# Was Los Angeles Ever Pronounced With A "hard" G **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 14, 2006, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-los-angeles-ever-pronounced-with-a-hard-g/380353 "2006-11-14T03:58:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![groman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-los-angeles-ever-pronounced-with-a-hard-g/380353/41 "2006-11-15T21:08:57Z")
[QUOTE=Equipoise] I’d like to know the idjit who thought it was a good idea to reverse “hard” and “soft” in the first place. G’s with a J sound (george, ginger, gerrymanding) is a HARD sound to me. G’s with a guh sound (going, gopher, game) sounds SOFT to me. That J g’s were considered soft and guh g’s were considered hard confused the hell out of me for years when I was growing up. [/QUOTE] To me HARD “g” is “g” in “grab” and SOFT “g” is “g” in “guinea”. I call “G” in “george” “fricative G”. Is that simply wrong or what? ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-los-angeles-ever-pronounced-with-a-hard-g/380353/42 "2006-11-15T21:38:30Z")
[QUOTE=zagloba] Not quite. English speakers pronounce “San” with an “a” as in “sand” rather than the true Spanish pronunciation which is more like “sahn”. As far as I can recall, “San” in all California place names is pronounced this way. [/QUOTE] It’s not just California… we Texans pronounce San Antonio with the same “San”, although the “A” sound at the beginning is the only other place we mangle the city’s pronunciation. Other places in Texas… well, that’s a different story. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-los-angeles-ever-pronounced-with-a-hard-g/380353/43 "2006-11-15T23:05:08Z")
[QUOTE=kunilou] The Don Lee Network was a string of West Coast radio stations. Because of the time difference and the lack of transcontinental lines in the 1930s and 40s, NBC and CBS were minor players in the west, and the Don Lee Network assembled powerhouse entertainment programming from San Francisco and Los An-guh-les. After CBS and NBC built up their West Coast presence, the Don Lee stations couldn’t compete. Eventually the network became just another chain of radio stations. [/QUOTE] True up to a point…Don Lee actually carried CBS programs in the west until 1936. At that point CBS demanded they cut back regional programming and carry ALL CBS shows. The Lee chain refused, and switched from CBS to Mutual. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2006, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-los-angeles-ever-pronounced-with-a-hard-g/380353/44 "2006-11-15T23:44:52Z")
[QUOTE=groman] To me HARD “g” is “g” in “grab” and SOFT “g” is “g” in “guinea”. [/QUOTE] You kidding? It’s the same sound. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-los-angeles-ever-pronounced-with-a-hard-g/380353/45 "2006-11-16T01:16:33Z")
Perhaps **groman** was thinking in Russian. ---
**Author:** ![Yeah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/dbc845/32.png) [@Yeah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeah)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-los-angeles-ever-pronounced-with-a-hard-g/380353/46 "2006-11-17T03:11:39Z")
[QUOTE=Twoflower] Are there \*any \*California place names still pronounced like in Spanish? [/QUOTE] Escondido comes pretty close. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-los-angeles-ever-pronounced-with-a-hard-g/380353/47 "2006-11-17T03:17:27Z")
I’m pretty sure the narrator in “The Big Lebowski” uses a hard G presumably to sound quaint. I kind of prefer the hard G. But then again, I still remain aghast at American pronounciations of just about anything French or Castellano (as I kind of speak these languages). ---
**Author:** ![groman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2006, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-los-angeles-ever-pronounced-with-a-hard-g/380353/48 "2006-11-17T03:35:41Z")
[QUOTE=Cisco] You kidding? It’s the same sound. [/QUOTE] Well, that might be regional, but I just asked a native English speaker from here to say those two words and they are clearly different sounds. So I looked it up to make sure I am not insane and apparently I might be: ['gin.i] and [græb] according to the Cambridge dictionary. Honestly to me “guinea” sounds a lot more [gʲƏni] (I hope this shows up right), but what do I know, I’m a _foreigner_ [QUOTE=Johanna] Perhaps groman was thinking in Russian. [/QUOTE] That’s probably it, actually. Makes sense. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-los-angeles-ever-pronounced-with-a-hard-g/380353.md?page=2)