El Paso Realtor Questions How We Pronounce This Popular Street

Of all the El Paso street names I've heard people struggle to pronounce, Pellicano was never one of them.

Viscount? Absolutely.

Yarbrough? I can understand the struggle.

And don't even get me started on the way Google Maps pronounces George Dieter.

But Pellicano?!

I genuinely thought we all had this one figured out. Then an El Paso realtor shared a video on Instagram that had me questioning whether there was a Pellicano pronunciation debate happening without me.

An El Paso Local Questions How We Say Pellicano

In the video, El Paso realtor, Josh Castro, is driving around the East Side when he brings up Pellicano Drive and asks locals to settle how we're actually supposed to pronounce it. Well, more specifically, Spanish speakers.

Now, as a Spanish speaker myself, his reasoning makes sense. Pellicano has two Ls, and in Spanish, "ll" can have a sound similar to an English "y." He says he's always heard people pronounce it without that "y" sound but wonders whether we've been saying it wrong.

As someone who speaks Spanish and was born and raised in El Paso, I understand where she's coming from. But I have NEVER heard anyone here pronounce Pellicano with a "y" sound.

Not once!

And judging by the comments, I am definitely not alone.

Instead of questioning everything they knew about Pellicano, several people basically responded with some version of: We've got other El Paso street names to worry about, buddy. Which is fair.

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Pellicano Isn't Actually a Spanish Name

There's another little wrinkle that several commenters pointed out: Pellicano has Italian origins.

That means applying Spanish pronunciation rules to those two Ls doesn't necessarily work anyway. In Italian, the double L keeps an "L" sound.

white and black bird flying during daytime

Which would explain why generations of El Pasoans have been confidently saying Pellicano the way we do without ever stopping to think about it.

I also think that's part of living in El Paso. We grow up hearing these street names so often that we don't necessarily think about how they're spelled or how someone from outside the city might pronounce them.

You just know Pellicano is Pellicano. No “Y” sound.

Case closed.

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El Paso Has Much Harder Street Names to Pronounce

If we're going to start questioning El Paso street names, though, I have a few others I'd like to nominate.

Viscount. Trawood. Yarbrough.

Those are names I can absolutely imagine confusing someone who just moved here.

Then there's George Dieter.

Google Maps and Siri, I'm looking directly at you. I don't know what George Dieter did to deserve the pronunciations our GPS systems have come up with over the years, but I would personally like to settle THAT debate before we start messing with Pellicano.

Maybe that's the real takeaway from this video. Pellicano might not be confusing to most El Pasoans, but we definitely have street names that can separate the locals from the newcomers pretty quickly.

So, which El Paso street name actually deserves a pronunciation debate?