Talk:La Llorona
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Searches for "Woman in White" and "Weeping Woman" should redirect to this article. JDspeeder1 20:31, 11 November 2005 (UTC)
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- Actually we need an disambiguation page. There is also a novel by Wilkie Collins called The Woman in White. I will try to set one up.
[edit] IPA
Perhaps it would be better to discuss the IPA versus English sight-spelling about the pronunciation of La Llorona, rather than reverting over and over again.
My preference here, at least, is for the IPA version. The IPA here is not particularly hard to read; the sounds that it describes are not particularly exotic, and are not represented by unfamiliar characters. The chief thing that must be known to read the IPA version is that the written character [j] represents an English "y" sound; and this is not a particularly rare or obscure value to give that character. In cases where an IPA transcription uses particularly obscure symbols, or an accurate IPA transcription in the source language would not correspond to the customary pronunciation adopted in English, the IPA may in fact not be the best choice. This is not the situation here. — Smerdis of Tlön 05:54, 25 December 2005 (UTC)
- It's always better to have the pronounciation listed in a way that normal readers can understand without being an expert on IPA's version of things. If the people thinking the current pronounciation isn't quite accurate, then list the real version in a way that's easier to understand instead of falling back on yet another "standard" that a group of people stuck on themselves and their own way of doing things came up with to make things more difficult for normal readers to follow.
- It's the same thing as with some dedicated group of people here voting as a group whenever anything comes up to decide for no particular reason that all animal names had to be capitalized because that's what some professional bird watchers do, or that all articles titles for Norse myths have to be in 14th century Icelandic instead of modern Egnlish versions because that's what they prefer. We need to do things so that Wikipedia READERS got value out of them, not out of egotistical crusades to try to enforce little niche standards everywhere. If someone wants to start IPA.wikipedia.org, by all means go for it, but it's not something a squad of impractical people can just show up to enforce on articles everywhere. DreamGuy 19:08, 25 December 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Lloronas across the Americas
I know there's a version of la Llorona in the Dominican Republic, but i've not heard it since my youth. Maybe a few other Llorona folkloric stories would do this article well.
- Here in Venezuela we have a version more commonly called "La Sayona" (for the long flowing clothes she carries, a "saya", not sure how it's called in english, but also goes by the name of La Llorona). The most common version is that she was a woman that found her husband cheating on her with her mother, so she killed them both and burned the house down. With his last breath the husband cursed her to be without god or rest forever, so she keeps roaming as a ghost the venezuelan plains, appearing (and according to legend, killing if she can grab them) mainly to men that are cheating on their wives. Some versions include his baby in the house as she burned it down, others say she took her baby with her, and another variant of that last one says that she appears as a woman carrying a baby and asking people for help carrying it, if they accept the spirit goes free and the person dies becoming the new sayona. According to some versions of the legend, carrying some rolled tobacco in the pocket prevents her from appearing.
- Some sources (in spanish): http://www.mipunto.com/punto_astral/temas/3er_trimestre02/sayona.html and http://www.llanera.com/llanos/?llanos=1&lyd=1&id=2&leyenver=1&leyenda=1
[edit] La Llorona is Widespread in the Americas
I know that the legend of La Llorona is widespread in most Spanish-speaking countries. This may suggest that the legend has origins in Spain itself. I have even come across sources suggesting that it was introduced into Spain during the Moorish period. This should be investigated.
