# Los Angeleez **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 20, 2000, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeleez/30014 "2000-08-20T02:22:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![curwin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@curwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/curwin)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2000, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeleez/30014/1 "2000-08-20T02:22:55Z")
I was watching the BBC the other day, and the anchorwoman said “Los Angeleez” instead of Los Angeles. Since both countries speak English,and I assume “ess” is pronouncable in Great Britain, how did that pronounciations develop? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2000, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeleez/30014/2 "2000-08-20T02:56:51Z")
In the case of “Los Angeleez”, perhaps that’s from announcers who got their little bottoms paddled back in “public” school for mispronouncing their Latin endings. Even as adults, they see the “-es” ending and the response is automatic. That said, why do most Americans (when we’re not so lazy we say “LA”), pronounce the city’s name “Lahs AN-je-lus” instead of the proper Spanish “Los AN-ghay-lays” ? And why did so many US broadcast announcers pick up the annoying BBC habit of saying “Argentine” with a long “i” instead of a short one? That affectation seemed to start with the Falklands War. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Ryan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7feea3/32.png) [@The\_Ryan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Ryan)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2000, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeleez/30014/3 "2000-08-20T03:50:05Z")
Which one is long and which one is short? ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2000, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeleez/30014/4 "2000-08-20T04:16:08Z")
Arlo Guthrie uses “Los Angeleez” in the song “Mr. Customs Man.” There really is no “official” way to say the name of the city and, in true Los Angeles fashion, no one gets very worked up about it. ---
**Author:** ![Alphagene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Alphagene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alphagene)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2000, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeleez/30014/5 "2000-08-20T06:56:50Z")
Just the other day on a _Who’s Line is it Anyway_ rerun (British Version), the host decided that the next skit was going to take place in Nicaragua. He pronounced it Nik-a-rag-yew-wah. ---
**Author:** ![yosemite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/3ab097/32.png) [@yosemite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yosemite)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2000, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeleez/30014/6 "2000-08-20T07:43:47Z")
It seems like some old-timers will pronounce it “Los Angeleez”. Another pronunciation for old-timer Angelenos is “Los An-gul-us” (with a “g” pronounced like in “gull”.) I don’t usually hear people under 50+ pronounce it like that. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2000, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeleez/30014/7 "2000-08-20T13:31:25Z")
I pronounce it Los Hideous. Or Hell-A for short. ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2000, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeleez/30014/8 "2000-08-20T19:03:22Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by BobT \* > \*\*Arlo Guthrie uses “Los Angeleez” in the song “Mr. Customs Man.” > > There really is no “official” way to say the name of the city and, in true Los Angeles fashion, no one gets very worked up about it. \*\* In some sort of useless premonition, I had that song (which I haven’t heard for years) stuck in my head this morning when I woke up. As a matter of fact, that was the main reason I opened this thread. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2000, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeleez/30014/9 "2000-08-20T19:21:02Z")
Of course, Guthrie is pronouncing it that way to provide a rhyme for “keys”. You better be somebody like Arlo Guthrie or William Blake (“eye” and “symettry”?) before you try to get away with that sort of thing. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2000, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeleez/30014/10 "2000-08-21T09:26:14Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Alphagene \* > \*\*Just the other day on a _Who’s Line is it Anyway_ rerun (British Version), the host decided that the next skit was going to take place in Nicaragua. He pronounced it Nik-a-rag-yew-wah. \*\* Yeah, and then Greg Proops pointed out that in America, we don’t have to pronounce _every single_ vowel. I love that show. ---
**Author:** ![TheThill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheThill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheThill)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2000, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeleez/30014/11 "2000-08-21T12:58:53Z")
Yes the Britsh almost invariably say Nicar-ag-you-uh. Los Angeles seems to be pronounced both ways however, and I’ve heard the nonstandard (?) one plenty of times said by Americans as well. As for Argen-Tyne, I always thought that that was more old-fashioned than British. In any case, it would seem that few of these things are either fully British or American, and that most are tendencies or are internal divisions within both countries. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2000, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeleez/30014/12 "2000-08-21T16:04:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by yabob \* > \*\*Of course, Guthrie is pronouncing it that way to provide a rhyme for “keys”. You better be somebody like Arlo Guthrie or William Blake (“eye” and “symettry”?) before you try to get away with that sort of thing. > \*\* It’s my understanding that, as English was spoken in Blake’s time, “eye” and “symmetry” would have rhymed. At any rate, that was the case at some point in the history of English pronunciation, so at the very least he was merely being archaic, and not simply missing his rhyme. ---
**Author:** ![Kaps](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a87d85/32.png) [@Kaps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaps)\ **Post date:** [August 31, 2000, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/los-angeleez/30014/13 "2000-08-31T05:05:49Z")
Los Scandalous, Los Angeleez, Los Angullus,…I dunno about that. But I live in Orange County, and a lot of people I know pronounce it Lohs, with a long “o”. Just Los, we completley skip the Angeles part 🙂 .