According to www.dictionary.com, Pronunciation “is the act or result of producing the sounds of speech, including articulation, stress, and intonation, often with reference to some standard of correctness or acceptability.”
But who decides what is correct?
In one region of the country what is “correct” may not be correct in another part. Take the town of Lafayette.
Growing up in Texas, I was familiar with Lafayette, Louisiana, pronounced “LAF-ee-ET.” When I moved to Tennessee, I discovered another town with the same name. But while the names are spelled the same, they’re not pronounced the same. I was quickly corrected that the proper pronunciation of the Tennessee town is “La-FAY-et.”
Tennessee also has the cities of Milan pronounced MY-Lin, Santa Fe pronounced Santa Fee, and Cairo pronounced Kay-row. Of course, Tennessee isn’t the only state with these pronunciation issues. Every state—well, at least most of the southern ones—have town names that are pronounced in unexpected ways.
So, back to my original question. Who decides what is the correct pronunciation?
In the case of the town of Lafayette, Tennessee (founded in 1843), it was named in honor of the Revolutionary War hero Marquis de Lafayette. Obviously, though, the town founders who named their little city didn’t know the correct way to pronounce his name.
And that, I guess, is the answer. Whoever names a place gets to decide how to pronounce it.
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