# Rodeo or Ro-day-o drive? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 2, 2004, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rodeo-or-ro-day-o-drive/237864 "2004-04-02T04:34:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**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:** [April 2, 2004, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rodeo-or-ro-day-o-drive/237864/21 "2004-04-02T14:31:33Z")
Please insert “say” into the appropriate place in my last. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rodeo-or-ro-day-o-drive/237864/22 "2004-04-02T15:48:48Z")
There should probably be another thread along the lines of “pronunciations that show you’re not from around here”. There is Houston (House-ton) Ave. in NYC, which the uninformed pronounce like the city in Texas, and Peabody (PEEbidee), MA, which newbies pronounce like the cartoon character. And out-of-towners shouldn’t even attempt Worchester, MA (Woostah). Here in Alaska, newbies say “Vahl-DEZ”, instead of “Val-DEEZ”, and “SEEward” instead of “SOO-werd” (the historical figure notwithstanding). ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rodeo-or-ro-day-o-drive/237864/23 "2004-04-02T16:08:47Z")
I always thought the most common mispronunced California locales were La Jolla (my gf kept saying “la jaw-la”) and Yosemite (my father used to say it like he was calling to a Jew on the other side of a street in Philadelphia). ---
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rodeo-or-ro-day-o-drive/237864/24 "2004-04-02T16:25:58Z")
**sailor** -"\*The vowels in Spanish, as in most languages that used the Roman alphabet, English being the exception, have short, brief, sounds and not the English long ones: a = ah as in father (think of “la” in Spanish) e = eh (think of “te” in Spanish) i = ee as in geek (think of “ti” in Spanish) o = short o as in pot u = ooh (think of “tu” in Spanish) Anyone who says rodeo is pronounced ro-day-o in Spanish does not know the most basic thing about Spanish pronunciation.\*" Maybe you’re the one that doesn’t know the most basic thing about Spanish pronunciation- [http://www.tomzap.com/sp\_key.html](http://www.tomzap.com/sp_key.html) _“o – for a syllable ending in a vowel, like the o in vote; for a syllable ending in a consonant, like the o in pot”_ ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rodeo-or-ro-day-o-drive/237864/25 "2004-04-02T16:56:57Z")
> [@Surreal](#): > > **sailor** Maybe you’re the one that doesn’t know the most basic thing about Spanish pronunciation- Could be but probably very unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rodeo-or-ro-day-o-drive/237864/26 "2004-04-02T16:58:01Z")
Pronounciation of vowels in Spanish, Italian, and related languages depends on the quality of the syllable. Amazingly, for the most part, pronounciation of English vowels follows similar rules, though the actual sounds which are considered the “long” and “short” versions are different from most other European languages, especially with regard to “a” “e” and “i”. While it would be improper for someone to assert that the actual vowel sound for the “e” in the spanish word _rodeo_ would be the same as used by an English speaker for the vowel sound in “say,” the “e” would be given a long quality, since the syllable involved is of long quality, having the pattern CV. Think of it as the “long a” in “fate” without the little dipthong glide at the end into the long “e” sound. With this thought in mind, **sailor** might want to go back and learn some pronounciation rules… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rodeo-or-ro-day-o-drive/237864/27 "2004-04-02T17:14:37Z")
> [@Doobieous](#): > > My mother’s family when they visited from Kansas said San Jose as “San Josie” and Salinas as “Suh-lye-nuhss” Bear in mind that there is a Salinas in Kansas, too. How is **that** one pronounced? ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rodeo-or-ro-day-o-drive/237864/28 "2004-04-02T17:42:46Z")
> [@Biffy the Elephant Shrew](#): > > Bear in mind that there is a Salinas in Kansas, too. How is **that** one pronounced? Mapquest didn’t find a Salinas in Kansas. There is a Salina, Kansas, and it’s pronounced suh-LIE-nuh. ---
**Author:** ![NYR407](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@NYR407](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NYR407)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rodeo-or-ro-day-o-drive/237864/29 "2004-04-02T17:55:44Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > There should probably be another thread along the lines of “pronunciations that show you’re not from around here”. There is Houston (House-ton) Ave. in NYC, which the uninformed pronounce like the city in Texas, Just a slight nit pick. Its Houston **Street** not Avenue. The reason its pronounced “House-ton” is becasue the man it was named after, from Georgia I believe (or at least his family was), pronounced it that way. I did a quick google and found this link: > **[Houston Street](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houston_Street)** > > Route map: > Houston Street (/ˈhaʊstən/ HOW-stən) is a major east–west thoroughfare in Lower Manhattan in New York City. It runs the full width of the island of Manhattan, from FDR Drive along the East River in the east to the West Side Highway along the Hudson River in the west. The street is divided into west and east sections by Broadway. > Houston Street generally serves as the boundary between neighborhoods on the East Side of Manhattan—Alphabet City, the East Village, NoHo, Greenwich Villag... The street name Houston (SAMPA /"haUst@n/) confuses many people from outside of New York because the letters “ou” are pronounced as in the word house, whereas the same letters in the name of the city of Houston, Texas (SAMPA /"hju:st@n/ or /"ju:st@n/) are pronounced like the “u” in huge. This is due to the fact that Houston Street was named for a Georgia politician, William Houstoun (1755-1813) (note that the spelling is different), long before the fame of Sam Houston who is honored by the name of the Texas city. ---
**Author:** ![Doobieous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Doobieous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doobieous)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rodeo-or-ro-day-o-drive/237864/30 "2004-04-02T18:14:46Z")
> [@Biffy the Elephant Shrew](#): > > Bear in mind that there is a Salinas in Kansas, too. How is **that** one pronounced? There is no salinas in Kansas. There’s a salina, which is pronounced as “Sa-lye-nuh”. Salinas here was named after a series of shallow lakes that line the valley the town is situated. It’s a Spanish word. meaning “Salt pools” ---
**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rodeo-or-ro-day-o-drive/237864/31 "2004-04-02T18:24:01Z")
> [@sailor](#): > > Um, no. This is one of my pet peeves around here. You two, obviously know little or no Spanish. That pronunciation is English and strictly English. Please don’t assume the written vowels have the same phonetic value in any other language. I don’t know how many times I am going to have to repeat this. Sorry, but they’re correct. You’re messing up either your Spanish or your English. Rodeo in Spanish is most definitely pronounced roe-deh-oh. > [@](#): > > The vowels in Spanish, as in most languages that used the Roman alphabet, English being the exception, have short, brief, sounds and not the English long ones: > a = ah as in father (think of “la” in Spanish) > e = eh (think of “te” in Spanish) > i = ee as in geek (think of “ti” in Spanish) > o = short o as in pot > u = ooh (think of “tu” in Spanish) Except the o can also be sounded as the o in vote. At least in Latin American usage. To be clear though, for me and most other American English speakers the pronunciation of eh and ay are nearly identical and if I were to try and sound out a word in English off the top of my head, I would use the two interchangeably since they sound almost exactly alike to my ears. > [@](#): > > Anyone who says rodeo is pronounced ro-day-o in Spanish does not know the most basic thing about Spanish pronunciation. Fine, then how would you pronounce it in Spanish? ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rodeo-or-ro-day-o-drive/237864/32 "2004-04-02T18:50:11Z")
> [@Neurotik](#): > > Fine, then how would you pronounce it in Spanish? I’ll have to ask my Spanish teacher :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rodeo-or-ro-day-o-drive/237864/33 "2004-04-02T19:08:16Z")
In a related vein, is Cabrillo pronounced “Cah-bree-oh” or “Ca-brill-o”? I already had “Ro-day-oh Drive” down, but it’s going to take some time to get used to “San Pee-dro”… ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rodeo-or-ro-day-o-drive/237864/34 "2004-04-02T19:10:24Z")
Local guy checking in: Just for the record, the name Rodeo comes from _Rodeo de las Aguas_, which was the name of the old Spanish rancho that covered much of what today is Beverly Hills. The name, meaning “Meeting Of The Waters”, refers to the fact that streams used to flow out from the hills above, along what today is Coldwater Canyon, Benedict Canyon, and Beverly Drive. The streams all met at about the point where the Beverly Hills Hotel stands today, and Beverly Drive and Benedict Canyon issue forth into Sunset Boulevard. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rodeo-or-ro-day-o-drive/237864/35 "2004-04-02T20:29:06Z")
> [@Jeff Lichtman](#): > > Mapquest didn’t find a Salinas in Kansas. There is a Salina, Kansas Thanks for the correction. (And I even made a quick Google check to make sure I had the name right. Should have looked harder at the results.) ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rodeo-or-ro-day-o-drive/237864/36 "2004-04-02T20:53:49Z")
[QUOTE=rjung] In a related vein, is Cabrillo pronounced “Cah-bree-oh” or “Ca-brill-o”? [QUOTE] Generally, around these parts, it’s Ca-bree-yo. For some reason, us Californians can handle the double-l in Cabrillo, but the double-l in Vallejo doesn’t make it. Back to the OP: it depends on context. if you want to sound like a cowboy, it’s RO-dee-o. If you want to sound properly Spanish, it’s ro-DAY-o. Looks like Beverly Hills opted for the latter. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rodeo-or-ro-day-o-drive/237864/37 "2004-04-02T20:59:06Z")
> [@Doobieous](#): > > There is no salinas in Kansas. There’s a salina, which is pronounced as “Sa-lye-nuh”. > > Salinas here was named after a series of shallow lakes that line the valley the town is situated. It’s a Spanish word. meaning “Salt pools” There’s also a Celina, Ohio, pronounced like the Salina in Kansas. Celina, Ohio, apparently was named after Salina, New York, with an intentional spelling change. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rodeo-or-ro-day-o-drive/237864/38 "2004-04-02T21:55:29Z")
With my dialect, if you tell me to pronounce “eh,” you’re going to get a schwa - which is dead wrong. Telling me to pronounce it like the “ay” in “say,” while not the right sound, is a great deal closer. In other words, telling me that the sound is “eh” rather than “ay” is only true if we pronounce “eh” and “ay” the same way. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rodeo-or-ro-day-o-drive/237864/39 "2004-04-02T23:03:47Z")
Cabrillo is from the explorer who discovered what is now the state of California. This man was possibly Portuguese by birth, and was known in his lifetime by his Portuguese version of his name, João Rodriguez Cabrilho. But he spent most of his known life in the Spanish New World, and was working for Spain when he discovered California. His Spanish name was Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo. In Spanish, the “ll” is a rolled sound similar to our letter “y”. I believe (speakers of the language can help by being more precise) that Portuguese “lh” is not much different. My favorite similar story has to do with finding in Sacramento a “John Cabrillo Elementary School.” This made me laugh. ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2004, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rodeo-or-ro-day-o-drive/237864/40 "2004-04-02T23:18:19Z")
OK I’m a little confused, when I lived in Ca in the 70’s Mission Vijello was pronounced Ve-ya-ho, with a long a sound. Now for my mid-western confessions. Reading the early Travis McGee novels I thought he lived in La Jolla. Pronounced in english just as it looked with the la sound. I subsequently moved to San Diego and learned the error of my ways. (By asking people where La Jolla was and getting dopey looks :o ) My biggest doof was when I got lost and stopped for directions and was told that I should continue on “El Cahone”. My helpers looked at me like I was a nut when I said "and where do I find “El Cahone?” They asked what road have you been driving on and I replied “El Cajun” as if it was El Cagin. I’m sure they continued to laugh after I left. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rodeo-or-ro-day-o-drive/237864.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rodeo-or-ro-day-o-drive/237864.md?page=3)