You say tomato, I say tomate

Got an email from Australia today asking how you pronounce the name of our village, Juviles. A good question, and one I've not yet addressed on this blog. So here goes. As a rough approximation for English speakers, it's
hoo-BEE-lez
although as the locals tend to ignore the letter 's', it's often
hoo-BEE-lay
Anyway, it's not Jew-viles, Dew-villas or Jubblies. Nor is it, as at least one locally-resident English-speaker has it, Hoo-billies. Although I quite like Hoo-billies. Makes me think of the Beverly Hoo-billies....
I've no idea what Juviles means, if anything. The names of most villages here have an Arabic or Latin route that relates to the landscape, or the function or rank of the settlement. All I can find online is that Juviles is probably "pre-Arab". If anyone knows the derivation, I'd love to hear it.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

ahem, think the hoobillie is Stan?! Anyway, the Oracle (Josh) says you' ve all got it wrong, it's u BEE le!

Martin said...

Not Stan, I'm thinking of another guiri, as it happens... I like Josh's silent J though, that's a new one on me.