Bar Morryssom

Trevor @ Tuesday February 26th 2008 10:16


This example of hostelries unable to spell their own name is rather interesting because of the two signs Bar Morrisson is clearly older than Bar Morryssom. Does this mark a decline in Spanish literacy–they used to be able to spell it–or are they merely trying to please various orthographical markets? (Background: Spanish speakers find it difficult in various contexts to distinguish the Anglo-American /n/ from /m/, hence Edinburgh -> Edimburgo, Birmingham -> Birninghan etc etc)

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Categories: Languages, Les bourgeois, Provisions and utensils of the household and the fields, Splog

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  1. Damian Corrigan
    October 14th 2008 10:41

    It’s not just the Anglo-American ‘m’ and ‘n’ that the Spanish confuse. It’s also an ‘n’ immediately preceding a hard consonant sound. Hence Istanbul -> Estambul, “balon pie” (football) -> “balom pie”. It’s from this that the Edimburgo spelling comes from.

    By the way, the owners of shops on c/Van Dyck in Salamanca also name their bars on a whim – some spell it ‘Dick’ some spell it ‘Dyck’.

  2. Damian Corrigan
    October 14th 2008 10:42

    Sorry, that should read ‘balompie’.

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