You know, I thought I used to know how to pronounce “Carnegie.” Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Andrew Carnegie, you know.
After listening to NPR for a few minutes, though, I realized that I had it wrong all along. It’s Car-NAY-gay, as in the Car-NAY-gay Foundation. Huh? Is that related to the N.E.E.K.C. Foundation that also seems to sponsor everything? Oh … it’s the Annie E. Casey Foundation, huh? Enunciate on everything but that, huh?
It’s years since the COHN-TRAHS have been in the news on a daily basis, but NPR still likes to pronounce the name of the Central American Country whose capital is Mah-NAH-goo-WAH as Nee-kah-LAH-goo-WAH. It might be politically correct, but I’ve never heard any native Spanish speakers say it that way. I know, NPR pronunciation rules … if its French, German or any other language, pronounce a place or personal name like “normal,” but if it’s Spanish … well, youhad damn better sound like Ricardo Montalban.
So, excepting Diane Rehm, who has a neurological disorder, what strange NPR pronunciations have you heard? Recently I’ve heard “Ah-Kahd” for Al Queda (no, not the British-sounding “Ah-kuy-EEE-duh,” but “Ah-kahd”), and British-sounding terminal Rs while speaking in a standard US Midland Northern accent (Russier, Chicager, Canader, The Iower Primary, etc.).
I dropped my jaw the first time I heard NPR pronounce Pinochet as pin-oh-CHET, instead of the more familiar pin-oh-SHAY that I’d been hearing for years. After some casual bitching about the matter I was shocked to learn that, indeed, I may have been wrong about this; that the CHET was the correct way. Anyway, I’ve since lost interest in the matter although I take some comfort in the fact that the BBC pronounces it the SHAY way.
I dropped my jaw the first time I heard NPR pronounce Pinochet as pin-oh-CHET, instead of the more familiar pin-oh-SHAY that I’d been hearing for years. After some casual bitching about the matter I was shocked to learn that, indeed, I may have been wrong about this; that the CHET was the correct way. Anyway, I’ve since lost interest in the matter although I take some comfort in the fact that the BBC pronounces it the SHAY way.
You only think you know how to pronounce Carnegie. I thought I knew the pronunciation too…until I went to college near Pittsburgh. Most of the locals pronounced it Car-NAY-gee. But only when referring to the museums and CMU. As a name, it was said the usual way, much to the confusion of out-of-state students.
So while NPR may have made up a brand new way to twist Carnegie, it does sound very much like that version.
Not surprising. It seems to me that every single announcer on NPR has either an accent or a speech impediment. Nothing against accents or speech impediments, but radio announcing isn’t usually the career path for the aformentioned people.
Of course, I anticipate someone chiming in “I LOVE NPR announcers voices! They’re so much more distinctive than those generic announcers with Midwestern accents”…
I must concur. The Wifestrocity and her family are from Pittsburgh. They’re not putting on airs, Car-NAY-gee is how the family name is pronounced by the locals where the Carnegie’s lived and earned their whorish millions.
I see it as being careful in their reportage. I have noticed that whenever there is an invitation to write letters in, they say, " Please write your full name and tell us how you pronounce it ".
Just seems to me that they are being thorough. Then again, I’m a rabid N.P.R. fan.
Further, it is standard journalisn practice to pronounce someone’s name the way that person prefers to pronounce it. Andrew Carnegie pronounced his name Car-NAY-gie, so NPR is perfectly correct to use that pronunciation.
I’ve never been able to ascertain – and I’ve been trying for about a decade now – whether it’s “Mara Liason” or “Maral Eyison.”
Once, for about a week, she took to separating her first and last names with great care, pausing for about a second-and-a-half between them. For that week I knew whether she was Mara or Maral. But then she went back to her old ways and I’ve forgotten again.
Hey, what about Carl Castle? He’s got a great voice!
Seriously - which NPR figures, besides that awful Diane Rehm, have speech problems? (I can’t stand her voice, and I don’t really like her show either.) A lot of them seem, to me, to have very good speaking voices.
Then again there’s whoever that guy is who hosts This American Life. Damn fine show, and I love to listen, but at the same time I want to smack him and tell him to talk normal.
It’s This American LIIIIIFE? I’m Ira GLAAAAS? TodAAAAY? Voices in my HEAAAD? Act ONE? “Those Cwazy BWEEEEFS?” David Sedaris recounts his first underwear laundering in the manner of an effeminate Elmer FUUUUUUDD?
I hear them say it as “Car-NAY-gee.” Which is perfectly acceptable, since that’s how the family pronounces it (even though the concert hall is usually called “CAR-ne-gie” out of habit).
Thank you, elmwood, for affirming that it isn’t just me that found it weird.
I’ve always heard it pronounced “carn-a-gee,” especially in the concert hall’s name. The fist time I heard the NPR announcement I had to wonder if they were talking about a different family. I guess you really do learn something new every day.
I don’t remember the names, but there’s a woman with a lisp, Castle and Daniel Schorr both have that jowl-flapping thing going on, several that have foreign accents (not really a problem for me), that aforementioned Elmer Fudd-sounding guy, etc.
Of course there are plenty of “normal” sounding announcers, too. It’s just that the others tend to stick out, which perhaps is the intent.
I don’t really have a real problem with this, and I do like NPR a lot…
Another big fan here, but yes, some folks’ voices do grate.
There is David Overbee (not sure about the spelling of any of these names) - he is a business/politics reporter and has a noticeable…lisp, I guess?
masonite - excellent call on Mara Liasson - I always wonder about her name, too, learn the right answer, then promptly forget again. Maybe it will stick this time.
An Arky - is the woman with the lisp Carol-Anne Clark Kelly? I don’t know if I think it is her because I remember hearing her talking with a lisp, or because I find her name such a mouthful that it stands out and it’s just the first one that comes to mind. I can’t hear her say it without thinking…I dunno…maybe of that little blonde-haired girl from the movie Poltergeist - just a petit blonde girl with a pony tail or berettes or something.
However, it all becomes worth when I hear “Reporting from Kosovo (or some war-torn republic), this is Silvia Poh-zho-li” However her name is spelled, I love the way she says it.
Bottom line - the news it good so I deal with the vocal variety.
For a long time, I thought Robert Siegel was on really good terms with this guy, and liked to call him ‘Stevinski’.
Or How about this woman, who has a perfectly flat accent during her four-minute news pieces. Until the end, that is, when she says her name and suddenly transforms into a correspondent for Univision.
And do you suppose this woman’s parents really called her MEE-shell, or did she think mi-SHELL was too boring?
