# Pronounciation of los Angeles by Anglos **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 26, 2018, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-los-angeles-by-anglos/809584 "2018-02-26T02:09:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-los-angeles-by-anglos/809584/41 "2018-02-26T18:36:36Z")
The only one I’ve ever heard pronounce it LOSS ANG uh LEEEZ is Bugs Bunny. No doubt that was meant to mock the folks who said it that way. I still jokingly say it that way to I too lived in Peedro back in the 80s. Whenever I’m telling a story from that time, I struggle between pronouncing it the way locals do and sounding like a provincial doofus, or saying it the “proper way” and sounding to myself like a pretentious git :o ---
**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:** [February 26, 2018, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-los-angeles-by-anglos/809584/42 "2018-02-26T18:41:52Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > Oh no, are we going to another argument about IPA? I was just about to post that guizot’s post was the only one in this thread where I can tell what the hell pronunciation people are trying to convey by these ad hoc respellings. No argument. It’s just that I (and probably many people) can’t ‘decode’ IPA without looking up every single character. Too much work. IPA was never taught when I was going to school. > [@markn\_1](#): > > Here in Northern California, I pronounce it /lɔːs ˈændʒələz/ on the rare occasions when I pronounce the full name, and that’s what I usually hear here. Of course, 95% of the time, it’s just /ɛl’eɪ/. I have no idea what the IPA pronunciation is. As a native, I pronounce it ‘loss AN-jell-ess’. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-los-angeles-by-anglos/809584/43 "2018-02-26T18:55:24Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I have no idea what the IPA pronunciation is. > > As a native, I pronounce it ‘loss AN-jell-ess’. That’s similar to **markn+**'s IPA, but not quite the same. His ends with a “z” sound, instead of an “s.” Also, the last two vowels are schwas rather than “ehs,” which is what I interpret your pronunciation to be with that spelling (though I suspect you don’t pronounce them as pure “eh” vowels, either. Is “gel” and the middle syllable of “Angeles” identical to you?) Personally, I say something closer to /lɔːs ˈændʒələs/ (“loss AN-juh-luhss” in trying to keep with what I think the spelling would be in your dialect), with the final vowel sometimes teetering on an /ɪ/ (short “i” sound like in “this.”) ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-los-angeles-by-anglos/809584/44 "2018-02-26T19:03:54Z")
Don’t check my bags, if you please Mister customs…MAAAAAAN My grandchildren look at me funny when I sing that verse. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-los-angeles-by-anglos/809584/45 "2018-02-26T20:24:56Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > As a SoCal native, I always called it San Pee-dro. A woman of Hispanic descent with whom I worked lived there, and she would become very annoyed if anyone pronounced it properly as ‘San Pay-dro’. She would insist the city’s name is pronounced ‘San PEE-dro’. and El Segundo is pronounced ehl se GUN do, even though in Spanish it should be ael se GOON do (without the trailing -w sound that Anglos put on the end of trailing o. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-los-angeles-by-anglos/809584/46 "2018-02-26T20:43:59Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > and El Segundo is pronounced ehl se GUN do, even though in Spanish it should be ael se GOON do (without the trailing -w sound that Anglos put on the end of trailing o. Gah! This is driving me nuts. Discussions like this are pointless without using IPA. I don’t know what those things you typed are supposed to represent. What is “ael”? Like the name “Al”? Like the word “ale”? Or like “I’ll”? What is “se” – like the word “say”? Or “see”? Or the beginning of “set”? Or a schwa? And you’re saying the last syllable in both is pronounced like the English word “do”? I’ve never heard that – it’s always like “dough”. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-los-angeles-by-anglos/809584/47 "2018-02-26T20:59:18Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > Gah! This is driving me nuts. Discussions like this are pointless without using IPA. I don’t know what those things you typed are supposed to represent. What is “ael”? Like the name “Al”? Like the word “ale”? Or like “I’ll”? What is “se” – like the word “say”? Or “see”? Or the beginning of “set”? Or a schwa? And you’re saying the last syllable in both is pronounced like the English word “do”? I’ve never heard that – it’s always like “dough”. Gah! These comments where people try to pretend that they’re IPA experts and refuse to deal with those of us who not only are not, can’t read the shit, and don’t have the capability of typing them are not allowed to participate. Fine. I’ll go away since I’m clearly a second class person and a stupid one, at 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:** [February 26, 2018, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-los-angeles-by-anglos/809584/48 "2018-02-26T21:16:11Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > I don’t know what those things you typed are supposed to represent. What is “ael”? Like the name “Al”? Like the word “ale”? Or like “I’ll”? What is “se” – like the word “say”? Or “see”? Or the beginning of “set”? Or a schwa? And you’re saying the last syllable in both is pronounced like the English word “do”? I’ve never heard that – it’s always like “dough”. It’s much more clear than /lɔːs ˈændʒələz/. Is that ‘licks eend zuhluhz’? Because I’ve never heard anyone pronounce it that way. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-los-angeles-by-anglos/809584/49 "2018-02-26T22:09:02Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Gah! These comments where people try to pretend that they’re IPA experts and refuse to deal with those of us who not only are not, can’t read the shit, and don’t have the capability of typing them are not allowed to participate. Fine. I’ll go away since I’m clearly a second class person and a stupid one, at that. Look, IPA is not rocket science. [Here’s a single page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/English) that tells you everything you need to know, and you can copy the glyphs from there if you need to. You’re perfectly free to type any arbitrary alphabet soup that you think represents what you’re trying to convey, but you can’t expect anyone else to know what you mean if you do that. Johnny LA, you’re being deliberately obtuse. You certainly know that IPA is not pronounced by guessing at the most similar looking English letter. I don’t read Russian, but I’m not going to pretend that I think that “русский” is pronounced “pickn”. ---
**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:** [February 26, 2018, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-los-angeles-by-anglos/809584/50 "2018-02-26T22:21:30Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > Johnny LA, you’re being deliberately obtuse. You certainly know that IPA is not pronounced by guessing at the most similar looking English letter. I don’t read Russian, but I’m not going to pretend that I think that “русский” is pronounced “pickn”. You miss my point. The point is that _everybody_ can read plain text, and _most_ speakers of American English would not find **Rick Kitchen** ’s example to be particularly ambiguous. On the other hand, virtually _no_ Americans know any more greek than π, and so they would have to look up the Greek letters and other symbols every time someone posted something in IPA. (And from my minuscule knowledge of Greek, I don’t see how æ is pronounced short-a as in ‘hand’, when it is pronounced ‘ee’, or sometimes ‘ay’.) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-los-angeles-by-anglos/809584/51 "2018-02-26T23:02:41Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > You miss my point. The point is that _everybody_ can read plain text, and _most_ speakers of American English would not find **Rick Kitchen** ’s example to be particularly ambiguous. On the other hand, virtually _no_ Americans know any more greek than π, and so they would have to look up the Greek letters and other symbols every time someone posted something in IPA. (And from my minuscule knowledge of Greek, I don’t see how æ is pronounced short-a as in ‘hand’, when it is pronounced ‘ee’, or sometimes ‘ay’.) I don’t know what it has to do with Greek, but “ae” was a common way of representing the “short a” sound in dictionaries as in your “hand” as far as I remember. ---
**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:** [February 26, 2018, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-los-angeles-by-anglos/809584/52 "2018-02-26T23:07:13Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I don’t know what it has to do with Greek, but “ae” was a common way of representing the “short a” sound in dictionaries as in your “hand” as far as I remember. [Æsop](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1Dxg3h9HFw) or [Aesop](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesop) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-los-angeles-by-anglos/809584/53 "2018-02-26T23:10:41Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > [Æsop](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1Dxg3h9HFw) or [Aesop](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesop) Encyclopaedia, too. Yes, now that I think about it, it was common in words of Greek extraction. I tend to think of it as Old English “ae,” I guess, given my English lit background. But I also see it in dictionaries, as well, to represent that sound, so that’s what I default to. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-los-angeles-by-anglos/809584/54 "2018-02-26T23:25:13Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > Gah! This is driving me nuts. Discussions like this are pointless without using IPA. I don’t know what those things you typed are supposed to represent. What is “ael”? Like the name “Al”? Like the word “ale”? Or like “I’ll”? What is “se” – like the word “say”? Or “see”? Or the beginning of “set”? Or a schwa? And you’re saying the last syllable in both is pronounced like the English word “do”? I’ve never heard that – it’s always like “dough”. Discussions _with_ IPA are worthless since only a few know what the fuck it means. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2018, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-los-angeles-by-anglos/809584/55 "2018-02-27T01:07:57Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > no one ever uses the full name, though “El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula”? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2018, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-los-angeles-by-anglos/809584/56 "2018-02-27T01:11:19Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Discussions _with_ IPA are worthless since only a few know what the fuck it means. Discussions while drinking IPA are much better, although I’m more of a lager man myself. ---
**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:** [February 27, 2018, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-los-angeles-by-anglos/809584/57 "2018-02-27T01:15:55Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Discussions while drinking IPA are much better, although I’m more of a lager man myself. I think we can all agree on that. And I like Longboard Lager. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2018, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-los-angeles-by-anglos/809584/58 "2018-02-27T03:16:00Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > “El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula”? …_de la Porciúncula_. You missed an article. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2018, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-los-angeles-by-anglos/809584/59 "2018-02-27T04:12:07Z")
> [@TSBG](#): > > Right. “The corner of Seh-pul-VEE-da and PIE-co.” Spot the newcomer. Although Waze still gives awful pronunciations like these. That’s [PEE-co and Se-POOL-veh-da](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyz3g3vRb-8), if you please. BTW, who the hell is WAH-zay? ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2018, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-los-angeles-by-anglos/809584/60 "2018-02-27T04:18:41Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > BTW, who the hell is WAH-zay? You know, the circuit design dude. One of the original founders of Apple. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-los-angeles-by-anglos/809584.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronounciation-of-los-angeles-by-anglos/809584.md?page=4)