How would you pronounce this name?

Goleta. It's the name of a town near here. If you are familiar with the town and/or its pronounciation already, I'm not interested in you.

Please answer before you scroll down and read the correct answer.




























The proper pronounciation is 'Go-leet-uh', but my dad is convinced that the average person would pronounce it 'Go-let-uh' if they weren't familiar with it, and thus refuses to change his embarassing mispronounciation of the town's name.

 

Only one 'e', so it's 'let'. I disagree with the correct answer.

 

Damn. And I was pinning my hopes on "Joe-Lay-Tah".

 

I would have thought "Go-lay-ta."

 

Well, there's an Indian reservation near here named Isleta and it's pronounced Is-let-uh.

However, my gut would pronounce it "Goh-leet-uh." My arse, however, would say "pants."

 

I went with the "correct" one, heh.

 

I guessed the way I wanted it to be pronounced, and it turned out to be correct.

 

Goleta.


I probably would pronounce it as "Gol" (as in gold without the d) and "Eta" (sort of like saying edit without the i and with an a sound at the end).


EDIT: Looked at the answer....Hmmm....

*Fixed.

 

I would pronounce it goh leet uh as well. I know english very good.

 

I thought it would be go-LEET-uh.

 

Good?

 

They're both far from my interpretation. I imagined it to be 'go-lay-tah'. I don't know...I'm feeling Latino tonight.

 

I'd say something like Goo-lee-tah

 

Even before reading the answer, I honestly thought it would be Go-leet-uh.

 

go [long o]

let [short e]

ah

or

go [short o i.e.- ah]

let [long e]

ah

 

You know that old saying "Father Knows Best?" Yeah. that works well here, I think.

 

I guessed go-let-uh.

 

I'm no English expert, but wouldn't that be 'well'?

 

I said Go-lee-tuh
Huh. Go me!

 

Go-leet-uh? I would have prounounced it GO-LETTA. LOAL.

 

'Fah-vrah'

Damn. That's going to be the right answer one of these days.

 

Technically, don't most people say "go-lee-duh" (where 'd' represents an alveolar flap)?

Actually, if I'd not heard the name before, I would probably guess 'go-lay-tah' since it's presumably a Spanish name...

But then San Pedro is pronounced "sæn PEE-dro" here... Well, I assume that's just the Gringo pronunciation.

Anyway, I could understand why your dad would pronounce it that way, although it's not as obvious as he thinks. English orthography makes no sense as is, and adding foreign names only complicates matters...

 

I said Go-Leet-Uh first. I can see the Go-Let-Uh now that I go back and look at it though.

 

Yep, that's what I think.