m in France right now and French newscasters pronounce it right. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2012, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hugo-chavez-spanish-and-newspeople/637095/4 "2012-10-08T16:42:48Z")
WAG: I blame Caesar Chavez. His full name is fun to say if you give the Ch a sort of “sh” sound, so everyone does. As he was the only Chavez most Americans were familiar with prior to Hugo, Americans have adapted the same pronunciation for the leader of Venezuala. ---
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2012, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hugo-chavez-spanish-and-newspeople/637095/5 "2012-10-08T17:24:42Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > WAG: I blame Caesar Chavez. His full name is fun to say if you give the Ch a sort of “sh” sound, so everyone does. As he was the only Chavez most Americans were familiar with prior to Hugo, Americans have adapted the same pronunciation for the leader of Venezuala. Well, if it’s a WAG, it’s the same one I had. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2012, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hugo-chavez-spanish-and-newspeople/637095/6 "2012-10-08T17:31:56Z")
For what it’s worth, the few times I’ve heard someone refer to the election results I’ve only heard t͡ʃ and not ʃ. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2012, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hugo-chavez-spanish-and-newspeople/637095/7 "2012-10-08T18:14:46Z")
It varies. I clicked on a few Google news links and it was about half and half. There was one where two talking heads were chatting back and forth- one said Chavez and the other kept saying Shavez. Now if we could just get Bill O’Reilly and others to quit putting an extra N in pundits (pundints)!