Apparently We’ve Been Pronouncing “Arcega” Incorrectly

JJ Arcega-Whiteside, second round pick out of Stanford.

Big red zone target who apparently looked good in OTAs on Wednesday.

We’ve apparently been saying his name incorrectly this entire time:

JJ clarifies that his last name is pronounced- Are thay gah – so the SEGA nickname is out

— John Barchard (@JohnBarchard) June 5, 2019

Okay. JJ Are-Thay-Guh Whiteside it is.

Or is it? –

He did say “whatever you guys want is cool”

— John Barchard (@JohnBarchard) June 5, 2019

Background, after the jump:

José Joaquín Arcega-Whiteside was born in Zaragoza, Spain and moved to the U.S. when he was six. In Latin American Spanish, if the ‘C’ is followed by any letter other than ‘H,’ we would make an ‘S’ sound.

For example, the soccer player Carlos Salcedo is Carlos “Sal-say-doh,” yes?

But in Spain, a ‘C’ appearing before the letter ‘E’ would be pronounced like a “TH” sound instead. Hence, José Joaquín Are-Thay-Guh Whiteside.

You’ve seen this before with non-Catalonian Spanish athletes. For instance, golfer Jose Maria Olazabal – the ‘Z’ is pronounced as a ‘TH.’ Miguel Angel Jimenez, aka “The Mechanic,” is pronounced Him-Enn-Eth, not Him-Enn-Ezz. In Latin America Spanish, we pronounce the Z like an English Z, i.e. Pedro Martinez and David Ortiz.

So there’s a subpar Spanish lesson from a very poor Spanish speaker. Of course, JJ says we can call him “whatever,” so I guess it doesn’t really matter. Eagles fans will butcher his name anyway, like Nelson “Aguilar” and Alshon “Jefferies.”