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re: Why do some people use a Spanish inflection when pronouncing Hispanic names?
Posted on 5/14/26 at 7:13 am to shutterspeed
Posted on 5/14/26 at 7:13 am to shutterspeed
quote:
Knowing they would never use an inflection when pronouncing African American, Asian, Irish, Italian, etc names as well?
I came to this realization about a year ago. It's one of those things that once you start noticing it, you see how pervasive and strange it is and that leads to wondering how you didn't realize it earlier.
1
Posted on 5/14/26 at 7:54 am to shutterspeed
Do you pronounce the Cajun names correctly? Or do you let yankee rednecks butcher your Cajun name without correcting them? Just because the name is spelled with English letters doesn't mean it's pronounced properly in English.
Posted on 5/14/26 at 7:58 am to mattz1122
quote:
I remember Jim Hawthorne pronouncing Martinez as Martin-ez while calling a baseball game like he had never seen or heard the name before. He sounded retarded.
That's because the Martinez family in Ascension Parish pronounces it like that. Same for Ramirez pronouncing it Rammer-ez instead of Rah-MEER-ez. There's lots of old Spanish names here in extremely white families that don't want to be associated with being hispanic, because they aren't.
Posted on 5/14/26 at 9:41 am to shutterspeed
The same reason they speak louder to people who don’t understand English.
Posted on 5/14/26 at 9:42 am to Demonbengal
quote:
They never said anything, but it seemed weird for a 40 yo white dude to be rolling R’s.
He was most certainly trying to impress then. I cannot get that skill down
Posted on 5/14/26 at 9:46 am to shutterspeed
Sorta important.
Posted on 5/14/26 at 9:55 am to lowhound
quote:
Do you pronounce the Cajun names correctly? Or do you let yankee rednecks butcher your Cajun name without correcting them? Just because the name is spelled with English letters doesn't mean it's pronounced properly in English.
Meh, it's one thing to correct someone's pronunciation of your name if it's way off. It's another to start inflecting as though you have the accent of the native person. Spanish speakers can have difficulty with a hard J...would you really bust someone's balls because they pronounced your name as Yonson instead of Johnson?
Obviously, R's aren't rolled in the English language...so to do it when pronouncing a Spanish name just seems fake to me. It comes off as a "look at me" thing.
Posted on 5/14/26 at 10:31 am to shutterspeed
Te lo sico wey
Posted on 5/14/26 at 10:33 am to shutterspeed
Spanish is an inflection language.
And I also think people sound silly pronouncing Spanish names wrong. Especially since everyone should know by now how to do it.
Do you call them jalapenos or halapenyos?
Black people say things like fo instead of four. And they sound uneducated when they do it.
And I also think people sound silly pronouncing Spanish names wrong. Especially since everyone should know by now how to do it.
Do you call them jalapenos or halapenyos?
Black people say things like fo instead of four. And they sound uneducated when they do it.
This post was edited on 5/14/26 at 10:37 am
Posted on 5/14/26 at 11:13 am to dgnx6
quote:
Do you call them jalapenos or halapenyos?
Excellent question, sir.
But I'm feeling feisty today, so I'll take a stand on this hill.
Both the soft J and hard H in "jalapenos" is native to English. The rolled R isn't.
I eagerly await your verbal parry.
ETA: OK, I re-thought my soft J statement. That might be found more in languages other than English. I'll show myself out.
This post was edited on 5/14/26 at 11:17 am
Posted on 5/14/26 at 11:14 am to shutterspeed
quote:
Why do some people use a Spanish inflection when pronouncing Hispanic names?
Because when a person's name is correctly pronounced Hey-soos, you sound really stupid if you call him Jee-zus.
Posted on 5/14/26 at 11:17 am to Harvey Vortac
quote:
There are plenty of Martinez folks from South Louisiana that pronounce their names Martin-ez. I’m related to a few.
But isn't the correct pronunciation Martin-eth?
Posted on 5/14/26 at 11:26 am to Obtuse1
quote:
Pakistan "mispronunciations" are just anglicized and saying it correctly in English tends to come across as an affectation like the correct pronunciation of Barcelona.
Kiev vs Kyiv is different. Calling the capital of Ukraine Kiev with the distinct two syllables is as wrong* as calling Istanbul either Constantinople or Byzantium. People just seem to think it is merely an affectation because the spelling and pronunciation are closer. The single syllable "keev" is not correct. Kyiv in Ukrainian is two syllables also but English speakers have a hard time hearing the Slavic much less pronouncing the second syllable correctly.
*It really isn't "wrong" it is just making a political statement, whether meant or not, it is saying the capital of Ukraine is part of Russia. It is analogous to promoting the One China Policy, meaning you think China still has sovereignty over Taiwan. Kiev vs Kyiv aka "keev" is not a mere affectation.
When I was a kid:
The capital of China was pronounced "pee-king". Now it is pronounced "bay-zhing".
There is a city in India that was pronounced "bomb-bay". Now it is pronounced "Um-bye".
Those are the English pronunciations. I'm sure neither of those is even close to the way the locals pronounce them.
I was listening to a history podcast last week.
I have always pronounced the name of the famous Mongol leader as "Gen-gis" with a hard G.
I have also heard it pronounced "Jen-gis". But I learned that it was probably pronounced more like "Chen-gis".
Also, it is a title, not a name.
Posted on 5/14/26 at 11:28 am to shutterspeed
Its bad here in Houston. The news anchors project when they say Hispanic names, its hilarious. And its mainly the women. Get over yourself lady. Its pathetic
Posted on 5/14/26 at 11:35 am to CrappyPants
quote:
Its bad here in Houston. The news anchors project when they say Hispanic names, its hilarious. And its mainly the women. Get over yourself lady. Its pathetic
Are they Hispanic themselves?
I had a Mexican colleague who spelled her name Jeanette. When we hired her, we pronounced it with the "J" sound, but after a visit to Mexico, I noticed the local people pronounced it with the "Y" sound, so I started doing the same. She never made mention of it.
Posted on 5/14/26 at 11:44 am to shutterspeed
I've dated a few Colombian women (not so subtle brag). My brothers gets annoyed with me for pronouncing it as
ColOmbia
rather than as
CollUmbia
ColOmbia
rather than as
CollUmbia
Posted on 5/14/26 at 12:11 pm to shutterspeed
Why not just ask people how they want their names pronounced and then comply?
I know people from many places and this practice serves me well.
I know people from many places and this practice serves me well.
Posted on 5/14/26 at 2:32 pm to TulsaSooner78
Not sure, but a good number of isles people (Canary Island heritage) that have lived in St. Bernard parish for 2 centuries pronounce it Martin-ez
Posted on 5/14/26 at 4:01 pm to shutterspeed
quote:
Italian
People do that all of the time and its just as stupid
I used to date an Asian girl that would do this with both Spanish and Italian food words but interestingly enough not Asian food words
Posted on 5/14/26 at 4:04 pm to lowhound
quote:
There's lots of old Spanish names here
quote:
that don't want to be associated with being hispanic
quote:
because they aren't.
What?
Spanish people aren’t Hispanic? They can do whatever they hell they want with their name pronunciation but a Martinez or Ramirez is fricking Hispanic my brother They likely don’t want to be seen as Latino
This post was edited on 5/14/26 at 4:09 pm
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