What kind of name is Foggo, anyway?

[BurtWorm]

I'd never heard of it until a couple of weeks ago. According to Josh Marshall, I wasn't even pronouncing it correctly.



http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/008452.php

You say Fah-go, I say Foh-go? Well, turns out there's no need to call the whole thing off.

Here at TPM we've been following the Kyle "Dusty" Foggo story for six months or more. And all this time I've thought the name was pronounced Foh-goh, with a long O like 'Joe'. But recently I've heard people pronouncing it Fah-goh, as though it were the were fog, with a little 'oh' tacked on at the end.

Now, I don't think I based on my own pronunciation on anything more than that was how it occurred to me to pronounce it when I first saw it on paper.

So I thought I could resolve the issue for myself and perhaps do a small public service by looking into it.

I spoke to a friend and sometimes source from the intel world who shares some friends and acquaintances with Foggo. He checked it with them and it turns out it's Foh-goh, not Fah-goh.
-- Josh Marshall

[SoCalDem]

1. Foh-go, Fah-go, Sluggo, Boffo...whatever,. It's still a great story

:)

[otohara]

2. Stripper

w/o the Kyle

[Karenca]

3. British, really......nt

[havocmom]

4. Sounds sorta Middle Earth

Head of the Trolls perhaps. Looks like a digger. ;)

[Cha]

5. I say "fog-o" and I'm

sticking with it:)

[BurtWorm]

8. Me too.

More descriptive of the name-bearer for me.

[MADem]

6. Maybe it's a derivative of the Italian word, FOGNA????

Translation=SEWER.

Appropriate, anyway....!!!

[HysteryDiagnosis]

7. I wonder if he has furry feet, hobbit like, big round eyes.....

[TahitiNut]

9. The general pronunciation rule in American English is ...

... if the vowel is followed by one consonent which is, in turn, followed by a vowel, then the first vowel is pronounced long, like the 'o' in 'tone' or 'bone.' If, however it is followed by two consonents which are, in turn, followed by a vowel, then the first vowel is pronounced short, like the 'o' in 'lotto' or 'grotto.' Likewise, if the following consonent(s) is/are not followed in turn by a vowel, the vowel is pronounced short, like the 'o' in 'dog' or 'log.' Thus, I'd pronounce 'Foggo' as "fog-oh" (or "fah-go").

[SoCalDem]

11. rule exception

"unless the name sounds like a 10 yr old's cartoon character, in which case it's ok to re-pronounce it so it sounds more "mainstream", albeit still silly"...:)..(see Sluggo, Boffo, Moffo, Goofo)

[TahitiNut]

12. Well, not being facetious, a person can define the pronunication of their

... own name any way they want to. For example, if Foggo were in court and told the court that he pronounced his last name as 'smith' then the court would recognize that pronunciation and use it.

Also, quite clearly, the general rules go by the wayside when it comes to the pronunciation of words imported from other modern languages.

[Warren Stupidity]

10. Its Foggo's name, sir.

From Catch-22.

"That's much better, Mr. Clevinger, even though it is a barefaced lie. Last night in the latrine. Didn't you whisper that we couldn't punish you to that other dirty son of a bitch we don't like? What's his name?"

"Yossarian, sir," Lieutenant Scheisskopf said.

"Yes, Yossarian. That's right. Yossarian. Yossarian? Is that his name? Yossarian? What the hell kind of a name is Yossarian?"

Lieutenant Scheisskopf had the facts at his finger tips. "It's Yossarian's name, sir," he explained.

"Yes, I suppose it is. Didn't you whisper to Yossarian that we couldn't punish you?"

"Oh, no, sir. I whispered to him that you couldn't find me guilty - "

"I may be stupid," interrupted the colonel, "but the distinction escapes me. I guess I am pretty stupid, because the distinction escapes me."