While looking up to see if I could find anything online about the Nguyen Count, I ran across an interesting set of stories about an interesting special election in Orange County, California. A seat vacated by a Hispanic Democrat was apparently hotly contested with two Vietnamise-American Republicans, both named Nguyen, vying for the seat on an advisory board. Follow the link if you’re at all interested, but I’ll just say that there were recounts involved, a margin of victory of seven votes (out of 26,000), a contested result, and butterfly-like ballot confusion. A month later and it still isn’t entirely over.
It’s only actually relevent if you live in Orange County (which I obviously don’t), but sure was an interesting read.
This article gives the rundown of the election, while this one profiles the one of the two candidates (I couldn’t find a profile of the other). This is the most recent article I’ve found on the subject.
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2 Responses to A Nguyen/Nguyen Situation
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Do you pronounce it “Noo-yen,” or “Wen?” I used to say the former, but lately I’ve been hearing the latter more.
I think it’s one of those words that doesn’t translate well phonetically. I pronounce it as “wen”, though I’ve heard “nwen” and “nyen”. I’ve also heard it the way you used to pronounce it, though I’ve been told by a vietnamese guy (who pronounces it in a way that I cannot replicate it, a sort of nasal sound at the beginning) that it’s definitely supposed to be one syllable.