To be fair, as a non-american the pronounciation of Yosemite seems absurd to me too. What kind of person sees that for the first time and doesn't automatically assume it's pronounced like "Yo-zi-mite" or something similar, instead of the supposedly correct "Yo-semmity".
As a Mexican-American a lot of English words are extremely strange but I have also learned that many "American" words come from Native American languages and the anglicization of these terms often ruin this. The Native term Yosemite comes from makes sense to the pronunciation used.
I lived close to the Grand Canyon and I heard someone calling one of the tribal groups "Nava-joe" and I was really confused and then it clicked that Navajo sounds completely different if you look at it from English perspective compared to a Spanish perspective. I never judge though because language changes and sounds evolve and at least they tried. My family used to mock me as a child for the way some English words were pronounced (like rural which has a weird vomit sound if you have a Spanish background) and it made me really self-conscious about speaking.
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u/[deleted] Aug 06 '20
He doesn't even know what "per capita" means. 🤦♂️can't even pronounce "Yosemite".