Pronounced "los an-guh-lis" with the "guh" sound as used in "guitar". Not "los an-gel-ees"
Did I hear this right? Hopefully I've managed to describe the difference in sound.
I've never heard that pronunciation before. Is this the original pronunciation? Or just something Robert Cummings did as the character Barry Kane?
You are right. Barry did say "los an-guh-lis" to the driver. But I don't know if this is the original pronunciation.
Neither is really proper, when compared to the original Spanish pronunciation (Loce-ahng-hay-lace), but a lot of people used to use that "hard 'g'" pronunciation, including one of the city's former mayors, Sam Yorty. It's pretty much fallen into disuse, now.
Poe! You are...avenged!
I grew up in Los Angeles County, and pronouncing it with a hard "g" tended to show us that the person saying it wasn't from Los Angeles.
shareSo did I. And both Robert Cummings' and Sam Yorty's pronunciation would appear to bear out your assertion (Cummings was from Missouri; Yorty from Nebraska). Although, for whatever it's worth, once I'd finished school (where classmates tended to be natives) and got out into the real world, it seemed the majority of people that I met in L.A. were from elsewhere.
I now live in Washington, and in the year and a half I've been here, I'd swear I meet more native Californians than I did in L.A.!
Poe! You are...avenged!
The real way of speaking the names is Los ahn-heh-less with an accent on the "a".
shareRight. I didn't know how to put an accent over that syllable. Maybe I should have shown it bold.
Poe! You are...avenged!
That is the 'real' way in Spanish. But we're speaking English about an American city.
I was born in LA and I see no reason to pronounce it any other way.
In Montreal, the largely bi-lingual natives pronounce Montreal the French way when speaking French, and the English way when speaking English. Very civilized. It's not a political question, it's a language question.
In order to communicate most effectively city names should always be pronounced in the language of the conversation.
I've noticed it cropping up many times in older movies (and I'm pretty sure that most of those people knew how to pronounce the name of the town that buttered their bread).
I always assumed that back in the day the hard G was a perfectly acceptable way of pronouncing Los Angeles (especially considering its similarity to the Spanish). I've even heard it in modern films that were set in earlier periods, westerns, modern noirs, etc.
I've also heard it in a lot of old movies (Bogie, for sure), but I am interested by the theory stated above that only out-of-towners pronounced it that way.
shareI lived in NYC my entire life and I have never, ever heard anyone whom I know pronounce Los Angeles with the hard "g". Everyone I know pronounces it as "Los an-jyah-lis". I did ask my mother, who is in her early 70's, about the unusual pronunciation and she explained that this was an older, accepted pronunciation that has fallen out of favor and replaced by the pronunciation that I've been accustomed to hearing.
Looks like we're shy one horse.
You brought two too many.
Art Linkletter (who was a Canadian) always used the hard-g pronunciation.
shareIn a number of old movies and radio shows, I've heard it pronounced with the hard "g". Like others here, I guess it was an older pronunciation that fell by the wayside. You see similar things; these days we're used to "cookie" but I have some old cookbooks from the 50s and earlier that use "cooky."
Facts need to come before certainty.
The pronunciation you note was stylish for years in films and TV. To show a parallel, people in movies nowadays say "Nawlins" (two syllables) to make it seem they are natives. It's my home town, and most natives call it "Noo Awlins," three syllables. Nobody says New Orleens. That's used only an old song to rhyme "Do you know what it means / To miss New Orleens?" The R in Orleans is pronounced primarily by NO's power elite who tend to say it in four syllables. These comments primarily apply to native Caucasians; the NO Afro-American dialect is quite distinct. Note that there are many many exceptions to these generalities.
shareSteve Harvey wrote one of his Then and Now columns for the L.A. Times about the various historical pronunciations of the city's name. I don't know if I'm allowed to link it from here, but I'll try:
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/26/local/la-me-0626-then-20110626
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