Do locals always rule?

By Letter Writer |
Published online Thursday Sep 2nd, 2004
and in print issue #0335 dated Thursday Sep 2nd, 2004

I just had a chance to look through your Annual Manual [August 7]. Are you aware that local "old timers" pronounce Monticello as mont-i-SELL-o?

It's kind of incongruous to say that because the locals say RYE-oh, that– rather than the Spanish– is the correct pronunciation, and then defer to the "intelligentsia's" Italian pronunciation of Monticello as the proper way to pronounce the name of Jefferson's home.

I'm sure Jefferson said "mont-i-CHELL-o," but it seems a bit insulting to the locals to say the (usually) transplanted intelligentsia rule in one case but not another. Food for thought.

Marlene Condon
Albemarle