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E as in Europe


1. My last name starts with the letter E. When I spell it to someone, I sometimes say "E as in Europe". I'm not trying to trick the person. That's simply what pops into my head.

2. I figure customer service people can spell Europe. Am I wrong to think that?

3. Mama pronounced the letter E as "A". That's how she learned it as a kid in the Philippines, a U.S. territory (then), which had been a Spanish colony in Mama's grandparents' time. "The old-timers spoke Spanish. They tried to teach me," said Mama. I wonder what Mama was interested in instead.


4. The silliness it was when Mama asked 12-year-old Susie to spell a word that has one or more letter E's. Oh my gosh! Let's suppose, Mama asks, "How do you spell Elephant?"
    "E-," I start.
    "What kind of E?" she asks.
    "E." I say.
    "E as in A. or E as in E."
    "E!"

5. Before I understood that she pronounced E's as A's, Mama made a V-shaped sign with her middle and index fingers to show me what she meant. The V down was the letter A, while the V pointed to the side was, of course, the letter E.


6.  "Thank you for your efforts." I wasn't sure if the writer was being sarcastic or sincere, the first time I read this. As it was, I hadn't expected any expression of gratitude for fulfilling my responsibilities.    

7. The second time the writer expressed "Thank you for your efforts", I decided he was sincere. And, I appreciated that he said so.

8. I have a hyphenated surname: Echaore-McDavid. Yup, that is a long name to get lost in when you're listening to it being spelled to you.


9. Daddy spelled our last name Echaore; Uncle Frank, Echaorre; and Uncle Alejandro, Echaure.  Beats me who's correct.

10. Echaore is a bastardized version of either Echaurren or Echeverria, both Basque surnames.

11. Spain ruled the Philippines from 1521 to 1898, but it wasn't until the late 1840s, when Spain's power was waning, that Spain decided it was important for the natives to have Spanish surnames. Probably so the natives could be systematically taxed.  In every town, natives chose a surname from an approved list for their town. In Daddy's hometown, several families have surnames starting with E, which more likely is because that town was given a list of E surnames.


12. During the first day of school or class, I knew an instructor came to my name when there was a long pause after reading the person's name before me. Sometimes I piped in with a "Here" before I heard an attempt such as E-Core, Each-Ah-Ore, Eck-Ore,  and E-Kor-rie.

13. My parents taught me to pronounce our last name as E-Chore-E.  A Spanish professor once told me the correct pronunciation is: A-Cha-Or-A. Long hard A (just like the way Mama said her E's) and roll the rrrrrrr. I like how his pronunciation sounds musical, but I still say E-Chore-E.  E as in Europe.

Hmmmm. . . Maybe next time I'll say E as in Eggs.  Imagine 12-year old Susie spelling that to her Mama!

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Comments

  1. A great post, and very interesting to know how you got your surname and how you pronounce it. I hated my surname when I was a kid, especially in secondary school as I often got made fun of and bullied by other kids because of it - it was great when I got married and finally got rid of it! I've never really liked my Christian name either as it sounds so old-fashioned - it's pronounced as You-niss but the headmaster at school insisted on saying it as You-nee-see, so cue even more embarrassment. I just wish my mum could have called me something easier like Jane or Susan :)

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    1. I like the name Eunice. It has a sweet ring to it. I also like the way your name starts with two vowels. It would've given Mama a hard time to pronounce. She'd probably say A-unice. It took me 41 years to finally like my given name of Susie. All it took was the Husband saying my name with much joy and love.

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  2. THis was very interesting. I dropped my maiden name as soon as I married - I could not wait to be rid of it - only to find now that it is causing me issues with driver's licenses and such because I've been using first, middle name, husband's last name and not first, maiden, husband's last name. It is so hard when you do something a little different. The system is simply not set up to process it.

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    1. Oh gosh, I dread getting that new ID were supposed to get if we want to fly domestically. Either Daddy or the person taking the info got the wrong middle name on my birth certificate. The parents corrected it on my baptismal papers though so maybe the officials won't make a fuss. Now, to find those documents.

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  3. I know the whole Spanish to English thing must have been confusing times.

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    1. My parents language was Ilocano, a Filipino language. To add to the comedy, Mama spoke to me in Ilocano and I answered in English.

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  4. We all spell our last name the same in my family, but we all pronounce it differently. I stick with the American pronunciation, my father has migrated to the British. (My brother and his wife are still American pronunciation, I think, and my uncle... I'm not sure how he's pronouncing it these days.) So, I totally get the confusion in your family. I figure, it's my name, I'll pronounce it how I want.

    When spelling, I automatically go for the military alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie, delta, echo, foxtrot, golf, hotel... I learned it in Girl Scouts. It stuck.

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    1. More and more I hear people using the military alphabet, which I thought was pilot alphabet. Not enough to get me to want to learn it though. :-)

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  5. Heh, heh, heh ... you gotta love the English language! :)

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  6. A fun post. I love love love your drawings.
    Amalia
    xo

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  7. An amusing account of learning the correct pronunciation of your name.!

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  8. I was going to say try E as in Eggs! I don't know Philippine history so that was interesting. Back sometime in the 1800s there was no standardized spelling and people spelled last names all different ways. I learned that when I was doing genealogy and wondered why half my family spelled my grandmother's last name Bergin and the other half spelled in Burgin. The A and E thing confused me like algebra!

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    1. Colleen, I'm glad to hear that there was no standardized spelling back then. I see that today with first names. For instance, on a realty TV show, a contestant's name is Analyze, pronounced Ana-leese.

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  9. people cannot spell. and Europe starts with a Y sound.
    I'd go with egg

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    1. You've got me repeating Europe over and over so I can hear the Y sound. So far, I hear the usual U-rup.

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  10. Many people seem to have problems with spelling... I wonder why...

    Lovely drawings, elephants are dear to me

    Have a heartwarming en splendid ABC-Wednes-day / -week
    M e l o d y (team ABC-W)
    https://melodyk.nl/25-E

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    1. Thank you, Melody. Elephants are beautiful, graceful creatures.

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Thanks for the good cheer. :-)

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