SPORTS ON NY RADIO by David Halberstam; Encarta Dictionary

[Donald M. Lance]

I was away for three weeks and am catching up with my e-mail.  Most of you
assumed that David Halberstron or/and Red Barber knew all about the
"Hispanic way."  I think their error was in attributing to pronunciation to
Spanish, and that they accurately reported the nature of the pronunciation.
Four of my paternal uncles moved from Texas to California in the 1920s and
'30s, and a maternal uncle moved there from Arkansas in the 1940s -- all of
them saying 'angeles' with a hard g. I always suspected they were avoiding
'angel' with English soft g rather than trying to imitate Spanish in any
way.  It's a gringo spelling pronunciation from an earlier era, as Beverly
and Allyn have pointed out.

DMLance

----------
>From: Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OAK.CATS.OHIOU.EDU>
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Re: Los Angeles with hard g
>Date: Thu, Sep 23, 1999, 4:56 PM
>

>At 09:41 AM 9/23/99 -0400, you wrote:
>>My grandmother (born 1904 in Wagoner, OK--moved to L.A. as a little girl)
>>pronouced Los Angeles with a hard G.
>>
>I used to hear this pronunciation too.  I suspect it was used by people who
>thought they were using the "authentic" Spanish form, not realizing the /g/
>should be /h/.  Some also tried hard to say [los] and [ang at lis].

----------
>From: Allynherna at AOL.COM
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Re: Los Angeles with hard g
>Date: Thu, Sep 23, 1999, 8:41 AM
>

>My grandmother (born 1904 in Wagoner, OK--moved to L.A. as a little girl)
>pronouced Los Angeles with a hard G.

----------
>From: "Dennis R. Preston" <preston at PILOT.MSU.EDU>
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Re: SPORTS ON NY RADIO by David Halberstam; Encarta Dictionary
>Date: Tue, Sep 21, 1999, 7:22 PM
>

>Yeah. But what did he hear (if anything) which made him say "hard _G_"? An
>earlier response suggested that the affricate might qualify as "hard" in
>English. Think so?
>
>dInIs
>
>>If it was Spanish, he heard an "H" sound--not hard "G."
>>----- Original Message -----
>>From: Dennis R. Preston <preston at PILOT.MSU.EDU>
>>To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 1999 7:05 AM
>>Subject: Re: SPORTS ON NY RADIO by David Halberstam; Encarta Dictionary
>>
>>
>>> Hmmmm! Whose Spanish was Halberstam listening to when he heard "hard _G_"
>>> in "Los Angeles"?
>>>
>>> dInIs
>>>
>>> >SPORTS ON NEW YORK RADIO:
>>> >A PLAY-BY-PLAY HISTORY
>>> >By David J. Halberstam
>>> >(Halberstam was the radio announcer of the Miami Heat and has long worked
>>St.
>>> >John's college basketball in the New York area--ed)
>>> >Masters Press, NTC/Contemporary Publishing group, 1999
>>> >424 pages hardcover, $24.95
>>> >
>>> >Pg. VI  Red was Red (Barber--ed.).  He insisted upon pronouncing _Los
>>> >Angeles_ with a hard _G_, the Hispanic way.  ("Los Angeles" is not in
>>> >DARE--ed.)
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