How Accurate is this Guide to Learning to Pronounce Names in La?
At some point, even if you're a Louisiana native, you've found yourself wondering what the person in front of you just said. We have a crazy amount of dialects that are spoken throughout the state. While we're a little more 'country' here in northwest Louisiana, we've got a ton of different French, Creole, Spanish, and Cajun inflections and influences when it comes to our way of speaking. And if we're being honest, in Louisiana, if we don't know how to say something, we just say it really fast and slur it all together. Problem solved!
Reddit user Pompous_Pilot posted this pronunciation guide that he was given several years ago when started a new sales job in New Orleans and it's gotten over 1,300 replies.
Take a look at the handout and tell us what you think.
Now I don't know about you, but a few of these seem a little off, but I'm no linguistics expert. Where in the world is 'champagne' pronounced as 'sham-pine?' Nowhere I've ever been! How about the way they say you should say Fauchaeaux? Wouldn't that be 'fo-show?' As for how to say Delaune, I've always heard it pronounced like 'de-lawn.' They also say you should pronounce Billiot as 'bill-yaht.' I've always thought you said it like 'bee-o.' The 't' is silent. However, other Reddit users weren't silent on these pronunciations, either. What say you? Did they get it mostly right? Inquiring minds want to know!