Editor\u2019s note: \u201cOld News\u201d is an occasional series looking at some of Long Beach\u2019s quirky and interesting historical stories and headlines.<\/i><\/p>\n
It\u2019s a problem that\u2019s been around for 100 years: What\u2019s the correct pronunciation of Long Beach\u2019s Junipero Avenue?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an old question in these parts and one that can ignite barroom brawls as well as quick, though hardly amicable divorces.<\/p>\n
The Post, in fact, grappled with the pronunciation<\/a> in October 2019, followed by a \u201cCan You Hear Me, Long Beach?\u201d podcast<\/a> in November. Blood was spilled in what should have been a calm and civil argument, but let\u2019s try to forget all that unpleasantness and see just how long this phonetics flap has been going on.<\/p>\n https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/podcast-word-on-the-street-sign-tim-grobaty-and-stephanie-rivera-talk-junipero<\/p>\n Well, it\u2019s been going on for at least a century. Maybe longer. There was a light news article buried on Page 11 in the July 27, 1920 Long Beach Press, with the headline, \u201cJunipero Bobs Up Serenely as Linguistic Snag.\u201d<\/p>\n The reporter, given the enviable job of covering a Board of Education meeting, noted that board member George W. Scott was rambling on, reading from a list of local street names, when he got to the problematic Junipero, at which point he whispered a query for the correct pronunciation from his colleague E.J. Wightman, who gave him what the reporter called the \u201cmission-style\u201d and arguably (as has been demonstrated over the past 100 years) the correct Spanish enunciation of who-KNEE-purr-o, whereupon, \u201cvery gently but firmly, Miss [Julia Ellen] Rogers corrected him with the Long Beach version, wan-knee-PAIR-o.\u201d<\/p>\n And then the Press reporter, interjecting himself, albeit self-effacingly by noting his education \u201chas been neglected along Spanish lines,\u201d insisted on what he termed the \u201ctourist pronunciation, joon-ee-PAIR-o.\u201d<\/p>\n So, the three-way tie was established, and the decades have passed with no sides of the triangle ceding territory in the interim, so the battle rages on, as we squabble and argue bitterly into the topic\u2019s second century of debate.<\/p>\n The 1920\u2019s Press reporter did bring a bit of levity into the skirmish, noting that “over at the Hoyt [Theater], the comedian who needs a laugh tells of the cop who found a dead dog on Junipero and dragged it to First Street before making his report.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So, the three-way tie was established, and the decades have passed with no sides of the triangle ceding territory in the interim, so the battle rages on, as we squabble and argue bitterly into the topic\u2019s second century of 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