Las Vegas

I seem to remember, when I was young, that Las Vegas was pronounced pretty much the way it looks. Now, everyone seems to agree that it should be pronounced LOS Vegas. Anybody know when it changed, and why?

I don't think it's true that the "los" version is all that commonplace, much less that "everyone seems to agree."

I'm afraid it can be blamed squarely on Elvis Presley, who pronounced it that way in the 1964 film Viva Las Vegas! One thing that everyone does seem to agree on is, movies weren't the King's long suit.
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Thanks for that. When I said everybody, I meant everybody here in Australia. Personally, I don't think Elvis had any long suits, but that's outside the scope of this discussion. And so is the question of why we don't have bei-jingese dogs.

The common pronunciation for Las Vegas in North America is "loss vaygus"

But it is actually Spanish. And in Spanish, it is pronounced "lass baygas" or "lass vaygas".

P.S. Sorry for my bizzarre phonetic system above.

And to add to my post, it is true that "everyone agrees" that it is pronounced "loss vaygus". 100% of American English speakers would pronounce it that way. People with Spanish as a first language will pronounce it in its Spanish form, but their children will pronounce it like everybody else in North America.

While Americans pretty much agree on the pronunciation of "Las Vegas" (I agree with blindsay), they do disagree on the pronunciation of its home state - Nevada. People in the Western United States usually pronounce it "Neh-Vaa-duh", with a flat "a" sound like "flat", "hat", "rat (in AE). People in the Eastern United States tend to call it Neh-Vah-da". I have no idea why there is a difference, but there is. It's one of the telltale signs that distinguish different regions of the country. I'm not sure how Canadians pronounce it. I believe they lean toward the Eastern pronunciation, but I really don't know for sure. (Any Canadians here - please chime in.)

People who live in Nevada almost unanimously use the flat "a" sound when pronouncing the state (unless they recently moved there from the East Coast. 👁 Smile :)
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I should also respond to foxfirebrand, seeing as he is from North America and does not agree.

I would suggest this is because many Americans pronounce "o" in a way that sounds in between an "o" and an "a", much like an "ah". For example, people from Boston would say "Boston" like "Bahsten". And similarly, I suppose those same Americans would pronounce Las Vegas like "Lahs Vaygus". And hence the "Lahs Vaygus" is actually "Loss Vaygus" with an accent, but not "Lass Vaygass" like in Spanish.

Confused?

I've also heard it pronounced "Lost Wages."
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foxfirebrand said:

I've also heard it pronounced "Lost Wages."
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I do like "Lost Wages"

The message I take away is that "Las" is correct and if some North Americans pronounce it as "Los" they are really trying hard to say "Las", but can't quite manage it.

I will continue with "Las". Maybe it's not too late to save the rest of the world.

When you say "los", do you mean a sound that rhymes with "gross"? I don't think I've heard anyone here say it that way.

No, you should pronounce it as "loss vaygus" if you are speaking English, just as in English Mexico is pronounced "mecsico" even though mexicans pronounce it "meheeco".

Hence, the correct English pronunciation is "loss vaygus".

JamesM said:

When you say "los", do you mean a sound that rhymes with "gross"? I don't think I've heard anyone here say it that way.

No, the incorrect Elvis-Presley pronunciation is more like Lawss, where most Americans (at least in my region) say something more like Lahss. This is too broad or open an /a/ sound, but the dental-labial fricative /v/ is also incorrect, from a strictly-Spanish perspective.

If my phonetics cause confusion, the AE pronunciation of loss is what I was getting at-- pretty much correct for Los Angeles, but not Las Cruces-- I mean Las Vegas.
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Firefoxbrand.

My comments about "lahs" was trying to describe that accent. I can confirm that this pronunciation of "o" as "ahs" does not exist in Canada, and it is a prime way to distinguish an American accent from Canadian.

For example, you might here an American say "I moved from bahhsten to caanada". When I write "loss", I mean the same as your "lawss".

Man, I need to start checking my posting for spelling before I post. I certainly know hear from here...

Despite my horrible grammar and spelling so far, I have to add one thing. I disagree with your description of Presley's "lawss" as incorrect. The British, like Canadians, pronounce loss as "lawss", though the Brits have a slightly more long "o" sound.

blindsay said:

And to add to my post, it is true that "everyone agrees" that it is pronounced "loss vaygus". 100% of American English speakers would pronounce it that way. People with Spanish as a first language will pronounce it in its Spanish form, but their children will pronounce it like everybody else in North America.

Aaah to have such certainty — that one can speak of the pronunciation patterns of some 270 million people 👁 Smile :)

Was that aaah, or aahh? 👁 Smile :)


You are right. I agree with your point.

My brother actually lives in Las Vegas (though the attraction escapes me). He pronounces it "loss vayguss", rhyming with "boss may fuss". I cannot vouch for the rest of North America.

blindsay said:

Despite my horrible grammar and spelling so far, I have to add one thing. I disagree with your description of Presley's "lawss" as incorrect. The British, like Canadians, pronounce loss as "lawss", though the Brits have a slightly more long "o" sound.

But the vowel is not an o. It's Las Vegas, and not pronounced (even in AE) the same as the Los in "Los Angeles."

Presley lumps Las with Los because he's from a whole nother dialectical zone than the American West, and "Los Angeles" is so familiar to him.

The way he pronounced "Las Vegas" in Viva Las Vegas is simply wrong.I've been a Presley fan since 1956, and I cringed at it when I first heard it. It's wrong.

It isn't "wrong" to pronounce El Paso to rhyme with asshole, even though it's a Spanish word that should be pronounced closer to possum. That's cause the Southern AE variant extends out that far, and white Texans established the pronunciation a whole long time ago. But the "a" in "Las Vegas" is beyond that language zone, and the Spanish version has predominated in AE-- so far.
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Hello!

It's my first time here, so I'm not sure how this works.

I've always felt uncomfortable when I heard the word "Invite" since I've thought that the correct word is "Invitation". I was glad to see that in this site some other people shared the same feeling.

But there's another word (name, rather) that bothers me everytime I hear it, specially when it's said by journalists, TV people, or highly ranked officials:

Why is it that the 'casinos city' of Nevada' is called now "VEGAS"? I always thought its name is "LAS VEGAS".

Has it been officially changed?

I was told the reason is because Americans tend to shorten words, but I don't hear anybody calling: "PASO" to the city of "EL PASO" in Texas, or "DIEGO" to "SAN DIEGO" (as examples)

Giordano Bruno said:

I seem to remember, when I was young, that Las Vegas was pronounced pretty much the way it looks. Now, everyone seems to agree that it should be pronounced LOS Vegas. Anybody know when it changed, and why?

Ëveryone? - hardly.

In any event, watch the American TV shows "Las Vegas" and "CSI" if they are available in your area. (CSI being about the Las Vegas crime lab) The name of the city is mentioned frequently in the dialogue.

wuwaimin said:

Hello!

It's my first time here, so I'm not sure how this works.

I've always felt uncomfortable when I heard the word "Invite" since I've thought that the correct word is "Invitation". I was glad to see that in this site some other people shared the same feeling.

But there's another word (name, rather) that bothers me everytime I hear it, specially when it's said by journalists, TV people, or highly ranked officials:

Why is it that the 'casinos city' of Nevada' is called now "VEGAS"? I always thought its name is "LAS VEGAS".

Has it been officially changed?

I was told the reason is because Americans tend to shorten words, but I don't hear anybody calling: "PASO" to the city of "EL PASO" in Texas, or "DIEGO" to "SAN DIEGO" (as examples)

Well, I've heard "San Berdoo" for San Bernardino, "Frisco" for San Francisco (although it's considering insulting by many people who live there), "Pali" for Pacific Palisades, "Philly" for Philadelphia, "St. Pete" for St. Petersburg, "San Antone" for San Antonio, "Rio" for Rio de Janeiro... should I go on? 👁 Wink ;)
I live near a city in California that has the official name of San Buenaventura; I'll bet that half the people I know don't even know that's the real name of "Ventura".

Los Angeles itself is a severe shortening of the original name: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles de Porciúncula. Why it became Los Angeles and not Porciuncula is beyond me. 👁 Smile :)
Now it's most often called just L.A.

My father-in-law, and many of his generation, pronounce Los Angeles as "Los" (as in the German "was ist los") and "Angle-ese". It's actually closer to the Spanish, I think, than "Loss Ann-jell-iss" (or "Loss Ann-juh-less"), which is how people of my generation usually pronounce it.

"Las Vegas" and "Los Angeles" don't have any distinction in their pronunciation by most people I hear; that is, between the "Las" and the "Los". It sounds like the word "loss", neither dark enough to be the Spanish "los" nor bright enough to be the Spanish "las".

Cities also earn nicknames in the U.S. as a term of endearment, I suppose. CHI-town for Chicago, "Big Apple" for New York, "Big Easy" for New Orleans, "Motown" for Detroit, "City of Angels" for Los Angeles. "Vegas" for Las Vegas falls more into the nickname category for me than the foreshortening category.