pronunciation of Belize

[Beverly Flanigan]

I've had four graduate students do research in Belize over the years, and
they tell me Guatemala may eventually win out.  Belize has been independent
from Britain for about 30 years (it was formerly British Honduras), and
Guatemala has been tightening the screws on annexation ever since.  Spanish
language use is spreading (at the expense of Belizean Creole, which is very
similar to Jamaican Creole), and the Mayan and Garifuna/Black Carib
populations in the south are torn between the two factions.  One of my
students met Colville Young and brought me back an earlier edition of the
Creole Proverbs; I'll ask my Jamaican student if she knows the meaning of
Bokotora Law (once again, nothing like going to a (near)-native source).

At 05:52 PM 3/14/01 -0500, you wrote:
>The Spanish pronunciation is "Bay-lee-say"; the English pronunciantion is
>"Bay-leeze." This stems from the "war" between Guatemala and England that has
>been going on for 25 years about whether the country is "Belise" or "Belize."
>
>You could have found this information in a standard Encyclopedia.
>
>In a message dated 3/14/2001 4:37:30 PM, you wrote:
>
><<My sister-in-law and her family are natives of Belize, Mayan Indians from
>the
>Toledo district in the south, and they pronounce the name of the country with
>/s/ not /z/ at the end, and make fun of us when we don't follow suit (cf.
>Oregon /gan/  vs. /g at n/).    Don't know how widespread this is within the
>country or if the phonology forbids voicing in this word-final position.
>Anyone know?
>
>Dale Coye
>The College of NJ


_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm