Why are there so many English first names in Puerto Rico?

Adolfo   Fri Aug 10, 2007 5:01 pm GMT
Are you joking? Read again the conversation.
Guest   Fri Aug 10, 2007 5:07 pm GMT
I read it and I still think it's TV (and Hollywood), why do you think it is not?
Vicky   Fri Aug 10, 2007 6:31 pm GMT
An acquaintance called me one day asking me if I was going to attend his wedding since I had never bothered to RSVP. Well, I never received the invitation in the first place but I told him that I would. But anyway, the bride was a lovely Cuban girl named "Janet". For some reason they hadn't bothered to register with any department store, so I went and got them a beautiful musical trinket box with their names engraved on it. I was horrified when I went to the wedding and saw the programs had the bride listed as "Yaneth"!

Yes I should've double-checked the spelling of the bride's name, but how was I supposed to know "Janet" could be spelled any other way?!
furrykef   Fri Aug 10, 2007 6:41 pm GMT
<< Read again the conversation. >>

I feel that I haven't been correcting others' English as often as I should, since site is focused on learning English, so I think I'll start making more corrections. I don't know why, but I would strongly prefer to say "Read the conversation again"... adverbs like "too" and "again" typically go at the end of the clause they appear in. Not all adverbs, just that kind of adverb, although I admit I'm not sure what "that kind" really is.

<< so I went and got them a beautiful musical trinket box with their names engraved on it. I was horrified when I went to the wedding and saw the programs had the bride listed as "Yaneth"! >>

Ouch. Yes, I could have very easily made the same mistake. It could happen to anybody. I can't even imagine anybody bothering to double-check that...

- Kef
Adolfo   Fri Aug 10, 2007 6:48 pm GMT
Thank you Kef, I do really appreciate your corrections. Many times I have trouble trying to put the adverbs at the right place of the sentence.
asking help!!   Thu Aug 16, 2007 1:56 pm GMT
what does Puerto Rico mean in English?? please help me... i really need your help!
Guest   Thu Aug 16, 2007 3:48 pm GMT
Rich Port
furrykef   Thu Aug 16, 2007 3:58 pm GMT
Yep, it means "rich port", although I'd guess "rich" isn't referring to money, but to beauty or some other meaning of "rich".
Guest   Thu Aug 16, 2007 4:31 pm GMT
it could be both.
Adolfo   Wed Aug 22, 2007 5:11 pm GMT
I heard many times the following corruption from many English speakers: "Porto Rico" Perhaps the reason is the diphtong "ue" is hard to pronounce for a native English speaker.
furrykef   Wed Aug 22, 2007 7:00 pm GMT
Yes, "Porto Rico" is a very common pronunciation. I say it myself sometimes, even though I'm a student of Spanish! (Of course, I wouldn't pronounce it that way when actually speaking Spanish.) In fact, we're not the only ones. Italians not only pronounce it "Porto Rico", they spell it that way, too!

I don't think the "proper" pronunciation is that hard, but it seems unnatural. The spelling probably has something to do with it, too... if it were spelled "Pwerto Rico", it would probably be pronounced correctly more often, just because the "w" sound is more obvious when written. That sounds strange, but it's just the way we think, I guess.

A similar oddity is that Spanish and Italian words ending with "e" tend to be pronounced with an "ee" sound (which speakers of these languages would spell "i"). For instance, "frijole" might be pronounced as if it were "frijoli". Yet a French word that ends with the same sound will never be pronounced this way!

- Kef
Guest   Wed Aug 22, 2007 7:07 pm GMT
I dont think any Spanish-speaker would pronounce "Frijole" as "Frijolee", in fact that's not even a word, I don't know about Italians though.
Adolfo   Wed Aug 22, 2007 7:11 pm GMT
Frijoles is a word, not a castilian Spanish word, but it is used in Hispanic America and means beans. Perhaps they drop the final -s and pronounce "frijole", just like southern Spaniards do.
furrykef   Wed Aug 22, 2007 11:50 pm GMT
<< I dont think any Spanish-speaker would pronounce "Frijole" as "Frijolee", in fact that's not even a word >>

Yes, that was my point. English speakers often pronounce it that way; Spanish speakers don't.

- Kef
Tiffany   Thu Aug 23, 2007 3:48 am GMT
Italians would pronounce the "e" in "frijole" correctly as it is the same sound in Italian. I don't find the "-ue" in Spanish difficult nor do I think do most English Speakers, but I am familiar with the anglicized "Porto Rico". I also don't think changing the spelling will help anything, I just think the "ue" sound is uncommon in English, thus the anglicized version does not include it.

BTW - "Bean" in Italian is "fagiole" (pl. fagioli).