So what’s the deal with the proper pronunciation of Augusto’s last name? Last night I could tell that the chanting protestors awaiting him were rhyming some probably rude word ending in “ette” with his name, which I understand is pronounced “Pinochette” in his homeland; whereas international commentators from both the BBC and the U.S. mostly call him “Peenoshay” or “Pinoshay”, a la Francaise… A historian buddy tells me that “Pinochette” is correct.
What’s up with this?
“It won’t do to have truth and justice on his side; he must have law
and lawyers.” Charles Dickens, Bleak House.
To most speakers of English, the name Pinochet appears French. (Since I can think of very few Spanish words that actually end in “et,” I’d be inclined to believe that his paternal ancestors moved to Chile from a French-speaking country.)
On the other hand, Spanish does not mess around with silent final consonants, and I would guess that in Chile the name has rhymed with “net” for a long time.
American newscasters, treating a foreign name according to the general rules of the apparent country of origin for that name, have been saying “shay” for 25 years, but we are only now hearing actual Chileños and Spaniards curse him out loud. (Since the U.S. helped him illegally take power, we have not been big on publicizing opposition to him before this.)
I noticed this. For years American newscasters have always pronounced it “Pino-shay” (I listen to NPR in the AM every day) and suddenly when he came up in the news again for the extradition thing it was suddenly “Pino-chette” every time. The change seemed sudden enough that I noticed it conspicuously. Interesting.
I’ve failed to find the old thread where this came up (I don’t think it was the OP), but I seem to recall that ‘Pino-shett’ was the generally agreed pronunciation.
Couldn’t find it either, android, but in it, I had posted this link to the Slate article which indicates Pee-no-CHAY as correct, although I would tend to agree with ruadh, as well as another who posted a similar sentiment in the thread we can’t find.
As a Spanish speaker in a Spanish-speaking society, never known him as anything but “Pino-CHETTe” (stress on the final syllable) (OK, also known him as “that sonofa*&^%$#@”). Although in common speech that final “t” tends to turn into a “d” and after three drinks it’s gone
However I’d find it more acceptable to say “Pino-SHAY”, as opposed to “PEE-nochette”, i.e. keep the correct syllable stress pattern.
My favorite episode of Overcompensating Anglo Broadcaster Affected Spanish Pronunciation (aka the “NeeecaRRRRaGGooa” syndrome) happened in the 80’s when Dan Rather spent months referring to the Colombian city of Cartagena (pron: “Carta-HEh-nah”) as “Cartageña” (Carta-hEy-NYAh")
Yeah, I go with tomndeb; it’s all the same as with Fujimori in Perú. In Japan, it’s foo-jih-mô-[tongue flap]ih; in Perú, it’s foo-hee-mô-[trilled ‘r’]-ee.
The one I don’t know what to do with though, in English, at least, is what those people from El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora de los Angeles are called. I guess it’s normally ‘Angeleno’ (æn-jeh-lee-nohw in English, though sometimes written ‘Angeleño’. A Bolivian once told me, though, that it is supposed to be ‘angelino’ in Spanish, similarly to ‘neoyorquino’ (from Nueva York), rather than similar to madrileño (from Madrid).
In Spanish it’s “pee-no-CHET”. I remember reading somewhere that Pinochet’s ancestors were French, but of course his surname was Hispanicized, just as we Americans Anglicize the pronunciation of foreign surnames in the US.
A couple of good examples from Spanish soccer. There’s an Argentinian player whose original name was obviously Schneider. It got transmuted to “Esnaider”. And the Argentinian coach of Valencia is named Cúper. Of course, it was originally Cooper. In Latin America they changed peoples’ names to fit their language just like we did in the US. I had an Argentinian teacher in college whose name was Silvia Pites. Pites is a derivation of Pitts, since her grandfather was Welsh.
