Tom Simpkins

Nevadans need to stop worrying about how their state name is pronounced.

I am a 6th generation Native Nevadan and my son Braden is 7th generation Nevadan. My great-great-great grandfather, a frontiersman and pioneer, settled Clover Valley in Lincoln County Nevada in 1869. I feel this makes me fairly qualified to speak on this subject.

For those of you that aren’t familiar with the Nevadan’s abhorrence with others mispronouncing the state name see here and here. There is even a Facebook page dedicated to “People who don’t like people who pronounce “Nevada” “Nev-ah-da” and it currently has 868 followers.

A recent poll conducted by this website showed that 83% of Nevadans who participated said they want to immediately correct people when they hear the name mispronounced. While you can include me with those that instinctively twitch when I hear snobishly pronounced “Nev-ahhh-duh”,  I have come to realize that it really just doesn’t matter. Our obsession with the correct pronunciation is damaging to the Nevada State Brand.

The State of Nevada is so upset with this mispronunciation by outsiders that the Nevada Commission on Tourism has actually created a logo that educates visitors how to correctly say the state name.

Do you see that little mark above the first a? I researched to find out it’s called a breve and it denotes a short vowel.  It tells readers the “a” should be pronounced as a “short-a” such as that in mat, cat or bat. Wow. Outside of linguists, who would even know how to interpret this correctly? But the most important question is: Why is this even an issue?

Is this really the most important thing we want visitors to know about our state? The only thing that would be more unwelcoming would be for the logo to say “Leave us alone”. While everyone wants to pronounce other’s names correctly out of respect, those individuals that immediately correct others who misspeak come off as insecure and irritable.

There are currently many stereotypes and perceptions regarding the state of Nevada, with many of them being negative aspects. Nevada is the 35th least populated state despite being the 7th largest in area. Nevada has long been seen as living in the shadow of California, and has long dealt with the image of being a nuclear testing site and dumping ground. Media coverage of the state often includes the immediate image of Nevada being associated with gambling, drugs, and prostitution. Many Nevadans are insecure or frustrated with these stereotypes and place their stress and emphasis on an area they feel they can control, such as how to correctly pronounce the state name. I understand this frustration but I say we just need to get over it.

Instead of making this the primary focus, and initial experience to the state, this time and emphasis and fervor would be much better spent on stressing the positive aspects of our state and creating a welcome atmosphere to businesses and tourists. Nevada should be using their first impression to explain the state’s value to businesses, tourists and potential residents. From my perspective, it looks like Nevada needs to work on its brand identity.

I will take a look at that in my next post.

Those of us in the know will continue to pronounce Nevada the proper way; we just won’t greet our visitors with a phonetics lesson.  We’ll welcome those businesses that bring jobs and we’ll smile at those tourists who pay our taxes out of their wallets as we continue to enjoy the good life under the tall, blue Nevada sky.