Years ago I was at a party with someone who had lived in Tasmania. Or, as she pronounced it:
“Tes-min-EE-yuh.”
“No,” I said. “Taz-MAY-nee-yuh.”
She corrected me. “That’s not how it’s pronounced.”
“That’s how it should be pronounced,” I said, and I stand by that, because the people would then be Taz-Maniacs, and what could be better?
I recently saw the new Hannah Gadsby show in which she claims she is from “Hobart, in tiz-MAAAAAAAAY-neyuh,” said as written.
“Good on you,” I thought, because I had already picked up Australian five minutes in. And it is a good, very good show, not as impactful as Nanette but still good.
2 responses to “Tasmania: Pronounciation”
Huh. I’ve been there six times and never heard that first pronunciation. It’s mostly, actually, this is Australia after all, ‘Tassie’. They do disagree over Maria Island though.
Big Dot – oh wow, they do have ways to say Maria Island: one English, one Dutch, and two aboriginal.