CHAMA NM on the Cumbres Pass Route

[Great Western]

Out of interest in all things DRGW and its associate lines,  I am wondering how the name CHAMA is pronounced?

     Does the "CH" sound like "ch" as in chicken? or

                                                       as in shoot?     or

                                                       as in casserole?              

            Best wishes from one of the old countries         

 

[SilverSpike]

I visited there many years ago in 1983 and stayed in one of the small hotels there across from the Cumbres and Toltec Railroad. As I can recall the "Ch" in Chama is pronounced just like the word chance with a pronounced accent on the a.

phonetic: cha - ma

Cheers,

Ryan

[Great Western]

Thanks for the info Ryan.  I thought that was how it might be  BUT you can never tell

We have an ancient Town nearbt named Totnes (pron: Tot-nez), it catches many an unwary soul out.   Alan

   

[Anonymous]

I thoughthat the "CH" was pronounced "Sh" and the a was like "are" phonotically Sharma. Wasn't there "the high hills of Chama where i walked with some one or other" as in the song?

Rgds Ian

[Anonymous]

Chama (CHAH-mah) is in the area where Spanish is spoken by all the Indians tribes as sort of an Esperanto.  The Spanish ch is indeed like the ch in chance. Muchacha, a young girl, would not be pronounced mushasha.

That said, the Anglos moved in and started re-pronouncing quite a few words. The Florida River in the Durango area is pronounced flah-RYE-dah by the locals and the first railroad into the area was the Denver and RYE-oh Grand (with a very silent e).

Spent many a vacation in the area; the dude ranch owner, a teacher in the high school , spoke 'local'.

Art

[Great Western]

Greetings,    Thanks Art for the info and also the correct version of Rio Grande.  You can't always rely on John Wayne films for this sort of thing. 

[Great Western]

Greetings Ian, 

  looking forward to your summer I expect.  Thanks for the reply, I can't say I know of the song.

[Anonymous]

Great Western, don't want you to have the wrong idea about how most of us colonials pronounce Rio Grande.  There's a  nice old sea chantey (now there's a ch that's pronounced as sh!) titled Rio Grande.  The Norman Luboff group use the Spanish pronunciation, REE-oh, but I did hear one group sing RYE-oh (hard to listen to!).  But even the locals in Texas, Durango, and Chama use the ch as in chance for Chama.

Art

[Anonymous]

Yeah mate i wish i didn't know of it either and i can't remember where i heard it, it was on some album that i bought fo rother songs. I think it was Jim Reeves who sang it and my wife and i really get a laugh out of what we call "The car in the driveway song" on the same album.

 

Rgds Ian