Llama vs. Llama: the great pronunciation debate
I post this entry, not in regards to anyone in particular, but in response to the ridiculous forum debates I've been trawling for the past two hours.
All right. All you people out there with your angry debates about how to pronounce the word "llama" - give it a rest, okay? As far as I can tell, there's no right or wrong way to pronounce it.
Yes. The Spanish letter "ll" carries a "y" sound, usually, except in Argentina, where it is somewhere between "ch" and "sh."
Yes. The word has been anglicized and most English speakers (Americans, British, I DON'T CARE) pronounce it "lama."
Yes, it is a valid argument that "lama" is okay to say because we anglicize other words too.
Yes, it is also a valid argument that you should educate people on the correct pronunciation of the word.
However, it is also important to consider this: the Spanish language did not originate in the same area that llamas did.
You see, do you not, how there is a large body of water between the two areas. That large body of water is known as the Atlantic Ocean, and languages developed independently on either side of that ocean, therefore the people who originally domesticated/bred the llama probably did not call it a "llama." They called it something else. <---(This paragraph is in sarcasm quotes that are so huge you cannot see them.)
I admit I do not know what they called it; I'm still looking for the ancient word. My point, however, is that the original name of the beast we call "llama" was not "llama" and it probably doesn't matter how you pronounce it.
Also, I would like to offend some of you at this time and state that, in my humble opinion, THIS IS A STUPID, STUPID ISSUE. You are getting angry and resentful about how to pronounce the common name of Lama glama? What is wrong with you? Don't you have anything better to do with your time than argue useless points on the internet? Yes, I have better things to do with my time than post this rant, but seriously. Mature a little. It doesn't matter.
For my part, I've decided to pronounce the word like this: "Lyama." Since Quechuan - sorry, Quechua is the language spoken by the modern natives in parts of the Andean mountains, and it's a pretty safe bet that their ancestors were the ones who knew the llama by its original name - pronunciation of "ll" and "~n" carries the original Spanish values, the word should be somewhere between the two.
Look. I sound like a pretentious asshole, I know. I don't care. Until someone convinces me to say this word one way or the other, I'll say it however I damn well please depending on what company I'm in. I'm not going to take it upon myself to convince the entire English-speaking world that it's "yama" or "lyama"; if I'm with a group of people that I think are going to pronounce it "lama" then that's what I'm going to do, too, and save myself some sanity.
Now, please. Can we leave the banal arguments behind and focus what little intelligence is left to us on the solving of the world's more important problems?