I frequently hear a sound while walking around NYC. I think it’s coming from Spanish radio stations.
It sounds like someone saying, “Ah E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E” a drawn-out long “E” sound with a little bit of vibrato in it.
Can someone tell me what it is?
Maybe someone was saying “ay ay ay”? Or are you describing something else?
Or it might be an advertisement or something in which someone says allí (“there”), así (“like that”) or a mí (“to me,” but there are other translations), prolonging the final i for humorous effect.
There’s an Irish radio station I often listen to on the Internet. Each time they run an advert, they give the e-mail address of the company, which invariably ends in .ie (for Eire).
Each time I hear it, I think of Hadji on Jonny Quest going “AIEEEEE, Jonny!”
Perhaps they’re saying the station’s call letters. Lots of stations in whatever language have ways of making that bureaucratic requirement into a memorable iconic sound / jingle / whatever.
Drawing out the last vowel of, e.g. WKIE, might sound like that. I have no idea what call letters apply to the various Spanish language stations in NYC; somebody else will have to look that up.
Separately, the long drawn out final vowel seems to be a staple of Spanish radio announcing. Consider how they announce somebody making a score in fútbol / soccer: “GOOOOOOAAAAAALL”. When a baseball player hits a foul ball into the stands it’s “… al publico-o-o”. If it’s a fair ball into the stands it’s “… al PUBLICOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!”
Or “AHÍ” (h by itself is silent in Spanish), which is another inflection of “there” often used as an exclamation for “there it is” or “there you go” with the antecedent left unmentioned.
Yup. And it could be a ti instead of a mí. Clearly, we’re going to need more context.
The OP is actually kind of funny: “I’ve heard a noise in New York. What could it be?”
Day or night? OP says “walking around,” so does that mean on the street? Residential or business area?
A commercial! That never occurred to me! That might be it. I heard it eight more times yesterday coming from somewhere down the block.
Maybe it’s part of a radio station’s advertising slogan? One of the all-news radio stations in NYC is 1010WINS; their slogans are “All news, all the time” and “You give us 22 minutes and we’ll give you the world.”
I can’t speak Spanish but I do know “ay” in Spanish is pronounced “eye”.
The sound I’m hearing is definitely a long E sound.
I get this all the time about “sign language.” People show me something they saw on TV, and say “What does that mean in ‘sign language’?”
Which signed language? American? French? British? Japanese? What was the context?
Or worse, people give me written descriptions, and want to know “What does it mean in ‘sign language’ when you extend your index finger, then move it in front of you?”
OK, I have a related question (if the OP doesn’t mind): I often hear Spanish speakers (usually gang/slang related, LA area if that matters) say (phonetically) “essay”. What does that mean? And no, it’s not jefe, I can hear the difference.
ese = that
but apparently it is also mexican slang: ¿Qué onda, ese?