Say it how you want to
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Associated Press
Natchitoches and Lalita Tademy have more in common than history. They've both been mispronounced on national television.
Tademy rhymes with "academy." But when Oprah Winfrey announced that Tademy's book "Cane River" would be her summer selection, the name came out "tuh-DEM'-ee."
Not that Tademy mentioned it. "You know what? It's OK," she said, when asked. But people in Natchitoches were talking about it days later.
Still, says Edward Ward Jr., that's nothing to what Barbara Walters did to Natchitoches (NAK'-uh-tesh or NAK'-uh-tosh) some years back.
"'East nuh-TEE'-tuh-chez, Lou-isiana.' She took us into a Russian realm of pronunciation," says Ward, head of the area's Black Heritage Committee.
In a state where French, English, Spanish, Indian and African names abound, pronunciations often are none of the above.
Take Augustine Metoyer, mentioned briefly in the first chapter of Tademy's book, "Cane River." An English pronunciation might be muh-TOY-er. French might be met-oy-ay. In Louisiana, it's muh-TWIRE.
Or DeBlieux, mentioned on the long list of buyers for slaves from the plantation where Tademy's ancestors all lived. In French it might be something like duh-BLYUH. In Louisiana, you say double-you.
