St. Lucia

[WinkyWinkola]

Is it Loo-sha or Loo-chia or Loo-see-a?

I've always thought it to be the first but I've heard many different pronunciations over the last few days.

The Caribbean island is St Loosha.

Since we're in Pedants' Corner, I can't resist mentioning that you don't need a point after 'St', because it's a contraction (like 'Dr').

Seriously?

I always thought you needed a point after a contraction. Mr. X Xxxx, Dr. Yyyy, Mrs. Ppppp

Tell me more.. .. .. .. .. >

Whether you need a point depends on how an abbreviation is achieved. If the abbreviation is formed by removing the end of a word, you need a point. For example 'Professor' becomes 'Prof.'. Contractions are abbreviations formed by removing letters from the middle of the word, leaving the end intact. In those cases, you don't need a point. So 'Dr' does not take a point, because 'r' is the last letter of 'Doctor'. Likewise 'Mr' and 'Mrs' (as they come from 'Mister' and 'Mistress'). It's true though that points are used with contractions more frequently in American English.

Conventions change. Many of us will have been taught to add the point to contractions at school, but I agree it's no longer the norm in Britain (or amongst British publishers, I suspect it's still pretty commonly used in unpublished writing).

Viola is right, it doesn't make sense to add point to Dr as 'r' is the last letter of the word.

Pterosaur-really? I was taught in the 80s as per Viola's post

I'm pretty sure that (in the 70s) I was taught Mr. Dr. etc
We had Dr. Seuss books then.

Dr. Seuss is a perfect example of the fact that points are used much more commonly in American English.

Depends where you are in the world. All 3 are valid in different places and different languages but the island is typically Loo-sha.

I was def taught (early 80s) to add the full stop after Mr. and Mrs. I remember vividly because I also popped a point after Miss and was roundly mocked by my junior 3 teacher.

Oh, and I think it is Loo-sha for the island.

Loo-sha

I was taught to add the point at school in the 70s and stopped abruptly in the 90s when I started working for a publisher which had adopted the pointless (as it were) contraction.

Oooh! All this time I was tutting about Dr Pepper dropping the point.