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The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent anyone else's view in any way, including those of my employer.
© Copyright 2010
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The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent anyone else's view in any way, including those of my employer.
© Copyright 2010
It has always driven me crazy how they pronounce the name of the Lamborghini Murciélago on Top Gear (mur-che-LA’-go). Everyone always tells me, “The pronunciation is different in Italian than in Spanish.” GUESS WHAT. It’s NOT. Bat is “pipistrello” in Italian – it’s not even “murciélago”. The correct pronunciation is the Spanish pronunciation… because it’s named after a 19th century Spanish bull. From the Wiki article:
In a continuation of Lamborghini’s tradition of giving its cars names from the world of bullfighting, the Murciélago was named for a fighting bull that survived 28 sword strokes in an 1879 fight against Rafael “El Lagartijo” Molina Sanchez, at the Coso de los califas bullring in Córdoba, Spain. Murciélago fought with such passion and spirit that the matador chose to spare its life, a rare honor. The bull, which came from Joaquin del Val di Navarra’s farm, was later presented as a gift to Don Antonio Miura, a noted local breeder; thus began the famed Miura line of fighting bulls, which provided the name for one of Lamborghini’s first great cars.
Murciélago is the Spanish name for the bat. The word is pronounced [murθiˈelaɣo], with a voiceless dental fricative [θ] (as in English thing), in the Castilian Spanish spoken in most of Spain. However, the Italian automaker often uses the Southern Spain and Latin American Spanish pronunciation, [mursiˈelaɣo], with an [s] sound.
Dear Jeremy Clarkson, Please stop hurting my feelings and say it right. You should be ashamed of yourself that a girl who doesn’t know a fraction of what you do about cars knows how to pronounce the name of this Lambo correctly and you, sir, do not. Don’t break my heart anymore, Jeremy. Sincerely, Me. P.S. OK, I admit it: I totally love Hamster more. But if you said “Murciélago” right, it might be a tougher call. P.P.S. I’m not even scolding James May for this crime, because he’s eternally forgiven for any wrongdoings for having filmed “On the Moon” and “At the Edge of Space”.
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Hahaha I hope he reads this! Which episode prompted this post?
He mentions the Murciélago in practically every episode, so take your pick! Actually, I saw someone comment on a photo of one, spelling it “murcilago” which looks like it would be the right way to type it if it just had that CH sound, and it just threw me into a JEREMY tizzy because if he says it wrong, everyone assumes his way is the right way because he is the master of the automobile.
i mean, murciélago seems like a hard word, but spanish is phoenic. c’mon people.
I think they’re operating under the notion that it’s Italian rather than Spanish, and assuming the “ci” is “ch” in Italian, and then emphasizing the next-to-last syllable the way you often do when imitating an Italian accent. heh
In that case, it almost makes sense that they’d try and pronounce it mur-che-LA’-go… but a) it’s not Italian, b) you should know the story of how it got it’s name if you’re a car expert and you mention this car 500 times an hour.
however i can’t spell the word “phonetic”
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by nick ramsey, George W. Hatcher. George W. Hatcher said: Lorenia writes an open letter to Jeremy Clarkson, imploring him to learn how to pronounce Murciélago. http://3.ly/lTYP @BBC_TopGear [...]