Thursday, December 13, 2007

May 03, 2007 - Orosí info

We have heard, seen, or read many different ways of pronouncing Orosí. In guide books and most maps, it is Orosí, which usually means the accent is on the final syllable. But we had heard others pronounce it with the accent in the middle (as if the accent mark were absent). So when we knew we were coming here, we asked everyone - is it Orosi or Orosí? We always heard Orosi. Hmm. When I got to Spanish School, I asked my teacher - why is it pronounced Orosi, but spelled Orosí? He said that it started out as two words, meaning ¨Gold? Yes!¨(Oro? Sí!). They just kept the spelling when they combined the two words for the name of the town. Next! Someone else in the school thought she was hearing Órosi (accent on the first syllable), and had heard the same story. Her pronunciation sounds like it should be the correct one if you stick to the two-word idea. We´re still listening...

PS - we confirmed that the most-often quoted population of a town includes all the outlying communities as well. Orosí proper does not have 10,000 people in it - more like 2000. This would also mean that Grecia and Atenas (guessed at earlier) follow the same ¨rule.¨

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