Tuesday, December 9, 2008

How do you pronounce "Blagojevich"?

"The breadth of corruption laid out in these charges is staggering," U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said in a statement. "They allege that Blagojevich put a 'for sale' sign on the naming of a United States senator; involved himself personally in pay-to-play schemes with the urgency of a salesman meeting his annual sales target; and corruptly used his office in an effort to trample editorial voices of criticism."

Feds take Gov. Blagojevich into custody (Chicago Tribune)
If you are not from Illinois, you may need help pronoucing the name. Wikipedia has the answer: /bləˈɡɔɪəvɪtʃ/.

I.e., "bluh GOY uh vitch."

Wikipedia also has an .ogg file that lets hear you someone pronouncing the name with a funny passive-aggressive tone.

In newspaper headlines, our governor's name is often shortened to "Blago." I have no idea how to pronounce that.

Related post
Gubernatorial ethics test

comments: 5

normann said...

This is incredible. I am at this very moment listening to an Internet feed of WLS radio and opened the Trib website. I remember that we usually had to wait until governors were retired before locking them up (Stratton, Kerner, Walker). Oddly enough, though, Illinois has also had squeaky-clean governors, namely Ogilvie (felled by the state income tax that balanced the state's books) and Thompson (who got bored with being governor at about the same time we got bored with him).

Michael Leddy said...

Hi Normann,

Selling the Senate seat — it's unbelievable.

Someone suggested on MSNBC this morning that Illinois must have the highest gubernatorial incarceration rate in the country.

Anonymous said...

The name almost, but not quite, rhymes with "wretch."

macon d said...

I've always thought that his name rhymes with the sound a person makes while driving the porcelain bus. And now, even more so.

Michael Leddy said...

I wouldn't hold his name against him, but I suspect it'll soon turn into a punchline (if it hasn't already).