How do you pronounce these city names?

[Zeffy]

A discussion of the forum recently got me wondering: With all the dialects and accents we have in the world, certain city names that look simple to pronounce are pronounced differently. And some city names are just hard enough to make you wonder:  .

So, the purpose of this thread is to post how you pronounce city names posted by yourself or others. I'll start:

1. Trenton - Treh-in, or alternatively, Tren-tin
2. Schenectady - Scha-nec-tah-dee
3. Detroit - Duh-troy
4. Richmond - Rich-min
5. Poughkeepsie -  Poo-kip-see
6. Louisville - Loo-ee-vill
7. Chicago - Sha-cah-go
8. Newark - New-irk

[roadman65]

New Orlins for those in SE LA.
Deetroit for native Michiganders.
Kiss a me for tourists in Florida for Kissimmee, FL.  Even though pronounced as Kiss sim mee in reality.
Perth Amboy, NJ is often pronounced as Pewrth Amboy by some New Jersey residents.
New Yawk if you are a native Brooklyn resident for New York.
Bah-ston for people who live in Beantown.
Bogata, NJ is not pronounced the same way as Columbians call their city with the same name.  It is Boh Go Ta in Bergen County, NJ.

[corco]

Coeur d'Alene - Core-duh-lane
Boise- Boy see (NOT Boyzee)
Pend O'Reille, Ponderay, Pondera are all pronounced the same (Ponderay)
Moscow, ID - Moss-coe

3. Detroit - Duh-troy

What

[sammi]

If I may do local placenames?

Toronto:
    The second T is usually dropped. Tuh-ron-oh.
    Sometimes even the first O can be dropped. Tron-oh. (I know Rob Ford uses this pronunciation.)

Etobicoke:
    The K must be silent.

Vaughan:
    One syllable. I managed to make the mistake of pronouncing the "gh" the first time.

Mississauga:
    Miss-iss-saw-guh. But somehow every Filipino I know pronounces it like *Mississaga.

[vtk]

Ohio placenames:

Lima: LYE muh, like the bean, not the peruvian city
Bellefontaine: bell FOUNTan
Lancaster: LANK uh stir (not LANG caster or LAN caster)
Gahanna: guh HANna
Gallipolis: GAL uh poLISS (I think) I was wrong apparently, see next post
New Albany: new ALLbenee
Wooster: WOO stir (rhymes with rooster)
Greenwich: GREEN witch
Findlay: FINdlee or FINlee
South Charleston: south CHUCK
Chillicothe: CHILL uh CAWTH ee
Bucyrus: byoo SYE russ
Tuscarawas: TUSS cah ROARus
Maumee: maw MEE
Newark: NEWirk
Newark, Ohio: NERKah HIya

[SP Cook]

As you would suspect, I have a very thick Southern/Central Appalachian accent. 

As to WV and nearby places, as you would suspect:

Huntington.  HUN-ing-tun.   (No local pronounces the first T sound.  Even the TV people, who are mostly non-natives and don't have the accent, quickly learn to drop the T.)

Morgantown.  MOR-gen town.  (not MOR-gun or MOR-gan)

Welch.  WEL-ch.  (Does not rhyme with the word for a person from Wales, which is pronounced wel-sh)

Elkins.  el-KINS (not el-KUNS)

Gallipolis, Ohio.  GAL-uh-po-lees (such that the last part rhymes with the thing a landlord and tenant have, other pronounce GAL-uh-polees, such that the last part rhymes with another word for cop.  oh-HI-uh. 

Wheeling.  As with most any ing ending, it takes effort to pronoune it "ING".  Most times I and most will say "UN".

Pikeville.  PIKEVUL.  One syllable.  Any ville is pronounced VUL, not VIL.

[Big John]

Shawano - SHAW no (2nd "a" is not pronounced)
Allouez - Al O way
Oconomowoc - o CA no mo wok

[briantroutman]

A few off the top of my head for Pennsylvania (in no particular order):

Uwchland: YOU-klind
Schoenersville: SHAY-ners-ville
Bellefonte: BELL-font
DuBois: DU-boys
Conyngham: CUN-ning-ham
Lancaster: LANK-is-ter (not LAN-cas-ter)
Macungie: ma-KUN-gee (soft G)
Elysburg: EE-lees-burg
Ligonier: LIG-a-near
Aliquippa: al-a-KWIP-a
Williamsport: WIL-yum-sport (if you separate the S and P, making it "williams port" , you're definitely not a local)
Throop: TROOP
Tunkhannock: tun-KAN-nik
Kittanning: kit-TAN-ning
Salladasburg: SAL-a-days-burg

and finally
Wilkes-Barre: I can't find agreement on this one.
My wife was born there, and she says "WILKS-bear" , as if it were one word (like wunderbar) . Probably the most common is "WILKS BEAR-ee"  used on TV and radio almost exclusively, but I also hear "WILKS-bear-a"  and "WILKS-bar"  used across the region.

[Mr. Matté]

At my work where we have a mix of North Jersey, South Jersey, and Pennsylvania, I've been asking something along the lines of "How do you pronounce the county south of Camden?" The South Jersey people call it "Glaw-ster," I and North Jersey people call it "Glow-ster," and one person said "What is the county south of Camden?"

[kendancy66]

Yadkinville (NC)    Yak-in-vul

[1995hoo]

Bumpass, Virginia–like "bump us," as if you were on an amusement park bumper car

Buena Vista, Virginia–for some reason, the first word is "BYOU-nuh."

Rio Road in Charlottesville, Virginia–"RYE-o" (like the bread); if you pronounce it like the name of that city in Brazil you mark yourself as an outsider. The Rio Hill Shopping Center is pronounced the same way.

Louisville–"loo-uh-ville" (no long "e" sound)

Penistone, UK–"PENN-is-tun" (not what it looks like)

Tazewell, Virginia–"TAZ-well" with a short "a," not like "don't taze me, bro."

The historical Virginia name name Taliaferro (which was also the name of my brother's first-year dorm at William & Mary) is pronounced like "Toliver" (rhymes with "Oliver") except in reference to musician Crystal Taliaferro (who has played with Springsteen and Billy Joel over the years and pronounces it like it looks).

People I know from Roanoke say it like "RAH-noke," but I don't know anyone from anywhere else who says it that way.

My relatives from New York all insist the capital of North Carolina is named "RAW-lee" instead of "RAH-lee." My mother's mother once told me I was pronouncing it incorrectly and then got mad at me when I pointed out I lived 20 miles from Raleigh and thus knew how to pronounce it.

The word "New" in "New Jersey" is ordinarily silent (e.g., the Jersey Turnpike; "my cousin lives in Jersey not far from Red Bank"; etc.).

Houston, Texas–"YOU-stun," the "H" is silent (also silent in words like "humid"). Compare to General Zod, who said it "HOO-stun" ("So this is Planet Hooston") in Superman II.



Regarding Wilkes-Barre, I've always said "Wilks-Bar" because my father's mother grew up there and said it that way and that was good enough authority for me (and yes, I understand this contradicts my comment above about my other grandmother, but my father's mother was the smarter of my two grandmothers and I'd put more stock in her opinions).

[Roadrunner75]

At my work where we have a mix of North Jersey, South Jersey, and Pennsylvania, I've been asking something along the lines of "How do you pronounce the county south of Camden?" The South Jersey people call it "Glaw-ster," I and North Jersey people call it "Glow-ster," and one person said "What is the county south of Camden?"

As someone born and raised in Gloucester County, it is definitely "Glaw-ster". 

Just over the border in Atlantic County, there is the town of "Buena" and nearby is "Buena Vista Township".   You might expect them to be pronounced "Bwaynah", but you'd be wrong.  Locals call it "Byoonah". 

[pianocello]

Deetroit for native Michiganders.

Maybe native Michiganders in the Detroit area, but everyone I know from Michigan (mainly Lansing area and west) pronounces it "de-TROIT".

Milan, IL is "MY-lan" rather than the original Italian.

Nevada, IA is pronounced "Ne-VAY-duh," distinct from the state. (by the way, how do you pronounce the state name? I've always used an "a" as in "cat" for the second syllable, even though I know the original Spanish is "a" as in "father")

[freebrickproductions]

Oneonta, AL: On-ee-on-tuh
Opelika, AL: Oh-pe-lie-kuh
Cotaco, AL: Ko-tay-ko (although I often pronounce it as Ko-ta-ko)

[golden eagle]

Versailles, KY: ver-sales
Milan, TN: my-lin
Lebanon, TN: leb-a-nin
Gulfport, MS: don't say "golf"
Houston County, GA: house-ton
LaPlace, LA: luh-plos
Boutte, LA: boo-TEE
Lafayette, LA: la-fe-yet
Lafayette County, MS: luh-fay-yet

[roadman65]

La Jolla, CA is pronounced La Hoya. 

Funny thing is I heard the name all these years and remember traveling through it back in 88, but I never knew that both places were the same.

Houma, LA is pronounced home-uh.

[SidS1045]

Bah-ston for people who live in Beantown.

No, no, a thousand times no.  No one from Boston pronounces it that way.  It's BAWS-ton.

A few other Massachusetts oddities:

--Our second largest city is Worcester (NOTE: No H.), pronounced WUS-ta by the locals.
--Leicester:  LES-ta
--Leominster:  LEM-ins-ta
--Woburn:  WOO-bun
--Needham:  NEED-um
--Dedham:  DED-um
--Stoneham:  STONE-um
--Stoughton:  STOWT-un
--Peabody:  PEE-buh-dee
--Quincy:  QUIN-zee

There are probably two dozen or so others I can't think of at the moment.

[The Nature Boy]

I'll add some NH towns:

Lebanon, NH - Leb-a-nin (identical to Golden Eagle's TN example)
Concord, NH - Con-kerd (with the local accent, it comes across as con-kid though)
Canaan, NH - Kay-nin

[gonealookin]

(by the way, how do you pronounce the state name [Nevada]? I've always used an "a" as in "cat" for the second syllable, even though I know the original Spanish is "a" as in "father")

"a" as in "cat" is correct.  Here's a Youtube tutorial.

Verdi, NV:  second syllable rhymes with "eye".
Genoa, NV:  juh-NO-uh

[cl94]

New York has more than I could ever mention:

Hauppauge: Happ-aig, "aig" similar to "aid"
Wantagh: Won-taw
Chili: Cheye-lye
Bergen: Burr-gin
Rensselaer: Rehn-suh-lure
Massapequa- Mass-uh-pee-kwah
Copiague: Co-payg
Chautauqua: Shuh-taw-kwah
Steuben (county): Stew-bahn (even though it's named after the general who pronounced his name "stew-ben" as one would expect)

And many more small towns (plus the aforementioned Schenectady).

[Brandon]

Deetroit for native Michiganders.

Not in the least.  Only ignorant Chicagoans call it that.

It's pronounced deh-TROIT.

Here's a few for you:

Houghton, MI: Ho-ton
Charlotte, MI: sure-LOTT
Marseilles, IL: Mar-SALES (total bastardization of the original French)

[hbelkins]

Elkins.  el-KINS (not el-KUNS)

That would seem to indicate that the emphasis is on the last syllable.

My name is pronounced EL-kins, with emphasis on the first syllable. And my family is from West Virginia (Mud River in Lincoln County, to be precise).

As for Kentucky:

Louisville -- luhl-vull or lul-vull
Yosemite -- yo-suh-mite
Monticello -- mon-ti-sell-oh
Versailles -- ver-sales
Beattyville -- bate-uh-vull
Irvine -- ervin
Ravenna -rah-ven-uh
Berea -- buh-ree-uh
Lancaster -lan-cuss-ter
Falmouth -- foul-muth
Paducah -- puh-dew-cuh
Cadiz -- kay-diz
Inez -- eye-nez (emphasis on "eye," as opposed to people's names around here, which are pronounced with the emphasis on the "nez."

Deetroit for native Michiganders.

Not in the least.  Only ignorant Chicagoans call it that.

And Paul Stanley.

[Molandfreak]

Nevada, IA is pronounced "Ne-VAY-duh," distinct from the state. (by the way, how do you pronounce the state name? I've always used an "a" as in "cat" for the second syllable, even though I know the original Spanish is "a" as in "father")

Nevada should always be pronounced with an "a" as in "cat." Same with Colorado. No one from those states say the latter, so the former should be the standard nationwide... Might as well say "mohn-TAH-na" (Montana) or "TAY-hass" (Texas) if you want to be true to the Spanish pronunciations... Oregon should be pronounced "OR-i-gin," too.

[jakeroot]

The Native American / Aboriginal names are quite rampant in the PNW:

Washington:

- Puyallup: Pyoo-ALL-up
- Tulalip: Too-lay-lip
- Sequim: Sqwim (the "q" makes a "ck" sound).
- Spokane: Spo-CAN

British Columbia:

- Agassiz: ag-uh-see
- Osoyoos: O-soo-yuss
- Tsawwassen: tah-WASS-en
- Skidegate: Skid-ih-git (very English IMO)
- Pouce Coupe: Poos-Coo-PAY
- Quesnel: Kwe-NELL

[jeffandnicole]

Newark: NEWirk
Newark, Ohio: NERKah HIya

For Newark, NJ, it's New-irk.
For Newark, DE, it's New-Arc

Sewell, NJ: Rhymes with Jewel.  It's not Sea-well.

Philadelphia, PA: Phil-lee