taking poll on pronunciation

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Nola wrote:

> I would definately expect to hear "BoroDINo". It's natural somehow
> for us- well, Americans, anyway- to try to stress the second-to-last
> syllable in words like these. I remember a TV ad with Ricardo
> Montalban in the '70's for a car: the Chrysler Cordoba. Cordoba has
> stress on the first syllable. I was surprised when Ricardo called it
> "CorDOba". My husband was surprised too(he was a native Mexican). We
> learned later that the Chrysler company decided to call it "CorDOba"
> because they knew most Americans would be too stuborn to stress the
> first syllable anyway.  So even Ricardo Montalban(Montal-BAN, hehe!)
> had to say it like that in the commercial.

Perhaps they could've gotten the Spanish stress placement if they had 
added an "-n" -- "Córdoban," like the leather. ;-) They could've 
promoted the car by announcing that the seats were upholstered in 
luxurious cordovan leather...

But they still wouldn't have gotten the bilabial fricative [β] or the 
flapped [ɾ] or the dental [d̪].... Nosotros no somos Mexicanos...

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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