How should i pronounce the name of your state, city or town?
if i aint from around these parts, how should i say where you live?
locals seem to be very passionate and defensive about how you pronounce the name of the state or city you happen to be visiting.
is it “looz-anna” or “loozy-anna?” (louisiana).
is it “mizurra” or “mizoori?” (missouri)
what is the correct pronunciation of your state, city, village, town, hamlet or wherever you live? why do the tourists always get it wrong?
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It’s Meh-HE-co
No Meh-zico or Mex-ico
Get it right you dumb tourists
ill – ih – noiz! XD bwahahahahahha I know, I’m sorry.. it makes people’s skin ripple… just kills me that it’s such a peeve. Ok Ok.. the S is silent. I get it.
No one seems to mistake San Francisco, California. But people mispronounce “Nevada” all the time (where I grew up and lived from 1991–2002). The first “a” in Nevada is a short “a” as in the word “cat”, not as in the word “call”. It’s not Nevahda. No one in Nevada pronounces it that way. Also, “Oregon” is not Ore-gone.
Bruhk- lin
No one ever gets that wrong! :D
But the street in Manhattan dividing the NYU area with the rest of downtown near the West Village is Hows-ton, not Hyues-ton.
@charliecompany34, I still have my ‘Sconnie accent, and I say I’m from “M’wahkee, Wis-cahn-sin.”
i hear different dialects on “wisconsin” all the time.
Depends on whether you are sloppy or not. I’ve heard Sackaminna a lot instead of Sac-ra-ment-o
Texas is pretty much Texas, unless you are from Mexico. Then it is Tejas.
Or unless you are from New Mexico, Louisiana or Colorado. Then it’s “Goddamn Texas.”
And while we’re at it it’s SA-MON not SAL-MON
AAAARRGGGHHH
My city is easy enough to pronounce a nearby one trips people up.
Norfolk is pronounced “Nah” as in naughty and “fuk” as in fuck. And you kind of lean on the “nah” part :)
Of course I still say “Nor-folk”
and what is the pronunciation of newfoundland?
@charliecompany34
NEW-f’nd-l’nd
Where the apostrophe represents the “schwa” sounds like the “e” in the word “paper” and emphasis on the “new” part.
Caw-lee-fo-nyughhh
Hey. I pronounced nuclear “nuke-you-lar” while Bush was president. Why wouldn’t I pronounce California as my governor Governator does?
Nottingham (Knot – ing – ham)
you probably could have got that figured it out for yourself
This is an interesting question though, theres a place near me called Loughborough and Australians always pronounce it (Loug – a – bor – uuuu – gah) which has become a joke to all us locals the actual pronuciation is (Luff – bor – a)
@teh_kvlt_liberal, it isn’t clear where you are placing the stress. You seem to be saying that “Mexico” has the accent on the second syllable and that all the syllables of “Oaxaca” get the same emphasis. How about using italics or bold or caps to show where the accent goes?
@YARNLADY, also Sackamenna.
@drdoombot Noo-York-Sit-ee?! You just reminded me of a Pace Picante sauce commercial.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard Colorado pronounced incorrectly.
Columbus is easy. Ohio is usually easy…just don’t say “oh-hiya.” It is OH-HI-OH.
What is more of a pet peeve is the demonym. We are Columbusites, not Columbusans, Columbusers, or Columbians (the most hilarious/frustrating of the bunch).
Nice question.
I always wondered how people from Arkansas pronounce Arkansas.
To me it sounds like Ar-can-saw (when i hear somebody saying that it is Clinton’s home-state), but reading it it looks like Ar-cun-ses.
So, anybody that can enlight me?
Well, I hear both call-o-RAW-do and call-o-RADD-o, and sometimes that “call” is more like “coal.” Are they all correct?
@Jeruba Now that you mention it, I have heard it all of those ways.
Go with call-o-RADD-o. Its definitely call, not coal.
Some of the places I’ve lived in (or known about) where people always got the name wrong:
Edinburgh=Edimbro
Leicester Square=Lestah Sque-ah
Shrewsbury=Shrowsboorie (don’t worry, even the English get this wrong)
Birmingham=Brum
Coventry=Coventreh
The German, Czech and Greek towns I’ve lived in have pretty straightforward pronunciation rules in their respective languages (all 3 phonetic). It’s only English that is vague in this respect.
Of course some foreigners still get it wrong (and even locals sometimes).
Yo no hablo inglés señora
Mont-RE-all in english
Mon-re-al (al as in short for albert) (the 3 syllables should be connected fast) in french
The historical pronunciation is Mont Roy-al
As for Quebec:
Ké-beck
not kuew-beck
not Ke-beck
not Kai-beck
@Jack79 I was always confused about Edinburgh. Thanks for clearing that up.
I live near a lot of places that if you don’t live in the area, you seem to pronounce it like a jackass.
Schuylkill River- Sku kull (i’m actually unsure of how to type this out, that’s the best I can do)
Wilkes Barre- now, I’ve heard this on a lot of tv shows and movies, and I have always heard it pronounced Wilks-Bar. People on tv tend to say “barry” but it’s not. Well, no one I know from the philly area, or that live there say it like “barry”
Bala Cynwyd- Bala Kin-wood
Manayunk- Man-ee-unk
Conshohocken – con shuh hock in
I can’t think of anything inside of Philadelphia that’s hard to pronounce…
@Mtl_zack, I have never in my life heard anyone put the accent on the second syllable of Montreal. I hear mon-tree-ALL, with the T definitely in the second syllable. That’s also the way it’s treated in Dictionary.com. Not so? (And my Canadian relatives from the Maritimes say it more like mun-tree-ALL.)
The most common pronunciation I hear of Quebec is kweh-BECK, with the “que” as in “quell.” I know that’s wrong. I just mention it because it is not on your list.
The problem with using informal phonetic spellings like these is that they depend on everyone’s recognizing the same spelling conventions for the sounds, and I don’t thnk we do. That’s why I often resort to rhymes.
@Jack79, better add Glasgow. I hear both GLASS-go and GLASS-cow.
Well, then there is Refugio, pronounced Reh-FEUR-ee-oh, not Reh-FU-Hee-oh, and also Deaf Smith (DEEF Smith), but then that’s how we tell someone isn’t really a Texan.
Featheringstonehaugh
pronounced Fanshaw.
@Jack79 I used to live in Shrewsbury area, well Ludlow more specifically, how odd, but anyway I always thought it was pronounced in a kind of tom – ate – o, tom – art – oo way where one was the posh one and the other was for the common folk like me :)
hahrt-furd cun-net-a-kit
otherwise known as Hartford, Connecticut.
@Jeruba Ya, I guess you’re right. The T should be on the 2nd syllable. And you have no idea how much I hate the kweh-BECK!
Northern Territory only difference is you say tear (as in rip, not the stuff that comes out of your eyes when you cry) i (short i as in it) tree (as in those big things outside with leaves or fronds).
Tear i tree – with the accent on the tear part.
wow, it can all be so complicated sometimes.
Whatever. The governor can’t even pronounce the state name correctly, and sooo many of the cities and landmarks are Spanish language and mispronounced anyway. Oh. I’m in CA.
Louisianan here. I say Louisiana the text book way; not “looz-anna” or “loozy-anna”
@casheroo: Schuylkill is pronounced SKOO kull.
Manayunk- Man-ee-YUNK
Conshohocken – con shuh HOCK in
Brwn Mawr – Brin MAR
Berwyn – BURR win
Gladwyne – GLAD win
Wissahickon – Wiss a HICK in.
Coulter St. – COL ter (the street I lived in in Phila.)
I now live in Spencertown. Hard to mess that up.
@gailcalled Same difference. My u was meant to be your double o.
Now are you guys positive it isn’t “Sure-Kill”. Especially when trying to get on from the S. St. interchange?
That’s the name we all used when I lived there. :)
There is this town in Ut, called Tooele, but don’t pay attention to how it is spelled. The proper name is To-will-a (uh)
@Jeruba I think the locals would go for the first one
There is a town that I live near in Illinois that is named San Jose. When I moved here from the west coast I immediately assumed it was pronounced san-ho-ZAY. Everyone looked at me like I was… from the west coast? They pronounce it “San Joe’s” (rhymes with close). Silly Mid-westerners. :P
There is an area near me here called Lake Orion.
Naturally I thought it was pronounced the same as the constellation of stars known as Orion’s Belt namely:
Oh-RYE-on
But around here Michiganders pronounce it like the cookie with an N at the end namely:
OAR-eee-on
Go figure!
And I still can’t figure out how Mackinac gets pronounced as if it were spelled Mackinaw.
This applies equally to the bridge, the island, and the fudge. What the…..?
A few, off the top of my head, that out-of-towners seem to have issues with:
Cairo: CARE-oh
Coxsackie: cook-SOCK-ee
Chatham: CHAT-um
Hannacroix: HAN-uh-croy
Rensselaer: I’ve heard locals use RENS-ler and REN-suh-LEER. Nobody seems to correct anybody else.
I like going to Massachusetts where
Peabody = PEE-buh-dee
Quincy = KWIN-zee
Worcester = WUSS-tah
...and so on.
Anybody live in Peer, South Dakota?
Are you referring to
Pierre?
A few that I wonder about:
Coeur D’Alene
Nacogdoches
Terre Haute
Cuyahoga
@Jeruba
I’ve been to Coeur d’Alene; it’s pronounced “kor-d’-LAYN”.
Nacogdoches comes out Nack-uh-DOH-chis, at least around here in Texas.
I like to say nevada as in Ne-vah-duuhhhh
duhh as in “Duuhhh I like in Neveduuuhhh”
@Jeruba The other two: Terra Hote and Kai-uh-hoe-guh. The “Kai” rhymes with “eye.”
Portland is pretty straightforward. But as DominicX said earlier: My state is not pronounced as “Or-e-gone”, “Or-gone” or “Are-uh-gone” (regardless of what certain dictionaries say)!
Kind of slow, but this is how it should sound: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media:En-us-Oregon.ogg
@brinibear, funny, I never heard of Tooele until you posted yesterday, and today I received a book from a bookseller with a return address in Tooele. I never would have guessed how to say that one.
@Jeruba I know it is an interesting one. When I first moved out to Ut., I heard it on the news, and I couldn’t figure out what they were talking about. I took me almost six months to figure it out.
Natchitoches – Nack-uh-dish
Ouachita – watch-i-taw
Ponchartrain – pon-shi-train
Bogalusa – bOH-guh-loosuh
Lafayette – LAFFY-ette
Bogue Falaya – boh-guh fuh-lai-uh
Pretty much everything in the state of Louisiana is pronounced wrong by everyone.
this one is even pronounced wrong by natives.
tchoupitoulas
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