How do you pronounce the name of that town?

In the short time I’ve been here I have heard a handful of pronunciations for the name of San Felipe. Everyone seems to agree on the “San” part, it’s the “Felipe” that causes confusion.

I first heard it pronounced like fill-eep-ay or fell-eep-ay. Since coming to Sealy I’ve heard it spoken mostly as Phillip (fill-ip) or fill-eep. I’ve also heard fill-eep-ee. The emphasis also alters from FILL-eep to fill-EEP.

When I looked it up on Dictionary.com, even the San part got changed. It’s suggested pronunciation is more like sahn fe-LEE-pay.

So which is it? Is there a right or wrong way to say it? If there are any local linguistic experts out there who know the correct way to say it, please inform me. In the meantime I will take comfort in being a print journalist and not having to speak it publicly.

Once we get this figured out we’ll work on Bleiblerville.

I come from the village of Niwot, Colo. Most people will get it right the first time when they say ny-wot. Still, you get those who say nee-wot , ny-wat or nee-wat. Niwot is named after an Arapaho chief. It means Left Hand. Known as a man of peace, Niwot was mortally wounded at the Sand Creek Massacre nearly 150 years ago.

People from Niwot call themselves Niwotians. There is a running debate about whether it is pronounced Ny-wo-shans (like Martians) or Ny-wot-ey-ans.

I went to Niwot Elementary and Niwot High schools. We always said that Niwot spelled backwards is “To Win.” That’s pretty much how we won in those days – backward. Actually, in my years at Niwot High, we were mostly winners. At least we were in football. Traditionally, however, Niwot has done its winning backward.

But getting back to Texas, there are plenty of places with multiple pronunciations. Take New Ulm for example. Many locals seem to pronounce it as one word with an extra vowel – newolum. It’s kind of like saying New Orleans as N’awlins.

I don’t know why I find these different pronunciations interesting. I guess it’s because I have hearing damage and it’s hard for me to know if I’m hearing unique words correctly. In this line of work it’s important to know if you’re talking to Mr. Johnson or Mr. Johnston or to Susan or Suzanne.

Now that I’m in Sealy I have to learn not only how to pronounce the name of the next town over, but also how to say a lot of these Czech names. When you’re hard of hearing it can be a huge challenge.

Usually I like to see new names spelled out to make sure I’m hearing it right. That’s the second round of the Czech Challenge. No offense, but some of these names look and sound weird. I could never figure it out without a lot of coaching.

Oddly enough, Southern can be a real challenge to a lot of people. You have no idea how many thousands of times I’ve been called Southerland. It’s not even pronounced the same as Southern. I have never once attached “land” to the end of my name, but it gets attached a lot. I used to think it just happened to me, but the other Southerns in my family all have the same problem.

It’s not a Czech name. It’s English. It means “the south end of a region” or something to that affect. When strangers aren’t calling me Southerland, they often try to give it a literal pronunciation, like “Sow-th-ern.” Go figure!

I guess I could simplify things by simply changing my last name to, say, San Felipe. Alas, San Felipe is already taken and, as we have learned, way too complicated to pronounce.