How we pronounce Uvalde says a lot

Amid the tragedy of the mass shooting in Uvalde, Isabella Gomez Sarmiento from NPR weekend edition recorded a lighter story on the multiple pronunciations — and the associated meanings — of the town name.

You-VAL-dee.

You-VAHL-day.

Oo-VAHL-deh.

The first pronunciation, “you-VAL-dee,” is the anglicized pronunciation that is commonly used and accepted by locals. The second, “ooh-VAHL-deh,” is closer to the Spanish pronunciation. The third, “you-VAHL-day,” sounds like a middle ground between the two. Since the town is multiracial and multilingual, all three names can be heard.

Apparently, “Uvalde” had an ambiguous sound from the start. It was named in honor of Mexican governor Juan de Ugalde in 1856. Given the name misspelled its namesake, there is no obvious way to pronounce it.

The many names for Uvalde exemplify how many Spanish-origin words are anglicized and then reincorporated in Texas and other parts of the country. Ricardo Ainslie, director of the Mexico Center at the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies at The University of Texas at Austin, gives as other examples the names “Del Rio,” “San Marcos,” “Refugio,” “Los Angeles,” and “San Francisco.”  English was forced upon Mexican-ancestry people living in Texas during the Texas War of Independence, in place of Spanish. Spanish was imposed on indigenous people in the region as reflected in its colonial language.  For more of the fascinating history of language and its role in racializing a group, see Kirsten Silva Gruesz’s forthcoming book Cotton Mather’s Spanish Lessons: A Story of Language, Race, and Belonging in the Early Americas.

MHC