How do you pronounce the name of the city that was lost on Bush's watch?
1. NAW-luhns.
2. New-or-LEENS.
3. New OR-lee-uhns.
4. New OR-luhns.
I've always used 2 or 4. 1 sounds faux-Southern. 3 is NPR newscaster and responsible public official. I know there are more urgent issues to consider in times like these.
I can only offer that having visited many, many times, the most common "pronounciation answer" I have gotten from the locals to that question is no. 4 (maybe 95%), with a smattering of no. 1's. But I have to say, that alot of the no. 4's, may have been no. 3's. No. 2 is used only if you need a word that rhymes with "evergreens."
ResponderEliminar(and my word verification on this post was "xuykzol," which could be either the latest drug used in treating depression, or a cajun musical style.)
-phil
I have only heard #4. #1 seems to be used for hoaky effect. I know some say it that way, but 4 is the one I feel I have heard the most there and elsewhere in the South.
ResponderEliminar2
ResponderEliminarBut I've always secretly wished I could use 1 without sounding like a phony...
NORlins, which I picked up from a friend who (until recently) lived down there but was born in New England and spent crucial parts of late adolescence in Santa Cruz.
ResponderEliminarI once heard a native of the city say Nor-yuns, with the stress distributed almost equally over the two syllables.
ResponderEliminarAs a Midwesterner I always said #2 until meeting my boyfriend, a native New Orleanian, who made me switch to #4.
ResponderEliminar