Lafayette pronunciation

[CajunSaint]

_ Ok, It's the offseason, Question: "How do You pronounce Lafayette"?.. Or should I ask, what is the proper way to pronounce it?.. there are two basic pronounciations.. The way I know... Laff-ee-yette. And the alternative Lah-fay-yette.. (which is how Stevie p pronounces it.. no offense stevie.. I guess it's just how you learned...I know we have name issues with the university, but lets get on the same page with the city name also. this might be a good "poll' question..... _

forget about steve. he can't pronounce the "h" in houston. either way is acceptable. the problem with the way people like stevie say it is if you're gonna give the first syllable the french "lof" pron., then finish it off with the rest of the french pron., "foyette." thus, the french "lofoyette" with the "o" sound as in "top." it has always been an anomaly that the anglicized version has become more prevalent even as we sell our frenchness to outsiders. it stems partly from our being made to feel inferior to the "americans" who invaded in the '50's and 60's. but that's a topic that's best left to barry ancelet.

[CajunFun]

_ Ok, It's the offseason, Question: "How do You pronounce Lafayette"?.. Or should I ask, what is the proper way to pronounce it?.. there are two basic pronounciations.. The way I know... Laff-ee-yette. And the alternative Lah-fay-yette.. (which is how Stevie p pronounces it.. no offense stevie.. I guess it's just how you learned...I know we have name issues with the university, but lets get on the same page with the city name also. this might be a good "poll' question..... _

It depends... the same person will pronounce it different ways, depending on who he is talking to, and of course, what language he is speaking.

LAH FIE YET with all syllables emphasized is the French and the Cajun pronunciation. The rest of the time, it's LAUGH ee yet. In Mississippi, it's la FAYE et County (faye rhymes with say), wherein lies Ole Miss.

As for New Orleans, the Creole language has long been gone, replaced by English spoken with Irish-German-Italian accents, the same immigrant groups that give New Yorkers their accents. Which is why New Orleans and New York accents are similar.

So most of the names in New Orleans are pretty much uglified.

[VObserver]

_ It depends... the same person will pronounce it different ways, depending on who he is talking to, and of course, what language he is speaking.

LAH FIE YET with all syllables emphasized is the French and the Cajun pronunciation. The rest of the time, it's LAUGH ee yet. In Mississippi, it's la FAYE et County (faye rhymes with say), wherein lies Ole Miss.

As for New Orleans, the Creole language has long been gone, replaced by English spoken with Irish-German-Italian accents, the same immigrant groups that give New Yorkers their accents. Which is why New Orleans and New York accents are similar.

So most of the names in New Orleans are pretty much uglified. _

You want uglified NO street names? Better start with the Muses.

ka-lie-oh-pee becomes cal-i-ope

And God only knows how they pronounce Terpsichore or Euturpe. Not to mention the other ones that I can't spell... lol They may be close on Erato, though...

[Cajunbander]

I say it Laff-ee-yette.

The way I see it, is that Laff-ee-yette is correcte because its spelled Lafayette. If it were to be pronounced Lah-fay-yette, it'd be spelled LaFayette like other places spell it. Laff-ee-yette is more laid back sounding, like more Cajun, than Lah-fay-yette. If that makes any sense.

I hate when people call it Lah-fay-ette.

[CajunFun]

_ You want uglified NO street names? Better start with the Muses.

ka-lie-oh-pee becomes cal-i-ope

And God only knows how they pronounce Terpsichore or Euturpe. Not to mention the other ones that I can't spell... lol They may be close on Erato, though... _

Funny thing is, a lot of people in NO and outside, think cal ee ope is the proper pronunciation.

When kah lye oh pee is closer to the correct (or rather, Classical) pronunciation, kah lee oh pay. terp see koh ray becomes terp sick core, and u terp ay becomes u terp.

Then, of course, there's Tchoupatoulas, Poydras and BurGUNdy...

[ULtimateCajun]

_ Funny thing is, a lot of people in NO and outside, think cal ee ope is the proper pronunciation.

When kah lye oh pee is closer to the correct (or rather, Classical) pronunciation, kah lee oh pay. terp see koh ray becomes terp sick core, and u terp ay becomes u terp.

Then, of course, there's Tchoupatoulas, Poydras and BurGUNdy... _

HAHA Tchoupatoulas that one gives outsiders A LOT of trouble. They always want to pronounce that T.

[cajun67]

_ I've never figured out the real pronunciation of Chartres. whether it's char-ters, shar-tre's, or something else

I say shar-tres. Of course i'm not french so.

It's funny how NOLA has so much French their but they don't pronounce anything the way the french do. Like Trahan Richard, etc. _

Or, for God sakes, Caliope, Burgundy, Iberville. I'm from there and I'm corrected by waiters when I use the correct pronunciation. When they insist on correcting me, I only ask if they went to public school in NO!!

[cajunhawk]

Trust me from my experiences of working in Baton Rouge, its hard for anyone with a country twang to even attempt Cajun French. Of course there will be cajun people in Baton Rouge....transplants. It's a redneck town, it will always be a redneck town, no ______ing matter what they want to be. It's a cultural dead zone with gobs of money. Just a polished terd if you ask me. Time to flush.

[Membertou]

_ My guess would be that nobody "stole" the swamp name. I have a feeling both universities came up with it around the same time.

As far as the Geaux thing goes...its pretty dumb for LSU to claim ownership.

Ask a BR person where they are from and you'll hear something like "bat'n roosh". No French pronunciation at all.

How did these people come up with a French pronunciation of "Go" when they don't even pronounce the French name of their city in French?

That being said, it really doesn't bother me if they use "geaux". There isn't much stuff going on in BR. They are stuck between two major cultural areas in New Orleans and Lafayette. They need all the help they can get. _

The irony is ask someone from Lafayette where they are from and they'll say "Laugh-a-yette"--no french pronounciation at all.

[Hooj_Cajun_Fan]

_ The irony is ask someone from Lafayette where they are from and they'll say "Laugh-a-yette"--no french pronounciation at all. _

It comes from an English pronunciaton of a word with a Cajun French accent. Have you ever heard a European French accent? It's completely different from Cajun French accents. That why we pronounce it that way.