sbm12

Two points at play. One is what the two syllables are and the other is where the emphasis is. I was commenting on both of them, not just one.

HMO

No way in Portuguese. You cannot split a consonant followed by a vowel, therefore you must have the syllables LA and TAM.

LAT + AM mus be spoken as two different words, and pronunciation will be different from LA + TAM. ^

In Spanish you may be right, I don't know the language well enough to discuss.

sdsearch

But that's only if they write it that way. If I see it as 5 letters in a row, I don't think of it as syllables, and will likely put the emphasis on whatever I say first.

So if they want the accent on the second syllable, they should write it as La Tam or Lat Am rather than LATAM. Pan Am was Pan Am, not PANAM. People would have pronounced PANAM as PANAMA (the country) without final A, and thus with an accent on the first syllable.

To me, as a five letter all-caps word with no division obvious, LATAM seems a lot like Latin, and I would tend to emphasize it the same way.

And with LAN doing no "vocal" advertising that I've seen in the USA (only "silent" internet or print ads), they'll have a lot of inconsistent pronunciation on their hands for a long time if they don't figure out how to "educate" people on pronouncing LATAM.

Anyway, I don't fly LATAM nearly as often as I deal with the kms program. If the program is still going to be called LANPASS (where, btw, I think of the accent as falling on the first syllable), I'll continue to think of the airline as LAN.

postular

Have you ever noticed the English on-board announcement video where they pronounce LAN like "Dan" instead of the way it is pronounced in Spanish as in "Don"?
If they follow this pattern then I assume they would say LATAM (at least in the English versions) as Lat-Am.
Anyway -- I am happy for the change as cab drivers in NYC always seem to draw a blank when you say "LAN"; you have to say "LAN CHILE" before they understand.
I tend to think that all the Spanish speakers in "America Latina" will take LATAM to mean Latina America whereas the Brazilians will be pleased that the TAM name stays in tact (a win-win). I think the new name is quite ingenious in all three languages.

sdsearch

Yes, but with even more pronunciations possible for LATAM, will that really solve much? You could pronounce LayTam, LayTum, or LahTum, or LahTahm, or LahTame, LayTame, or LateAim (especially if you're running behind schedule), etc. That's for possible pronunciations than for LAN.

Even though I don't really speak Spanish, an airline name like Aerolineas Argentinas seems a lot simpler to me than LATAM. I can mangle a syllable or two of that and it's still clear to anyone what I'm trying to say.

Oh, the mess the Pope made a few centuries ago by drawing the line through middle of South America.

Eastbay1K

It will solve more than a taxista trying to figure out ooh-knee-taid (United) airlines.

JohnnyColombia

Latamificaçăo n: The process of rebranding a Brazilian airline.

IceTrojan

I dunno, AmericanUS Airlineways has a nice ring to it.

postular

But in that case, US swallowed AA and just appropriated the AA name with the second class US cheapo, tacky product and service.

R.I.P. American Airlines (1934 -2014).

postular

Double post

postular

But as the Bard (sorta) said:

"What's in a name? That which we call [Aerolineas Argentineas]
By any other name would smell as [putrid]."

HMO

It could be worst - thanks to Napoleon, we have only one big Portuguese speaking country, instead of several small~medium ones, like the Spanish America ^

sdsearch

But that would AmericanAmericaWestUSAir actually! (Ie, US Airways was a never-quite-completed merger of US Air and America West by the time it merged with AA.

And, btw, the cheapness that Postular refers to above originated with the America West branch.

sdsearch

Actually, I like the up-front cabin (whatever they call it, I think it's just called "premium economy" or something, but it's a nice spacious cabin) on intra-Argentina flights by Aerolineas Argentineas, and it doesn't cost much more. I wish LAN Argentina would have something of use for a taller person to sit in other than the exit row on their domestic planes.