Letterman's Sonia Sotomayor Pronunciation Round-Up (VIDEO)

Last night on the "Late Show," David Letterman aired a new segment called the "Sonia Sotomayor Pronunciation Round-Up." The video shows the myriad ways talking heads and anchors alike have screwed up the name of the would-be Supreme Court justice.

In fact, the problem has gotten so bad that the Associate Press had to publish a guide to pronouncing her name today which is almost as sad (but not quite) as the Associated Press publishing this story.

Jon Stewart ran a similar segment on Sotomayor last night which you can see here. Stewart dealt more sharply with her critics, where Letterman let the video speak for itself.


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Comments

[aussiegal77]

Is it too much to ask that our TV News presenters at least learn to pronounce a person's name correctly BEFORE they go on air?

[julia23]

Its amazing that TV reporters in the USA can't speak Spanish. Its not that hard to learn.

[VivaZapata]

mostly, when we speak of tv reporters, we're talking about people who majored in communications. far from proficiency in speaking languages other than english, they are, as we have too often seen, vacuous beings when it comes to political subtext, and they rarely have any historical context to frame their repetitive, sound bite presentations. cream might rise to the top, but too often so does something else.

[greyhound2]

Who cares?

[VivaZapata]

This is silly stuff. Common Spanish surnames, like Rodriguez and Hernandez are mispronounced regularly by the English speaking world, and, right or wrong, everyone accepts it.

I mispronounce my own Italian name deliberately. To make a point of correcting it to others, would make me look petty.

[layman]

Unfortunately, some of these Tee Vee people are not the best and the brightest that they are supposedly to educate the public.

[Mustang Sally]

Their job is to be pretty and read the teleprompter.

[derekc06]

Her name is not hard to pronounce... at all. These people are f00lish.

[CUL8R]

I thought her name was Maria?...Just kidding!

[rajani]

People who cannot pronounce names should never be allowed to host TV shows. All u need to do is go to wikipedia or the web. Such lazy journalists.

[rajani]

People who cannot pronounce names should never be allowed t

[coastalcarla]

Almost as ridiculous as how these same dimwits have been pronouncing Ahmadinejad for a couple of years. I think some conservatives revel in their ignorance.

[Eriq]

You're absolutely correct there! Just look at how Sarah Palin manages to mangle the American English language every time she opens her little, little mouth.

[Mustang Sally]

It's not ignorance. It's disdain.

[brooklyncitizen]

It's Spanish...the unoffical second language in the US...learn to pronouncing it correctly.

[Eriq]

Ha! Just take a quick look at the signs in the streets of Washington, D.C.! It's hilarious (if you're a Spanish speaker) to see how the nation's government can't even seem to find ANYONE who knows how to write Spanish correctly.

[brijit]

What an embarrassing parade of twits! Considering that most of these people's jobs only require them to read intelligibly and make occasional chit-chat, being able to read a fairly simple name of a very newsworthy person should not be so difficult. These people make Les Nessman of WKRP look good.

[Eriq]

...and they get paid LOADS of money.

[DoTheMath]

Easy pronunciation guide: so-toe-my-OR

[PAposter]

Exactly!

[LovesMusicLikesToSing]

I love it !! Make an effort and get it right !! Just like the English language, there are specific rules to proper pronunciation of the Spanish language. A little effort goes a long way.

Its so unfortunate when people of other cultures feel the need to alter their names or even choose a different name altogether to accommodate illiterate and/or lazy Americans. I have heard Asian-Americans in the workplace say to others just call me 'Amy' or 'Julie.' NO. Be proud of your name and its heritage and KEEP it.

[Eriq]

It's even better than you indicate. The rules of Spanish pronunciation are probably the easiest in the world. Five vowels, all very open, and that's basically it, unless you want to get involved in the particulars of different regional accents and the way they pronounce consonants.
Couldn't be easier.

[racom]

For all these over paid, brain dead talking heads, if it isn't Smith, Brown or Jones they are lost.

[ijramirez]

... and a little more on Spanish pronunciation. Spanish, being a phonetic language has very strict rules of pronunciation. Dividing the name into syllables results in So-to-ma-yor. Any Spanish word that ends in a consonant except "n" or "s" and that when written there is no "orthographic accent" or the tiny apostrophe on top of a letter is considered a "llana" word and therefore the last syllable must be stressed,. That's why the "yor' at the end must carry the stress.