how is Ron Wanttaja's last name pornounced

SixPapaCharlie

SixPapaCharlie

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Sixer
phonetically?

When he posts, I get stuck in a loop in my heat sounding it out.

Thanks

-Gustave
 
I believe it is from Scandinavian origin.

(correction, not scandinavian but fennoscandian).

I'm sure Ron will chime in!
 
You're stuck in your heat and unable to pornounce it? What is this thread truly about? No wonder you've latched onto Gustave Whitehead.
 
For some reason my mind breaks it up in to "Want "Taja's" which sounds a lot like "Wants Tatas" then I immediately think of boobies.
 
Ron once posted this in the old rec.aviation days:

It's pronounced "Wahn-TIE-Ah."

Away out here they've got a name for rain and wind and fire. The rain is Tess, the fire's Joe. They call the wind Wanttaja.
 
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flyingron said:
Ron once posted this in the old rec.aviation days:

It's pronounced "Wahn-TIE-Ah."

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Outed again. Sheesh.

Actually, I pronounce my own last name wrong. Scandinavian names (and Finnish, like mine) are always accented on the first syllable: "WAHN-Tie-Ah". The family moved to the Big City (population 25,000) when I was small, and I heard countless exchanges with my parents like...

"Are you Mr. Wan-taj-jaw?"

"No, it's Wahn-TIE-ah..." My brother and I both picked up the "wrong" pronunciation.

About twenty years ago, I got a phone call. "Is this Ron Want-ta-jaw?"

"Yes, 'Wahn-TIE-ah."

"Huh?"

"It's pronounced, 'Wahn-TIE-ah."

A moment's pause. "Have you EVER pronounced it, "Want-ta-jaw?"

Turns out he'd gone to school with another "Ron Wanttaja." Be afraid. Be very afraid.

As for "pornounced," people ask what the name means. Early on, I stole a line from "The Blue Max" (book, not movie) and tell them it means, "Prober of Bushes in Fork."

The actual definition is far more prosaic: It basically means, "Portager," someone who carries loads between rivers (or, alternately, across snow).

Ron Wanttaja
 
Greg Bockelman said:
I don't know for sure but I "pronounce" it, Juan TA ya.
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I get "entertaining" mis-pronunciations. Those who don't hear it right sometimes call me "Montoya." So Indigo isn't far off.....

What's even more fun is those who hear how it's pronounced, and THEN try to guess my ethnicity. Hawaiian is a popular choice, as is Asian of some sort of the other, and sometimes Native American. They're usually a bit taken aback when a big red-headed Viking shows up....

Ron "Yo-ho-toe-yo!" Wanttaja
 
My sympathies Ron. Empathy too. My last name has a 'ch' in it that is pronounced like a k. Think "echo". People constantly screw it up.
 
Samir Naga...Naga...Naga...Not gonna work here any more, anyway.
 
My last name is pronounced the way you would pronounce it if it was a girl's name. My grandfather and his siblings were orphans and the nuns in some of the orphanages "corrected" the spelling of their name from the Sicilian Natoli to Natalie. We pronounce it as if it was spelled correctly in Sicilian NAT - uh - lee. It's amusing when Italians get the corrected spelling and try to make it NAH - TAL - EE - AY

My favorite story on these lines was my father's law partners whose name was Lüpfert. Apparently, written in script the u with the umlat was confused for two i's. There name forever more was Liipfert.

Of course, my wife has the problem is that people can't distinguish her last name from her first frequently. I have another friend Ron Judy whose wife had a similar problem.
 
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flyingron said:
My last name is pronounced the way you would pronounce it if it was a girl's name. My grandfather and his siblings were orphans and the nuns in some of the orphanages "corrected" the spelling of their name from the Sicilian Natoli to Natalie. We pronounce it as if it was spelled correctly in Sicilian NAT - uh - lee. It's amusing when Italians get the corrected spelling and try to make it NAH - TAL - EE - AY

My favorite story on these lines was my father's law partners whose name was Lüpfert. Apparently, written in script the u with the umlat was confused for two i's. There name forever more was Liipfert.
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I thought your first name was Flying, last name Ron. I'm crushed and dissolutioned. :rolleyes2:
 
Amusingly, Ron W and I both referred to ourselves as the "other" Ron for years. It was only a few years ago that I happened to be passing someone in a Fly Baby shirt and we finally met each other.

Amusingly, I found one of Ron's historical fiction books in the PlaneView truckstop just south of the Wittman airport as an audio book.
 
Hank S said:
"W" works for me . . .
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When I went into the Air Force, my squadron assigned an older officer to act as my sponsor, to help me get settled in. This Captain, a Noo Yawker, was a fan of the old "Barney Miller" TV series. He got my paperwork, took one look at my name, and said, "What's dis guy's name... Wojciehowicz?"

So my nickname...even before I arrived... was "Wojo."

Wearing a big, easy-to-read nametag on a uniform every day was fun. Every time someone came by, I could see them mentally trying to pronounce it, usually with their lips moving slightly.

Ron Wanttaja
 
flyingron said:
Amusingly, Ron W and I both referred to ourselves as the "other" Ron for years. It was only a few years ago that I happened to be passing someone in a Fly Baby shirt and we finally met each other.
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Sounds like when my wife & I joined the weekend Fly to Breakfast group. I've lived in almost two dozen towns, and only ever met two other people named Hank (one in my 2nd high school, the other in my neighborhood when I. Over north in my late 30s). So in our group of five couples, I met #3, and like me it was just a nickname. In this case, it was short for "Harriet," so we had "Boy Hank" and "Girl Hank" on the radio for a while until we got things sorted out.
 
wanttaja said:
Tch. That's "Sir Ronald" to the likes of you, and make sure you roll the "R" like a good Scot.

Ron "Everything is in pairfect working order" Wanttaja
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Hah, I audibly chuckled at that one. Nice work. :)
 
Nobody has given us a read on Levy yet.
 
Is is Suomi origin?

And I"m guessing if so, it might have once been Vanttaja in colloquial pronunciation. "Va" being the attribute for 'one who is skilled at _______'.
 
docmirror said:
Is is Suomi origin?

And I"m guessing if so, it might have once been Vanttaja in colloquial pronunciation. "Va" being the attribute for 'one who is skilled at _______'.
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Yes it is, and it's been explained that the "ja" ending is the equivalent to "er" ending in English...a "doer", such as a Baker, Cooper, etc. So the combination means something like "One is is skilled at doing NTTA".

Hmmmmm.

Ron Wanttaja
 
Damn Finlanders.

(1/4 Finn here, and am completely unable to spell my maternal grandmother's maiden name. There's some double i's in there and other double vowel fun)
 
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