(Chevy) Nova --Query

[Laurence Horn]

>>Is the story about the Nova being interpreted in Latin America as "no va"
>>(doesn't go) and having terrible sales as a result merely a myth?  A
>>colleague at my campus sent me the message below (with accompanying
>>website) to the effect that it *is* a myth. Would any ads-l members know
>>anything about this?
>
>I don't really KNOW much about it, but it's been my understanding that this
>story was bogus ... I don't remember my source, maybe Snopes or some
>similar thing. I first heard the story a long time ago, maybe 1980 or
>earlier, and it sounded dubious to me then. I think "nova" in Spanish means
>about the same as "nova" in English, right?

Well, "nueva", but there are number of more high-register (scholarly,
literary, scientific) doublets involving "nova-" in which the
diphthongization didn't apply, e.g. "novela".  I think the first
association for a Spanish speaker with "Nova", with that stress
pattern (a point Snopes mentions), would be 'new' and not 'doesn't
go'.

Larry