Sunday, June 9, is Love Our Lake Day here in Oakland, and there’s no denying there’s a lot to love about Lake Merritt. (Bird sanctuary! Gondolas! Children’s Fairyland! The Ladies of the Lake!)
What I’m not so crazy about is the event’s alternate name: Oaklavia.
As you can see, the official spelling is Oaklavía, with an acute accent over the i, so I know it’s meant to be pronounced oak-la-VEE-ya. But where I’ve most often seen it – in the #oaklavia hashtag, the oaklavia.org URL, and sundry blog posts – the accent doesn’t show up. And every time I see it, I read it as oak-LAY-vee-ya, to rhyme with “Octavia” or “Batavia.” And it’s a short slide from oak-LAY-vee-ya to oak-labia, and let’s try to be grownups here, shall we?
Oaklavía has been an annual event since 2010; the name and the activity are modeled after Ciclovía – “bike path” in Spanish – an open-streets event that originated in Bogotá, Colombia, in 1976 and has been a weekly occurrence in many Colombian cities ever since. Ciclovía has inspired many similar events around the world: San Francisco’s, which takes place from spring through fall, is called Sunday Streets; Los Angeles has a semiannual CicLAvia, which may be pronounced with a stressed vee, but you’d never guess it from the capitalized LA. CicLAvia always makes me think about cicadas, which is ridiculous, because there are no cicadas in L.A.
There’s some precedent for successful Oak- portmanteaus in Oakland: Oaksterdam University (“quality training for the cannabis industry”), Oaklandish (“local love” apparel and other products), and probably a few others I’ve forgotten. But Oaklavía – where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain? – just seems to be trying too hard. Remember: If you have to depend on fussy punctuation or accents to make the name intelligible, the name isn’t as strong as it could be. (See my 2011 post “Six Naming Questions You May Have Overlooked.”)
“Oakland Streets,” anyone?
And the local cops
Are mostly flops
And the public transit is a pain!
...Yeow! Aye-yip-aye-yo-ee-ay!
I'm only sayin'
you're lookin' weak, OaklaVEEya
OaklaVEEya--oy vey!
Posted by: rootlesscosmo | June 07, 2013 at 09:23 AM
Oh, oak-LAY-vee-a - which is what it reads like if one doesn't look carefully - sounds like yet another oak tree disease. If they'd even gone with something like Oaklavida - Livin' la vida Oakland - it might have had the benefit of some familiarity with the song, at least.
Or, it might sound like a different variety of oak disease... oh, dear.
Posted by: tanita | June 07, 2013 at 12:56 PM
Makes me glad I don't live in Oakland...
...just Orange, where people long ago used up every possible cutesie phrase with that fruit. Certainly, no one here would have the slightest clue what "Orangevía" might mean.
Posted by: Kitchenmudge.wordpress.com | June 07, 2013 at 04:51 PM
To paraphrase Gertrude Stein: "There, there!"
Posted by: empty | June 08, 2013 at 09:02 AM
The evolution of names for this type of event is fascinating--San Diego's is called CicloSDias. A lot to unpack there. :-)
http://ciclosdias.com/
Posted by: Jenne | June 18, 2013 at 09:53 AM