TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark
Veteran Member
It's Sierra. No "s". The word is already plural.
California Drought
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It's Sierra. No "s". The word is already plural.
California
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In proper Spanish, yes.
In California vernacular, the eastern border of the great Central Valley is the 'Sierras'. (Basis: Entire family 150+ years west of the Sierras. Among grandparents and their descendants more than half are UC Berkeley graduates. We're real Californians).
Similarly, the 'g' in Los Angeles isn't silent like it should be in Spanish. San Franceesco sounds foreign. I'll bet half the residents of Vacaville (population 100,000) don't know that it translates as 'cowtown' and fewer still know it was named for an early settler Manuel Cabeza Vaca (That translates as cow-head), not for cows. There are lots more examples here of original Spanish names appropriated with no regard for the original meaning.
On the other hand 'NorCal' is a recent invention. The first thing I think of when I hear that is gangs, but this would never occur to younger Californians.
RobertN
Super Member
Yes... My Grandmother used to like telling stories of pronunciation when they moved to California from South Dakota back in the 1930's.
Like "San Joe See"...
Like "San Joe See"...
EddieWalker
Epic Contributor
Worse flight of my life was from Paris to SF back in the 90's. It was full of French exchange students going to San Jose. Every single one of them kept calling it San Josey as loudly as they could in the state of teenage excitement, over and over again!!!!
houstonscott
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I can't stand when people refer to Silicon Valley. It's Santa Clara valley.
dmccarty
Super Star Member
My understanding is that Miami, FLA was not pronounced as Miamee until relatively recently. It was pronounced Miama where the last a is a short a. I have heard radio announcers mangle Kissimmee, FLA which I hope is not being taken up by the new arrivals to the area.
Later,
Dan
California
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Thinking some more about 'the Sierras' vs 'Sierra Nevada Range': the Sierra Nevada Range is a large geographic region, large enough to have diversity in elevation, snowfall, difficulty of going over mountain passes, etc. There are some instances where you would consider the region as a whole single entity.
On the other hand 'in the Sierras' is a collection of specific places that are interesting to visit. This second usage is what I'm used to hearing. "There are only a couple of all-weather passes over the Sierras".
I had never thought about this distinction before. Any verbal conversation I'm likely to hear is about specific places of interest in 'the Sierras'. Sierra Nevada Range is for abstract discussions of the entire region - the distinction of climates between California and Nevada (the range blocks ocean moisture from reaching Nevada, hence desert), weather trends over time, tectonic plate uplift, etc.
I looked on Google/News for recent examples of 'Sierras'. Here's a current (3/2017) quote from a Reno newspaper columnist describing her trip to go see the record snowpack:
On the other hand 'in the Sierras' is a collection of specific places that are interesting to visit. This second usage is what I'm used to hearing. "There are only a couple of all-weather passes over the Sierras".
I had never thought about this distinction before. Any verbal conversation I'm likely to hear is about specific places of interest in 'the Sierras'. Sierra Nevada Range is for abstract discussions of the entire region - the distinction of climates between California and Nevada (the range blocks ocean moisture from reaching Nevada, hence desert), weather trends over time, tectonic plate uplift, etc.
I looked on Google/News for recent examples of 'Sierras'. Here's a current (3/2017) quote from a Reno newspaper columnist describing her trip to go see the record snowpack:
dickfoster
Elite Member
Trouble is any gold would have settled in the Oroville resivoir so the pickings would be very slim down stream. However the rivers and streams up the river from Oroville should be prime for some new finds. I know some local folks who are ready and waiting to get started with the season.
dickfoster
Elite Member
Sierra is correct Sierras is not. Graduating from Berkeley doesn't really mean much, not since the 60's anyway and even less today. LOL
I'm a transplant but my wife is a native Los Angeleno. She went to highschool with Mike Love and Marilyn McCoo and her mother was Fay Wray's stand in for filming the original King Kong. Now that's a native and she's also fluent in Spanish or at least the Mexican version of it.
95XL883
Gold Member
How about a recent report on the Sierra conditions? My oldest is a bit of an extreme mountain climber/skier (He summitted Denali and ski'd down last year.) Just a few days ago, he and his gal got caught in a Sierra blizzard. (Note, they have the skills and gear to survive such encounters. The tent in the video is gosh awful expensive.) Anyway, after the blizzard ended, they encounter a snow survey crew. The survey crew's cabin was so buried that entrance was through a shaft in the snow and a ladder had to be used to go in and out. The survey crew said that in 40 years of doing the surveys, this was the first time they had ever seen anybody up there.
The snow report? The pack right now is the second deepest on record and is very close to becoming the record. Sounds like the streams will be very full shortly. Hope the video link works.
