This is from the
game story in today's Post: "Yet he got out of the eighth with a strikeout of Alfredo Amezaga."
That sentence contains a spelling error, and the Post knows it. Alfredo Amézaga was born in Mexico. They speak Spanish in Mexico and use pronunciation rules that differ from those used when speaking English. For example, sometimes a syllable in a person's name will carry an emphasis that is not suggested by the unaccented spelling of the name. Thus, Alfredo Amezaga is pronounced differently than Alfredo Amézaga.
Many English speakers regard this as a non-issue. Spanish speakers, however, know that omitting an accent mark results in the misspelling of a person's name. Recognizing this, ESPN started relatively recently to spell correctly Latino names using an accent mark. Interestingly, I think ESPN does this only on its television station; it appears to continue to misspell Latino names on the ESPN website.
Is this the biggest issue of the day? No, but why wouldn't the Post try to curry favor with a growing Latino audience by taking the relatively ministerial step of spelling Latino names correctly?
Saturday, April 21, 2007
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