[lg policy] Casa Grande Arizona: How You Say It Isn=?windows-1252?Q?=92t_Clear=2C_Even_if_You=92re_?=From Here

[Harold Schiffman]

October 13, 2011
How You Say It Isn’t Clear, Even if You’re From Here
By MARC LACEY

To honor the fact that Arizona became a state in 1912, centennial
celebrations are being planned in communities large and small,
including Casa Grande, a history-rich railroad town surrounded by
desert. But Casa Grande, despite being older than the state itself,
has an identity crisis of sorts. There is no unanimity among residents
here as to how to pronounce the name of the place.

The origin of the name is not in doubt. It comes from the Spanish for
“big house” and refers to the remains of a towering American Indian
structure about 20 miles away that is considered one of the largest
prehistoric structures ever built on this continent. In Spanish, Casa
Grande is pronounced CAH-sah GRAHN-day, and there are plenty of local
residents who consider that the correct way.

Count the staff at the Casa Grande Valley Historical Society and
Museum and Mayor Bob Jackson in that camp. Mr. Jackson has
acknowledged, though, that when he is among friends he will slip into
the more Anglicized pronunciation, CASS-uh GRAND, which is favored by
many locals. When Arizona newscasters use one term or the other, they
inevitably hear from local people upset that they got it wrong.
Rebecca Thomas, a reporter for the ABC affiliate in Phoenix, recently
broadcast a segment in which she tried but failed to nail down the
correct pronunciation. “So many people have e-mailed and called ABC15
over the years — complaining about how we pronounce the city’s name,”
she wrote on the station’s Web site.

Facebook pages have been created backing the rival pronunciations.
There is the “Casa Grande, Arizona, is Pronounced CASS-uh GRAND” page
and the “Casa Grande is pronounced ‘KAW-SUH GRAWN-DAY’, not ‘KAH-SUH
GRAND’ ” page.

The latter page has this admonition: “Pronounce it right, people.”

Joan Bundy, a local divorce lawyer who runs the CASS-uh GRAND site,
insists the Spanish pronunciation does not apply. “Americans have a
knack for taking foreign words and making them their own,” she said.
MARC LACEY

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/14/us/in-casa-grande-rival-pronunciations.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=Casa%20Grande&st=cse



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