Nevada

How do you pronounce the name of this state ''nuh-vah-duh or nuh-vad-uh''?

I pronounce it as, "nuh-vae-duh" (the "ae" being like the a in "cat").

Bush mispronounces Nevada in first presidential visit

ASSOCIATED PRESS

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - Nevada memo to George Bush: When making a first presidential visit to a state, use the right pronounciation of its name.

Bush, in Las Vegas on Tuesday, repeatedly said Ne-vah-da. To properly pronounce Nevada, the middle syllable should rhyme with gamble.

Mispronouncing the state's name "sets people's teeth on edge," said state Archivist Guy Rocha. "He's the president, and he ought to get it right. Nothing personal."

State Senate Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, said the mispronunciation shows Bush, who won the state in the 2000 election, doesn't care much about the state.

"They take such pains to orchestrate these trips and to make sure everything is politically correct," she said. "You would think the name of the state would be a simple piece of that."

Assemblyman Lynn Hettrick, R-Gardnerville, said the president ought to pronounce Nevada correctly, but Bush's message was more important.

"There are a lot more important things to worry about than that," he said. "The visit itself is far more important. Clearly some people will make hay out of it, and that's OK. That's the way it works."

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11/26/03: "To pronounce Nevada, the middle syllable should rhyme with gamble"
Posted by: .@. (colonel_korn)


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"Nev-amble-da"?

How do you pronounce ''colorado'' I pronounce it ''col-uh-rah-doe''.

I grew up in Texas and assumed that the vowels in "Nevada" would be prounounced as in Spanish. I had a short job assignment in Nevada and on my first day, my pronunciation was corrected by a native. He told me that if I got it wrong again, he would kick me in the seat of the pants.

Ne (e as in beg) va (a as in cat) da (a as in father).

Pronunciation of ''Nevada'' [n..va:d..] or [n..v@d..].

I always say it as Ne-vah-da the other way of saying it sounds British to me.

Ooh...I have always pronounced Nevada as /n..'va:d../, Alabama as /@l..'ba:m../, and Colorado as /kol..'ra:dOu/.

It's one of those words where I'm actually aware of a change in my pronunciation. As a kid, I called it nuh-vah-duh, but I find that I'm more likely to call it nuh-vadd-uh these days. I don't know why.

My pronunciation of these words.

Nevada [n..va:d..] ''a'' sound in father.
Alabama [@l..b@m..] ''a'' sound in cat.
Colorado [ka:l..ra:dOu] ''a'' sound in father.

My (mis)pronunciation of these names:

Nevada [n..'va:d..]
Alabama ['@l..b@m..]
Colorado ['kol..ra:dOu]

What language are they from? Go back to the origins of these names and who knows who will be proven right?

how can you pronounce nevada wrong?

If you pronounced it "Nunavut", you'd be pronouncing "Nevada" wrong.

I'd assume it'd just be where you're from - it'd be natural for someone from a Spanish/Italian background to pronounce it Neh-vaa-dah, but for a Nevada native, the /a/ will be pronounced /ae/ ("cat").

In just about every US dialect, the /a/ sound is separated into two catagories: 1. before an /r/ (car), and 2. not before an /r/ (fast)

The phrase "fast car" would be pronounced "faest caar" (ae=cat, aa=father) in US dialects, but in most UK dialects (excepting Irish, Scottish most notably) it would be the same vowel sound "faast caa."

So "Nevada" not incorporating an /r/ in the spelling, would naturally be pronounced nuh-vaed-uh. But you can understand that someone from another country would naturally go to pronounce it with the longer vowel.

Nick