Latest TODAY column: mr brown by any other name...
Excerpt:
NAMES seem to be in the news lately.
Like the rebranding exercise that saw Marina Bay being renamed Marina Bay. The changes were subtle, I think. I believe the emphasis is now on all three syllables of the word "Marina", and "Bay" has a slightly higher pitch at the end.
So now you pronounce it in a singsong MAA-REE-NAA Bay (pitch up), instead of Ma-RI-na Bay (pitch down), to better capture the way we locals pronounce it. Don't be fooled, the spelling has not changed, but the way it should be pronounced has been changed, I think. That's my theory anyway.
