Nicaragua

[Page Stephens]

The Goodtime II, a tour boat which used to give rides around the Cleveland,
Ohio waterfront and up the Cuyahoga River used to play a tape describing the
scenery. It described among other things The Battle of Lake Erie which
occurred some miles away.

The person who narrated the tour whose narration was taped talked about
Oliver Hazard Perry's flagship, the Nicaragua. Its name was, of course, the
Niagara, but the mistake went unnoticed for several years, and I always used
to get a laugh out of it every time I took my out of town friends on the
boat.

It was so much fun that I never bothered to correct them.

Page Stephens

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mullins, Bill" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Monday, April 04, 2005 11:08 AM
Subject: Re: Nicaragua


> ---------------------- Information from the mail
> header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      Re: Nicaragua
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: American Dialect Society
>> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Paul Frank
>> Sent: Sunday, April 03, 2005 12:46 AM
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>> Subject: Nicaragua
>>
>>
>> Listening to an NPR piece on John Paul II a few minutes ago,
>> I was struck by Silvia Pogglioli's pronunciation of
>> "Nicaragua." In the middle of an English sentence with
>> suitably English sounds, she pronounced Nicaragua as if it
>> weren't an English word. NPR talking heads often pronounce
>> Spanish names the way one would pronounce them in Spanish.
>> This is odd.
>>
>> So why say "Nicaragua" as if you were speaking Spanish?
>> Pretentious, if you ask me.
>>
>
> Comedian Brian Regan (or possibly his comedian brother Dennis) had a
> routine on this very subject, using "Nicaragua" as a specific example,
> some 15 or so years ago (maybe even back when Iran-Contra was still
> current).