Eess-ah-ee-ahss?

[donaldbuzz&minnie]

In Spanish the letter "I" is pronounced like the name of the letter "E" in English. "A" is pronounced like "ah". Most of the time words are pronounced in a way that is easily predictable to anyone who knows how to pronounce the vowels.

So Isaias is pronounced like: e-sah-E-ahs. (At least that was what I learned the first day in 8th grade Spanish class. Considering how hard it can be to predict the pronunciation of some English words, that came as a blessed relief!)

 

[Dan Murphy]

The National Hurricane Center says the pronunciation is ees-ah-EE-ahs

Isaias

Our weather guru, Tom Skilling, says this is correct.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Did they skip over the G one?

Gonzalo

http://www.brevardtimes.com/2020/07/2020-atlantic-hurricane-names-list/amp/

 

[BritneyBelle]

Thank you for explaining, I thought the OP had a stroke.

that's like 99% of the reason I clicked on this was to check if OP was okay. Glad I wasn't the only one

 

[mommasita]

i don’t pronounce it well, but it does look like we will get the remnants of it
NOT looking forward to that. I hope everyone stays safe .

 

[mousefan73]

This just feels wrong. If someone familiar with Spanish is having an issue with a Spanish name, it’s not a good choice of name to use for a storm. Personally, I feel when dealing with something that can cause a national emergency it should have as simple, and easy to pronounce, a name as possible. The name can be Spanish, or French, or any language you like, but don’t make it something difficult to pronounce and/or understand.

I agree. I get Idea of naming hurricanes with Portuguese / Spanish names as a symbol to the original and Effected areas but one should name them as simple and easy to understand as possible as the names are used in all emergency / warning messages and calls.

It’s kind of like naming your kid a name that passes the IKEA” name Test. . Basically you want to name that everyone can pronounce. A good test is having a name that at IKEA they can pronounce to announce over the speaker system if your kid wants to be picked up from kiddyland.

 

[Karin1984]

I agree. I get Idea of naming hurricanes with Portuguese / Spanish names as a symbol to the original and Effected areas but one should name them as simple and easy to understand as possible as the names are used in all emergency / warning messages and calls.

It’s kind of like naming your kid a name that passes the IKEA” name Test. . Basically you want to name that everyone can pronounce. A good test is having a name that at IKEA they can pronounce to announce over the speaker system if your kid wants to be picked up from kiddyland.

THe only problem is... How do you pronounce IKEA? ;-)

https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ikea-pronunciation-267419

 

[Christine]

I cannot master the pronunciation so I'm over it! I just want the next storm to be something like Hurricane Bill or something super simple!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Considering there’s over 50 million Spanish speakers in the USA and a lot of these hurricanes go over Spanish speaking countries and islands it makes sense to have some Hispanic names. It’s a simple name for a big portion of the population that it effected.

 

[gwynne]

Considering there’s over 50 million Spanish speakers in the USA and a lot of these hurricanes go over Spanish speaking countries and islands it makes sense to have some Hispanic names. It’s a simple name for a big portion of the population that it effected.

It's not an easy to pronounce name generally. Some Spanish, some German, some French, some English, fine. But the selections need to be reasonably universal in ease.

 

[kaytieeldr]

I cannot master the pronunciation so I'm over it! I just want the next storm to be something like Hurricane Bill or something super simple!

How about Josephine?

 

[Christine]

How about Josephine?

Let's just call her Jo!

 

[The Mayor]

 

[FlightlessDuck]

I love you, Dr. Zaius!

 

[DisneyOma]

I thought sai sounded like "sigh" in Spanish?

 

[Moliphino]

I thought sai sounded like "sigh" in Spanish?

Close but not quite. You say both vowels so it's two syllables where sigh is one.

 

[DVC-Don]

I just call it "The Storm".

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I agree with others I can see how the pronunciation would be difficult to grasp but it's nothing personal it's nothing against a culture it's just a difficult name. I don't know anyone who has said they have an issue with the culture from which the names are chosen from just the particular name used and it's difficulty in saying it. I can understand wishing they had named it a bit of an easier name.

I also live in a city where if you're not from here typically you don't pronounce it correctly. I wouldn't want them to name a storm after my city either would be too difficult for people to say even though it's only 6 letters long.

 

[kaytieeldr]

I agree with others I can see how the pronunciation would be difficult to grasp but it's nothing personal it's nothing against a culture it's just a difficult name

just to be clear, I took several years of Spanish (never mind how long ago!). The person I know with that name introduces himself as Eye-zay-ahs.

 

[EMom]

I see it and my brain thinks plural Of Isaiah.

As for IKEA, when we were in Amsterdam, our host pronounced it Icky-uh. Like icky and uh. Accent on the first syllable. Had never heard of the US pronunciation. I told her people wouldn’t warm up to a company that started with icky.