last laugh on awe-dropping

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Sun Feb 8 15:25:12 UTC 2009


At 2/8/2009 10:04 AM, James A. Landau <JJJRLandau at netscape.com> wrote:
>I checked the written transcript of Flight 1549 talking with New
>York TRACON (Terminal Radar Approach Control).  There were only a
>few words with "awe".  One, repeated several times, was "LaGuardia",
>which is most often pronounced /l@ 'gwawr dee @/.  This is odd,
>since it is an Italian name which Fiorella pronounced I don't know
>how but his ancestors pronounced /lah gwahr dee ah/.

l@ by analogy with "the"?

BTW, it's "Fiorello", not "la".  And while I listened to his reading
of the comics, I can't attest to his pronunciation, only mine --
which is /lah gwahr dee ah/.  Are recordings of his readings
extant?  Possibly he introducing himself.

Also BTW, checking on the year of his readings, I notice that the
Wikipedia article separates La Guardia.

Joel

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