When you get caught between Mexico and Texas

- Amarillo, TX Postcard -

Sing the post title to the tune of "When You Get Caught Between the Moon and New York City".

In Texas, many words are derived from Spanish, but it never occurred to me before that Amarillo was one of them.

I got to thinking this week about those double Ls. Surely not, I thought. It's probably the name of some old white guy that had a cow or a ranch or something. Surely, it can't be Spanish. Well, it is, indeed. It means yellow.

I tried it out, saying it in a Spanish way. Yikes, I don't know about that. Amario, rolling the R and making the Ls into a Y sound. That sounds way to pretentious for someone with a thoroughly back pasture Texas accent. Also, as an older person with a few molars missing, that "rrrr" is mighty tough to do. Practice is needed.

I've tried to say Spanish words correctly, such as Caballero, Villa, Quinta, but I botch them with my flattened phonetics. I don't have the lilt.

What makes it worse is that George Strait has perpetuated and carved in stone the mispronunciation of the city. He's really going to get to Amarrriyo by morning.

The postcard featured in the photo can be purchased on ebay.