Place names that should be spelt differently according to pronounciation

[DandyDan]

Colorado has a lot of them (mostly poor Spanish pronunciations):

Del Norte — Pronounced del nort (not the typical pronunciation of del nortay)

Huerfano — Pronounced warfuhno (not the typical pronunciation of wearfuhno)

Louisville — Pronounced looissvill (not Kentucky's pronunciation)

Monte Vista — Pronounced montuh visstuh (not the typical pronunciation of montay veestuh)

Rio Grande — Pronounced reeoh grand (not the typical pronunciation of reeoh granday)

Of course, that's just a few.

Those are all mild. Buena Vista is just atrocious.

Buena Vista County in Iowa is BOON-a Vista and so is Buena Vista University as well. It makes me wonder why I ever bothered with Spanish class in high school.

[CtrlAltDel]

Here are some actual ideas:

Tuckson, AZ
Spocain, WA

I am on board with these. Tucson took me years to get right. It's too close to Tuscan (as in Tuscan Garden), and for whatever reason it's almost impossible to differentiate between 'cs' and the more common 'sc' at a quick glance. The latter is also a much more natural pronunciation that blends and rolls off the tongue much easier. Adding a 'k' to make that '-ck' sound stand out would be great.

Unless, I'm being whooshed, I'm not sure I follow. There is no "ck" sound in Tucson.

[webny99]

Here are some actual ideas:

Tuckson, AZ
Spocain, WA

I am on board with these. Tucson took me years to get right. It's too close to Tuscan (as in Tuscan Garden), and for whatever reason it's almost impossible to differentiate between 'cs' and the more common 'sc' at a quick glance. The latter is also a much more natural pronunciation that blends and rolls off the tongue much easier. Adding a 'k' to make that '-ck' sound stand out would be great.

Unless, I'm being whooshed, I'm not sure I follow. There is no "ck" sound in Tucson.

The 'c' makes the 'ck' sound, hence Tuckson.

[CtrlAltDel]

Here are some actual ideas:

Tuckson, AZ
Spocain, WA

I am on board with these. Tucson took me years to get right. It's too close to Tuscan (as in Tuscan Garden), and for whatever reason it's almost impossible to differentiate between 'cs' and the more common 'sc' at a quick glance. The latter is also a much more natural pronunciation that blends and rolls off the tongue much easier. Adding a 'k' to make that '-ck' sound stand out would be great.

Unless, I'm being whooshed, I'm not sure I follow. There is no "ck" sound in Tucson.

The 'c' makes the 'ck' sound.

In the actual English pronunciation of Tucson, though, the "c" does not make a "ck" sound, but rather an "ss" sound. It's "too-sahn."

[vdeane]

Here are some actual ideas:

Tuckson, AZ
Spocain, WA

I am on board with these. Tucson took me years to get right. It's too close to Tuscan (as in Tuscan Garden), and for whatever reason it's almost impossible to differentiate between 'cs' and the more common 'sc' at a quick glance. The latter is also a much more natural pronunciation that blends and rolls off the tongue much easier. Adding a 'k' to make that '-ck' sound stand out would be great.

Unless, I'm being whooshed, I'm not sure I follow. There is no "ck" sound in Tucson.

The 'c' makes the 'ck' sound.

In the actual English pronunciation of Tucson, though, the "c" does not make a "ck" sound, but rather an "ss" sound. It's "too-sahn."

No it doesn't.  The s is already there.  The c is just silent, hence Tucson not being pronounced as it's spelled.

[CtrlAltDel]

Here are some actual ideas:

Tuckson, AZ
Spocain, WA

I am on board with these. Tucson took me years to get right. It's too close to Tuscan (as in Tuscan Garden), and for whatever reason it's almost impossible to differentiate between 'cs' and the more common 'sc' at a quick glance. The latter is also a much more natural pronunciation that blends and rolls off the tongue much easier. Adding a 'k' to make that '-ck' sound stand out would be great.

Unless, I'm being whooshed, I'm not sure I follow. There is no "ck" sound in Tucson.

The 'c' makes the 'ck' sound.

In the actual English pronunciation of Tucson, though, the "c" does not make a "ck" sound, but rather an "ss" sound. It's "too-sahn."

No it doesn't.  The s is already there.  The c is just silent, hence Tucson not being pronounced as it's spelled.

I agree that Tucson isn't pronounced like it's spelled, but the "ck" doesn't make it better, which is why I'm wondering if I'm being whooshed.

[Rothman]

We're going from entertaining to excruciating.

Who's got two thumbs and is all for Tuckson?  Rothman.

[US 89]

That's ecks-ckruciating to you.

[Rothman]

That's ecks-ckruciating to you.

Let's make that change, too.

[webny99]

The 'c' makes the 'ck' sound.

In the actual English pronunciation of Tucson, though, the "c" does not make a "ck" sound, but rather an "ss" sound. It's "too-sahn."

No it doesn't.  The s is already there.  The c is just silent, hence Tucson not being pronounced as it's spelled.

I agree that Tucson isn't pronounced like it's spelled, but the "ck" doesn't make it better, which is why I'm wondering if I'm being whooshed.

On second thought... I may have overthought this and taken kphoger too seriously.

Both Tuckson and Spokain emphasize the mistaken pronunciation, not the actual one.

[MikieTimT]

Arkansas...

[kphoger]

On second thought... I may have overthought this and taken kphoger too seriously.

Both Tuckson and Spokain emphasize the mistaken pronunciation, not the actual one.

Correct.  Although I actually typed "Spocain", but same difference.

Should be [not]Two Sonn[/not] and Spocann.

[mgk920]

Here are some actual ideas:

Tuckson, AZ
Spocain, WA

I am on board with these. Tucson took me years to get right. It's too close to Tuscan (as in Tuscan Garden), and for whatever reason it's almost impossible to differentiate between 'cs' and the more common 'sc' at a quick glance. The latter is also a much more natural pronunciation that blends and rolls off the tongue much easier. Adding a 'k' to make that '-ck' sound stand out would be great.

Unless, I'm being whooshed, I'm not sure I follow. There is no "ck" sound in Tucson.

'TOO-san', 'Toosan'



Mike

[golden eagle]

I just recently found out that Peabody, MA is pronounced Pea-ba-dee. I'll think of that pronunciation when I think of the Peabody Hotel in Memphis or watching Mr. Peabody & Sherman on the Rocky & Bullwinkle cartoons.

[Brandon]

Worcester MA

Exactly.  If you're going to pronounce it "Woostah", spell it "Woostah", not wor-ce-ster (and for God's sake, pronounce the frigging r).

[hotdogPi]

(and for God's sake, pronounce the frigging r).

This is dependent on local accent. Personally, I don't drop R at the end of words, so I pronounce the final letter in Worcester.

If all spoken by the same person, Wooster OH, Worcester MA, and Worcester UK should all be pronounced identically, notwithstanding your proposal to change it.

[Rothman]

(and for God's sake, pronounce the frigging r).

This is dependent on local accent. Personally, I don't drop R at the end of words, so I pronounce the final letter in Worcester.

If all spoken by the same person, Wooster OH, Worcester MA, and Worcester UK should all be pronounced identically, notwithstanding your proposal to change it.

I had a teacher in elementary school in MA that would take all the unpronounced Rs and stick them in other places, such as when he's ask us to "draw(er) a picture."  Found the mixture of both not pronouncing and adding Rs to be somewhat rare in MA.

[CtrlAltDel]

On second thought... I may have overthought this and taken kphoger too seriously.

Both Tuckson and Spokain emphasize the mistaken pronunciation, not the actual one.

Ah, so I was being whooshed. Now back to your regularly scheduled thread. 

[Brandon]

(and for God's sake, pronounce the frigging r).

This is dependent on local accent. Personally, I don't drop R at the end of words, so I pronounce the final letter in Worcester.

If all spoken by the same person, Wooster OH, Worcester MA, and Worcester UK should all be pronounced identically, notwithstanding your proposal to change it.

They'd all sound different.  One is obviously "Woo-ster".  The other two, to a speaker of Inland North, look like "wor-ces-ster".

[SD Mapman]

Don't get me started on the botched pronunciations of French names in the US.

Since you're from Quebec, we won't make fun of you when we ask how to pronounce Pierre, SD (we make fun of everyone else).
Honest question, how would you pronounce Belle Fourche? We pronounce it like "Bell Foosh" which I think is closer to the correct French but I never took any French in school.

My personal annoyance: Norfolk, NE (should be Norfork, started out as "North Fork" (of some sort) but the post office misread it into Norfolk and they never bothered to fix it).

[Urban Prairie Schooner]

Natchitoches - pronounced "NACK-uh-tish"

[freebrickproductions]

My personal annoyance: Norfolk, NE (should be Norfork, started out as "North Fork" (of some sort) but the post office misread it into Norfolk and they never bothered to fix it).

Just like Arab, AL.

[7/8]

I had a teacher in elementary school in MA that would take all the unpronounced Rs and stick them in other places, such as when he's ask us to "draw(er) a picture."  Found the mixture of both not pronouncing and adding Rs to be somewhat rare in MA.

This is called "intrusive R". I hear used by English people on TV.

The phenomenon of intrusive R is an overgeneralizing reinterpretation of linking R into an r-insertion rule that affects any word that ends in the non-high vowels /ə/, /ɪə/, /ɑː/, or /ɔː/; when such a word is closely followed by another word beginning in a vowel sound, an /r/ is inserted between them, even when no final /r/ was historically present. For example, the phrase bacteria in it would be pronounced /bækˈtɪəriərˌɪnɪt/. The epenthetic /r/ can be inserted to prevent hiatus (two consecutive vowel sounds).