California English (or Californian,
Californian English) is a
dialect of
the English language spoken in
California.
[1]California is
home to a
highly diverse population, which is
reflected in
the historical and continuing development of
CaliforniaEnglish.
History
English was first spoken on a
wide scale in
the area now known as
California following the influx of
English-speaking Whitesfrom the United States (and also Canada and Europe)
during the California Gold Rush.
The English-speaking populationgrew rapidly with further settlement, which included large populations from the Northeast,
South and the Midwest. Thedialects brought by
these pioneers were the basis for the development of
the modern language: a
mixture of
settlers from theMidwest and the Border South produced the rural dialect of
Northern California, whereas settlers from the Lower Midwestand the South, (especially Missouri and Texas),
produced the rural dialect of
Southern California.
Before World War I,
the variety of
speech types reflected the differing origins of
these early inhabitants. At
the time a
distinctly Southwestern drawl could be
heard in
Southern California. When a
collapse in
commodity prices followed WorldWar I,
many bankrupted Midwestern farmers migrated to
California from Nebraska, Ohio, Illinois, Minnesota, and Iowacontributing to a
new homogenized speech in
urban sprawl, where teachers banned "ain't," 'awl' in
favor of
oyill (oil),[2] and"I'll" in
favor of
ayill in
grammar schools. Subsequently, incoming groups with differing speech, such as
the speakers of
Highland Southern during the 1930s, have been absorbed within a
generation. The Dust bowl migration of
the so-calledOkies re-introduced a
purer Southwestern accent to
the West Coast in
the 1920s and 30s before the migration ended in
World War II.[citation needed]
California's status as a
relatively young state is
significant in
that it
has not had centuries for regional patterns to
emerge andgrow (compared to, say, some East Coast or
Southern dialects). Linguists who studied English as
spoken in
Californiabefore and in
the period immediately after World War II
tended to
find few if
any distinct patterns unique to
the region.[3]However, several decades later, with a
more settled population and continued immigration from all over the globe, a
noteworthy set of
emerging characteristics of
California English had begun to
attract notice by
linguists of
the late 20thcentury and on.
Phonology
As a
variety of
American English,
California English is
similar to
most other forms of
American speech in
being a
rhotic accent,
which is
historically a
significant marker in
differentiating different English varieties. The following vowel diagramrepresents the relative positions of
the stressed monophthongs of
the accent, based on
nine speakers from southernCalifornia.[4] Notable is
the absence of
/ɔ/,
which has merged with /ɑ/ through the cot–caught merger, and the relativelyopen quality of
/ɪ/ due to
the California vowel shift discussed below.
Several phonological processes have been identified as
being particular to
California English. However, these shifts are byno
means universal in
Californian speech, and any single Californian's speech may only have some or
none of
the changesidentified below. The shifts might also be
found in
the speech of
people from areas outside of
California.
- Front vowels are raised before /ŋ/, so that /æ/ and /ɪ/ are raised to [e] and [i] before /ŋ/. This change makes forminimal pairs such as king and keen, both having the same vowel [i], differing from king [kɪŋ] in other varieties ofEnglish, though it is not spread evenly and the pronunciation [kɪŋ] still exists in many areas. Similarly, a word like rangwill often have the same vowel as rain in California English, not the same vowel as ran as in other varieties. This raisingis also found in the American Southeast.
- The vowels in words such as Mary, marry, merry are merged to [ɛ]. This merging is also found in southeast Englandand in the American Southeast.
- Most speakers do not distinguish between /ɔ/ and /ɑ/, characteristic of the cot–caught merger. A notable exceptionmay be found within the San Francisco Bay Area, many of whose inhabitants' speech somewhat reflects influence ofnew arrivals from the Northeast.
- According to a phonetician studying California English, Penelope Eckert, traditionally diphthongal vowels such as/oʊ/ as in boat and /eɪ/, as in bait, have acquired qualities much closer to monophthongs in speakers, similar to theAmerican Southeast.
- The pin–pen merger is complete in and around Kern County and northern Los Angeles County; speakers in Sacramentoeither perceive or produce the pairs /ɛn/ and /ɪn/ close to each other.[5]
- Speakers in the Greater Los Angeles area often quickly slur vowel sounds, making certain syllables sound longer andflow closer.[6]
One topic that has begun to
receive much attention among scholars in
recent years has been the emergence of a
vowel shift unique to
California. Much like other vowel shifts occurring in
North America, such as
the Southern Shift,
NorthernCities Shift, and the Canadian Shift,
the California Vowel Shift is
noted for a
systematic chain shift of
several vowels.
This image on
the right illustrates the California vowel shift. The vowel spaceof
the image is a
cross-section (as if
looking at
the interior of a
mouth from a
side profile perspective); it is a
rough approximation of
the space in a
humanmouth where the tongue is
located in
articulating certain vowel sounds (theleft is
the front of
the mouth closer to
the teeth, the right side of
the chart beingthe back of
the mouth). As
with other vowel shifts, several vowels may be
seen moving in a
chain shift around the mouth. As
one vowel encroachesupon the space of
another, the adjacent vowel in
turn experiences a
movement in
order to
maximize phonemic differentiation.
Two phonemes, /ɪ/ and /æ/,
have allophones that are fairly widely spreadapart from each other: before /ŋ/,
/ɪ/ is
raised to
[i] and, as
mentionedabove, may even be
identified with the phoneme /i/. In
other contexts, /ɪ/has a
fairly open pronunciation, as
indicated in
the vowel chart above. /æ/ is
raised and diphthongized to
[eə] or
[ɪə] before nasal consonants (a
shiftreminiscent of, but more restricted than, non-phonemic æ-tensing in
theInland North); before /ŋ/ it
may be
identified with the phoneme /e/.
Elsewhere /æ/ is
lowered in
the direction of
[a].
The other parts of
the chainshift are apparently context-free: /ʊ/ is
moving towards [ʌ],
/ʌ/ towards[ɛ],
/ɛ/ toward [æ],
/ɑ/ toward [ɔ],
and /u/ and /oʊ/ are diphthongswhose nuclei are moving toward [i] and [e] respectively.[7]
Unlike some of
the other vowel shifts, however, the California Shift Theory would represent the earlier stages of
developmentas
compared to
the more widespread Northern Cities and Southern Shifts, although the new vowel characteristics of
theCalifornia Shift are increasingly found among younger speakers. As
with many vowel shifts, these significant changesoccurring in
the spoken language are rarely noticed by
average speakers; imitation of
peers and other sociolinguisticphenomena play a
large part in
determining the extent of
the vowel shift in a
particular speaker. For example, while somecharacteristics such as
the close central rounded vowel [ʉ] or
close back unrounded vowel [ɯ] for /u/ arewidespread in
Californian speech, the same high degree of
fronting for /oʊ/ is
common only within certain social groups.
The southern Central Valley (Kern, Tulare, and Kings Counties), is the last large rural (but not desert) region in SouthernCalifornia and maintains many of the original dialect distinctive of Southern California as a part of the American Southwest,including the pin-pen merger, a single phoneme in contrast to the nasal diphthong /ãɪ/ of the U.S. Northeast, respectable useof "ain't" and "yes ma'am." This is distinct from the fast-talking homogenized speech common to the very large cities of LosAngeles, the Bay Area, and in cities throughout English-speaking America.
Many rural white Californians speak with a
western Oklahoma-like drawl that is
quite distinct from the high-pitched, fast-talking of
city folk in
coastal Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay region. Currently, it is
often assumed that the CentralValley's holdout of
Southwestern speech and culture (such as
rodeos) was strengthened by
people from western Oklahomawho emigrated during the Dust Bowl. But no
documentation of
change of
the dialect before and after the arrival of
the "Okies"is
submitted. Rather, rural Southern California was already populated long before, by
descendants of
settlers who came to
California in
the Southwest from different regions of
the Southeast,[8] fully explaining the speech patterns of
rural SouthernCalifornia as
native and entrenched.
Lexical characteristics
The popular image of a
typical California speaker often conjures up
images of
the so-called Valley girls popularized by
the1982 hit song by
Frank and Moon Unit Zappa, or "
surfer-dude"
speech made famous by
movies such as
Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
While many phrases found in
these extreme versions of
California English from the 1980s may now be
considered passé, certain words such as
awesome,
totally,
fer sure,
harsh,
gnarly,
and dude have remained popular in
California and have spread to a
national, even international, level. The use of
the word like for numerous grammaticalfunctions or as
conversational "
filler"
(e.g. in
place of
thinking sounds "uh" and "um") has also remained popular in
CaliforniaEnglish and is
now found in
many other varieties of
English.
A
common example of a
Northern Californian[9] colloquialism is
hella (from "hell of a
(lot of)", rare euphemistic alternative,hecka) to
mean "many", "much", "so" or
"very".[10] It
can be
used with both count and mass nouns. For example: "I
haven'tseen you in
hella long"; "There were hella people there"; or
"This guacamole is
hella good." Pop culture references to
"hella"are common, as in
the song "
Hella Good" by
the band No
Doubt, which hails from Southern California, and "Hella" by
theband Skull Stomp, who come from Northern California.[11]
California, like other Southwestern states, has borrowed many words from Spanish,
especially for place names, food, andother cultural items, reflecting the heritage of
the Californios.
High concentrations of
various ethnic groups throughout thestate have contributed to
general familiarity with words describing (especially cultural) phenomena. For example, a
highconcentration of
Asian Americans from various cultural backgrounds, especially in
urban and suburban metropolitan areasin
California, has led to
the adoption of
words like hapa (itself originally a
Hawaiian borrowing of
English "half"[12]). A
personwho was hapa was either part European/Islander or
part Asian/Islander. Today it
refers to a
person of
mixed racial heritage—especially, but not limited to, half-Asian/half-European-Americans in
common California usage) and FOB ("fresh off theboat", often a
newly arrived Asian immigrant). Not surprisingly, the popularity of
cultural food items such as
Vietnamese phởand Taiwanese boba in
many areas has led to
the general adoption of
such words amongst many speakers.
In
1958, essayist Clifton Fadiman pointed out that Northern California is
the only place besides England where the wordchesterfield is
used as a
synonym for sofa or
couch.
[13]
Freeway nomenclature
Since the 1950s and 1960s, California culture (and thus its variety of English) has been significantly affected by "car culture,"that is, dependence on private automobile transportation and the effects thereof.
One difference between California and most of
the rest of
the United States has been the way California English speakersrefer to
highways, or
freeways. The term freeway itself was originally not used in
many areas outsideCalifornia;
[citation needed] for instance, in
New England,
the term highway is
universally used. Where most Americans mayrefer to "
I-80"
for the east-west Interstate Highway leading from San Francisco to
the suburbs of
Oakland or
"I-15" for thenorth-south artery linking San Diego through Salt Lake City to
the Canadian border, Californians—especially SouthernCalifornians—are less likely to
use the "I." Northern and Southern Californians alike are even less likely to
use the"interstate" designation in
naming freeways.[citation needed]
The numbering of
freeway exits, common in
most parts of
the United States,
has only recently been applied in
Californiaand initially appearing only in
more populous areas. Thus, virtually all Californians refer to
exits by
signage name rather thanby
number, as in
"the Grand Avenue exit" (in Los Angeles) rather than "Exit 21."
Californians sometimes refer to
the lanes of a
multi-lane divided highway by
number, "The Number 1
Lane" (also referred toas
"The Fast Lane") is
the lane farthest to
the left (not counting the carpool lane), with the lane numbers going up
sequentially to
the right until the far right lane,[14] which is
usually referred to as
"The Slow Lane." In
areas where three andoccasionally two lane freeways are more common, the lanes are simply the "fast lane," "middle lane" and "slow lane."
- Northern Californians will typically say "80," "I-80," "Business 80," or "101" ("one-oh-one") to refer to freeways. Somelong-time San Francisco Bay Area residents and many traffic report broadcasts still refer to such highways by nameand not number designation: "Bayshore" for Highway 101, or "the Nimitz" for I-880, the portion of the EastshoreFreeway which was named for Admiral Chester Nimitz, a prominent World War II hero with strong local ties. StateRoute 1 is called "Highway 1" or simply "One" (that is, "take One down the coast"). Differentiation among freeways isgenerally determined, by stating East to West, or North to South. Because the major freeways go either north to south(odd numbered, e.g. 101 or I-5) or east to west (even numbered, e.g. 74 or 80), it's only necessary to differentiatebetween those two directions, except for shorter, intrastate freeways.
- In the Greater Los Angeles area (Los Angeles County, Orange County, Ventura County, and the Inland Empire)and San Diego, freeways are referred to either by name or by route number (perhaps with a direction suffix), but withthe addition of the definite article "the," such as "the 405 North" or "the 605 (Freeway)". This is in contrast to typicalNorthern California usage, which omits the definite article.[15][16][17]
- There is no road named the "Los Angeles Freeway"; instead, each freeway which radiates from Downtown Los Angeles is named for its nominal terminus in some other city, such as Santa Monica, Pomona or San Bernardino.News reports will occasionally refer to the Santa Monica and Santa Ana freeways as such; however, residents willrarely refer to the 405 freeway as the San Diego Freeway (other than on street signs). The majority of natives stick tocalling the freeways by "The" + (Freeway number).[citation needed]
- Conversely, the older state highways are generally called not by their numbers but by their names, as used onsignage and in postal addresses. For example, in Southern California, State Route 1 is called the Pacific CoastHighway and is often referred to as "the PCH".[citation needed]
- The distribution of these contrasting nomenclatures is irregular, and indicate the extent of integration with the GreaterLos Angeles economic sphere of influence. Along Highway 101, the shift occurs at the Santa Ynez Mountains, sothat residents of Santa Barbara County and San Luis Obispo County speak of "the 101," but residents of thesouthernmost parts of Monterey County call the same freeway "101" (although some residents also say "the 101,"since there are both people from North and Southern California living there.) Along Interstate 5, this border is lessclear. Residents of Bakersfield, over the San Gabriel Mountains from Los Angeles, speak of "the Five" and "the 99",but this use is notably absent in Fresno. Towns in the Mojave Desert tend to use the "the" at least as far as Las Vegas; Las Vegas has notable historic ties to the Los Angeles area, given that as much as 25% of visitors to LasVegas are from Southern California. Residents of San Diego, the Imperial Valley, and Phoenix, Arizona[18][19] followSouthern California usage as well.
Urban geographical nomenclature
In referring to neighborhoods and districts within San Francisco or Los Angeles, residents' typical usage runs counter tofreeway nomenclature. In San Francisco one hears of the Mission, the Castro, or the Haight; but in Los Angeles, the article isomitted in similar contexts, for example Los Feliz, Sawtelle, and Pico Union.
Northern California
The metro region often referred to as
the Bay Area includes San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda, Marin,Contra Costa, Sonoma, Solano and Napa counties.
The San Francisco Bay Area is commonly referred to as "the Bay Area" or sometimes simply as "The Bay". The Bay Area issub-divided into several regions:
- "The City" or simply "SF" refers to San Francisco proper.
- The "North Bay" encompasses Marin County, Napa County, Sonoma County and Solano County.[20]
- The "South Bay" encompasses the cities of the Santa Clara Valley, including San Jose, and can refer to all of Santa Clara County, as far south as Gilroy and sometimes Santa Cruz and San Benito counties. Mountain View, home ofGoogle, is undeniably part of Silicon Valley, but northwestern parts seem to be more integrated with Palo Alto.
- The "East Bay" extends inland from the eastern shores of the San Francisco Bay and includes Alameda and Contra Costa counties. East Bay cities include Oakland, Berkeley, Concord, Walnut Creek, Fremont, Richmond, San Ramon, Hayward, and San Leandro. Cities on the Bay side of the East Bay Hills are sometimes referred to as the"Near East Bay", and historically, inland cities along the I-680 corridor have been referred to as the "Far East Bay". Thedefinition of this term has been muddied in recent years as suburban sprawl from the Bay Area spilled into the CentralValley, adding a distinct third subregion to the East Bay.
- "The Peninsula" refers to the San Francisco Peninsula south of the City of San Francisco, encompassing the cities inSan Mateo County, including Daly City, San Mateo, Redwood City and Menlo Park, as well as Palo Alto (in SantaClara County). It is virtually never referred to as the "West Bay". Palo Alto is considered "on the Peninsula", which despitebeing in Santa Clara County has long historical ties with the Peninsula (especially with Menlo Park); for example, JaneLathrop Stanford kept a personal waiting room at the Menlo Park train station, despite the Stanford estate's proximity toPalo Alto.
- "Oakland" is often called "Oaktown" by its African American residents, colloquially. The sobriquet also is found as part ofsmall local merchandise and service businesses. The popular rise of medical marijuana cultivation and marketingspawned the introduction of "Oaksterdam", a portmanteau of Oakland and Amsterdam. (If Oakland had been named,like San Francisco and San Jose, according to its Spanish name, it would have been called Las Encinas [ The Oaks ].)
The term "Frisco" is
rarely used by
San Francisco Bay Area residents, much as
"The Big Apple" is
not typically used by
native New Yorkers.
However, though well-known newspaper columnist Herb Caen once harshly criticized the use of
theterm "Frisco," he
later recanted, and the term continues to be
used.[21] Still, the term "Frisco" continues to be
viewed by
many as
either revealing ignorance, or as
vaguely derogatory. Emperor Norton, a
colorful 19th century inhabitant of
SanFrancisco, once issued a
proclamation about the City's nickname:
| “ | Whoever after due and proper warning shall be heard to utter the abominable word "Frisco", which has nolinguistic or other warrant, shall be deemed guilty of a High Misdemeanor, and shall pay into the ImperialTreasury as penalty the sum of twenty-five dollars.[22] | ” |
In
1918 in
his courtroom, a
San Francisco judge rebuked a
Los Angeles resident's use of
the nickname "Frisco" by
saying"No one refers to
San Francisco by
that title except people from Los Angeles."[23] Decades later, San Francisco columnistHerb Caen renewed the drive to
keep "Frisco" out of
San Francisco.[24]
Herb Caen pointed out in his column that some residents of Los Angeles refer to San Francisco as "Toytown".
Santa Rosa,
north of
San Francisco, is
sometimes referred to as
"Rosa" or
"SR".
Some Northern Californians refer to Sacramento, the state capital, as "Sac", "Sacto", "Sactown", "Smacktown","Sacmenistan", "Swagramento", "Sacra" (by the Chicano community), "Sacratomato" (for the local tomato canning industry)and various other nicknames.
Bay Area and Sacramento residents speak of
going "up the hill" into the neighboring mountains to
Lake Tahoe or
Reno, Nevada,
but "over the hill" for crossing the Santa Cruz Mountains,
either to
Santa Cruz or
Half Moon Bay. By
the sametoken, those living in
the Foothills will speak of
going "down the hill" when traveling into the Sacramento area. In
theSacramento area, "the Valley" refers to
the Central Valley. Also residents of
West Marin will call the San Geronimo Valley as
"the valley" and Mount Tamalpais "the hill", as in
you're from "the valley" or
I'm going "over the hill". Additionally, residents of
the Bay Area will sometimes refer to
the area of
the Santa Clara Valley and surrounding cities as
"the Valley" or as
the morefamous term, "
Silicon Valley".
Residents of
Santa Cruz use the phrase "over the hill" to
refer to
Silicon Valley (which is
oftenreferred to by
Santa Cruz "locals" as
"The Pit"), but for them "the Bay" refers to
closer Monterey Bay,
not San Francisco Bay.
Southern California
Southern California has many distinctive accents and dialects; these often reflect the geographic origins of
the people whocame there. Bakersfield English and the "Valley Girl" dialect of
the San Fernando Valley have their roots in
the OzarkEnglish of
Arkansas and Missouri, and first developed when many people from the Ozarks migrated to
California in
the1930s. East Los Angeles and the Gateway Cities house a
distinctive form of
Chicano English.
These dialects can exist in
very small areas, such as
the traditionally New Orleanian Yat in
northern Pasadena.
In
the city of
Los Angeles, the terms "Westside" and "Eastside" are frequently used to
refer to
regions on
either side of
thecity. The boundaries of
these regions are not defined, and whether certain neighborhoods should be
included in
theWestside or
the Eastside remains a
heated topic of
discussion.[25] Generally, the Westside includes neighborhoods with thearea code 310, including Santa Monica, Westwood and Beverly Hills.
The Eastside includes neighborhoods east of
theLos Angeles River such as
Boyle Heights,
East Los Angeles and Whittier.
Neighborhoods south of
downtown Los Angeles are typically referred to as
"South Central" (though officially renamed to"
South L.A."
2003). South Central initially referred to
Central Ave South of
Jefferson which was a
major location for jazz andnightlife in
the fifties and sixties. Neighborhoods in
South L.A. include Watts,
Leimert Park,
and Inglewood.
The San Fernando Valley,
which lies north of
the Santa Monica mountains, is
often called simply "the Valley." It
became a
cultural phenomenon and a
major real estate destination for millions of
Angelenos to
call home in
the 20th century, andindeed where the "Valley girl/boy" accent developed in
the later 1970s and 1980s or
early 1990s become popularized by
teenagers and young adults nationwide and globally through Hollywood's media circuit.[citation needed]
Residents of
Long Beach simply refer to
their city as
Long Beach. Residents outside the region may refer to
the city as
the"LBC," popularized in
the media by
famous residents, such as
the rapper Snoop Dogg and the ska punk band Sublime.
The Inland Empire,
which encompasses cities in
San Bernardino, Riverside, and sometimes the eastern edge of
LosAngeles counties, is
commonly referred to as
"the I.E." or
"the 909"
for its original telephone area code. Although the United States Census Bureau defines the Inland Empire region as
all of
San Bernardino and Riverside counties, these counties'high or
low desert regions are frequently excluded from the colloquial definition, which refers instead to
the more urbanizedarea around the cities of
Riverside and San Bernardino and other cities in
the Pomona Valley which may also include LosAngeles County. Typically, this excludes all areas north of
Cajon Pass and San Gorgonio Pass.
Residents in
communities in
the San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains (i.e. Crestline,
Wrightwood,
Lake Arrowhead,
Big Bear)
will refer to
people on
either side of
the mountains as
"flat-landers". This practice is
also commonamong hikers and outdoor enthusiasts when referring to
those who do
not venture into the mountains. In an
example of
wryunderstatement, the residents of
these mountain communities also refer to
the rather lengthy journeys between them and thesurrounding lowlands as
"going down (or up) the hill."
A
common colloquialism for Orange County is
"behind The Orange Curtain",
referring to
the politically conservativedemographics for that area. This term is
typically used by
Californians who self-identify as
politically liberal. According to
theFox television show The O.C.,
the abbreviation of
the county's name tends to be
mainly used by
those from outside of
thearea, rather than natives. Many residents of
Orange County refer to
their telephone area codes to
describe where in
OrangeCounty they are from. The "562" or
"714" refers to
people in
Northern Orange County and the older suburban communitiesof
Anaheim,
Brea,
Buena Park,
Cypress,
Fountain Valley,
Fullerton,
Garden Grove,
Huntington Beach,
La Palma,
Los Alamitos,
Orange,
Santa Ana,
Seal Beach,
Sunset Beach,
Tustin and Westminster,
while "949" refers to
more affluentand recently developed communities in
South Orange County such as
Aliso Viejo,
Coto de Caza,
Foothill Ranch, Irvine,
Laguna Hills,
Mission Viejo,
Newport Beach,
and Rancho Santa Margarita, .
The "909" area code refers to
people inlandfrom Orange County, typically from Riverside and further inland, and is
used by
many native southern Californians,especially those living in
cities near the beaches, as a
derogatory term for tourists, "909ers". Rarely, people will even refer to
their zip codes to
communicate where they live, many times an
indication of
their income level.
In
San Diego County,
"South Bay" refers to
the area adjacent to
the southern portion of
San Diego Bay. Suburbs in
thenorthern half of
the county almost always identify as
simply North County and suburbs immediately east of
the city proper,though geographically still located in
the western half of
the county, identify similarly as
East County. San Diego residents willalso sometimes define their location relative to
major highways. "South of
the 8"
refers to
communities south of
the I-8, whichcuts roughly through the City of
San Diego. This term also implies a
socioeconomic divide, residents and communities areperceived as
being less affluent, as
well as a
greater concentration of
ethnic minorities. Anothe
r common example is "East ofthe 5", in which many central beach community residents will use to define where in San Diego they will not go to. As the I-5follows the coastline in much of San Diego, this is a way of signifying an inclination to stay within the coastal regions of SanDiego. Alternatively, "east of the tracks" refers to primarily the same inland areas, as the main Amtrak Pacific Surfliner trainroute runs along a path similar to that of the I-5 between Orange County and its terminus at Union Station, also known as theSanta Fe Depot, near downtown San Diego. "West of the tracks" refers to the part of the beach communities nearest to theocean.
And finally the California Desert region: the Coachella Valley and Imperial Valley are referred to as
the "Desert", but a
more"Southwestern" cultural emphasis on
desert western living imparts a
more Hispanic and American Indian flavor to
the localdialect. The Mojave Desert and Mono Lake area is
also known as
the "High Desert" due to
the region's higher elevations,but has a
more rural American (i.e. Southern, Midwest/Central and Texan/Western) cultural character.[citation needed]
Location Pronunciation
Due to influence from the Spanish language, most city and street names are pronounced close to how they would in theirnative language if not identically.
Examples
- San Jose- typically pronounced "san oh-ZAY" or "san hoh-ZAY"; the pronunciation "sanna-ZAY" is discouraged
- Los Gatos- typically pronounced "los GAT-oce" or "los GATT-oce", sometimes "loss GATT-oce"; the pronunciation "lissGATT-iss" is discouraged
Exceptions
- Vallejo- original Spanish "va-YAY-ho"; English "vuh-LAY-oh"
- Los Angeles- original Spanish "loce AWN-hay-lace"; English "loss AN-juh-liss"
- Junipero Serra- original Spanish "hoo-NEE-per-oh SEH-rrah; English "you-NIP-er-oh sair uh"
- El Camino Real- original Spanish "ell-kah-ME-no rray-AHL"; English "ell-kah-ME-no REE-ahl"
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