[Ads-l] old pronunciation of "Los Angeles"

[Ben Zimmer]

On Sun, Jul 2, 2017 at 7:03 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
 wrote:

> Remarkably late (to my ear):  Anjelica Huston consistently uses / g / in
> _The Grifters_ (1990), set contemporaneously.
>

The movie has some contemporary trappings, but the language is
self-consciously retro, as befits an adaptation of a hard-boiled novel
published in 1963 (and set in a Los Angeles even earlier than that). From a
New York Times profile of Anjelica Huston when the movie came out:

----
http://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/02/movies/anjelica-huston-
seeks-the-soul-of-a-con-artist.html
Although the novel is set in the 40's and 50's, Mr. Frears wanted the film
to have a current feel to it, a leap that Miss Huston did not always find
an easy one. "The style of writing tended to be more 40's dialogue, so
putting those words against a modern background was something else," says
Miss Huston.
----

I mentioned Huston's pronunciation here in 2005 -- I called it "a nice
neo-noir anachronism":

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2005-June/051331.html


On Fri, Jul 22, 2011 at 4:42 PM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: old pronunciation of "Los Angeles"
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > -------------------
> >
> > On Fri, Jul 15, 2011 at 8:53 AM, Jonathan Lighter <
> wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > When I naively suggested, some years ago**, that a / g / * in the
> middle
> > of
> > > a
> >
> >
> > * Insert ... ~"sounded bizarre"?
> >
> >
> > > straightforwardly English pronunciation of "Los Angeles," Wilson
> observed
> > > that both the / g / and the now universal / J / (if you see what I
> mean)
> > > sounded normal to him.
> >
> >
> > **See archive, 2005-06-25<http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?
> > A2=ADS-L;BQQnSQ;200506250817390700D>
> > (and
> > next<http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ADS-L;DmqXww;
> > 200506261300550400D>,
> > pointing back to
> > this<http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ADS-L;2mIkMA;
> > 199909271816420400D>,
> > thanks
> > to Ben<http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ADS-L;HdDKPA;
> > 200506261339470400D>
> > ).
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org