In New Orleans, there are certain things that are simply accepted, no questions asked.
When we give directions, we don’t rely on compass points. We use Uptown, Downtown, River and Lake, and when someone says, “I’m going to pass by my mama’s,” we know it means to drop in and visit, not wave from the car as you roar past. And we grow up knowing that red beans and rice had better be on the Monday menu of any reputable restaurant.
So far, so good. Here’s something else that seems to be a settled thing, at least as far as pronunciation goes.
Is New Orleans French bread used for po-boys really French? Here's the history.
In most circles, the Crescent City’s name is pronounced “New Orlinz,” but the name of the parish, which is the same as the city, is pronounced “Orleenz Parish.”
But why?
It’s a question that Joel Ganucheau, 38, a lifelong resident of the New Orleans area, asked Curious Louisiana for a simple reason: “I hear enough people on the national news say, ‘New Orleenz’ more than ‘New Orleans.’ It always bothered me when people don’t say it correctly.”
Say what?
He’s not the only one asking that question. In fact, scholars I contacted in search of an erudite answer said it’s something that has nagged at them, too.
A representative of Alliance Française de la Nouvelle Orléans, a source of information about French language and culture, said she doesn’t think the city’s Gallic heritage has anything to do with the difference in pronunciations.
Why is Bucktown called Bucktown? Curious Louisiana investigates a New Orleans story
Richard Campanella, a geographer with Tulane University’s School of Architecture and a wellspring of information about all sorts of New Orleans arcana, came up with this answer: euphonics.
Saying, “Orleenz” without the “New” in front of it “simply rolls off the tongue more smoothly,” he said. “It’s the cadence of syllables as people say it.”
Katie Carmichael, an associate professor of English at Virginia Tech University and a scholar of language usage, agrees.
“It just sounds better,” said Carmichael, a visiting fellow at the Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies at the University of New Orleans.
But, she said, it isn’t set down in some handbook of usage and pronunciation.
“There’s no pure consensus,” Carmichael said. “There are people who will argue about the right pronunciation.”
Does Louisiana have a nudist colony? Yes, they've been baring it all for 53 years
Sound reasoning
And pronunciations can evolve over time, said John Magill, a retired curator-historian at the Historic New Orleans Collection.
And, of course, there are exceptions.
People in some parts of town seem to say, “Noo Oyunz,” when saying the city in which they live.
And there are such well-known songs as “Way Down Yonder in New Orleans” and “Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?”
In those contexts, it’s impossible to imagine any other pronunciation besides “New Orleenz.”
And the question about the Orlinz/Orleenz dichotomy goes on.
It’s something to which Magill, a former board member of the English-Speaking Union’s New Orleans chapter, seems resigned.
“I don’t know if you’ll ever come up with an answer,” he said.
