Towns that are not pronounced as they’re written

[roadman65]

Bernards and Bernardsville in NJ seem to indicate that the name is the typical Bernard male name, but both pronounced as Bur-nerd and Bur-nerdville respectively.

Then Reading, PA is spelled like "Reading a book"  but is pronounced as the same as Redding in CA.

Houston Street in NYC,  though not a town, is pronounced House Ton and not like the city in Texas.  Alright not like someone else won't derail this later.

Newark, DE is pronounced New Ark, Delaware.


Town, BTW, means any incorporated community or non incorporated for those to use.

[WillWeaverRVA]

Buena Vista, VA is probably the most obvious example in Virginia - it's pronounced "byoona vista".

[Big John]

Worcester, MA - "Wooster"

[kphoger]

Doesn't this topic assume English is a phonetic language?  It isn't.

There's no real reason Reading shouldn't be pronounced red-ding.  I mean, it just rhymes with breading, dreading, and treading.

But, having said that, my submission is Norfolk, Nebraska.  Pronounced nor-fork.

[NWI_Irish96]

Place names that come from foreign languages are pronounced differently "as they're written" in their native language than in English.

Versailles in both Kentucky and Indiana are pronounced as they're written in English but not in French.

Pulaski and Kosciusko counties in Indiana are not pronounced as they're written in either English or Polish.

[rlb2024]

Natchitoches, LA -- pronounced "Nak-it-tush".

[hotdogPi]

Peabody, MA: accent on the first syllable; o is a schwa
Leominster, MA: three syllables, but the one in the UK has only two (and phonetic would indicate four)
Woburn, MA: o is pronounced like in the o in "prove"

[NWI_Irish96]

I had to pick up my daughter at a friend's house on Leicester Street. Everybody who lives on the street calls it Lie-Chester and if I hadn't started watching Premier League soccer I'd have never known better.

[kphoger]

One that's bothered me before is Zeigler, Illinois.  It's named after Levi Ziegler Leiter (co-founder of Marshall Field & Co.), but notice that the vowels are switched around.  I don't know why that is.  But in German, ei and ie are pronounced differently.  Thus, the name Zeigler should be prounced ts-eye-glerr instead of ts-ee-glerr.  But, of course, the town in Illinois is pronounced the way it isn't spelled.

[roadman65]

Place names that come from foreign languages are pronounced differently "as they're written" in their native language than in English.

Versailles in both Kentucky and Indiana are pronounced as they're written in English but not in French.

Pulaski and Kosciusko counties in Indiana are not pronounced as they're written in either English or Polish.

My parents both of Polish Heritage would pronounce Pulaski as Puh Lah Skee, and Kosciusko as Cuh Chis Coe.


Also Bogota, NJ is not pronounced as it is in Columbia. It rhymes with Pagoda.

[Takumi]

Buena Vista, VA is probably the most obvious example in Virginia - it's pronounced "byoona vista".

That and Staunton with its silent U.

[MATraveler128]

Haverhill, Massachusetts looks like it should be pronounced Haver - Hill, but it's actually pronounced HAY - vril.

[webny99]

Many town and city names in the UK, although it might be partly the accent. Reading is pronounced "redding", for example, and anything ending in -gate is pronounced "-git".

[kphoger]

Reading is pronounced "redding", for example

As I said earlier:

There's no real reason Reading shouldn't be pronounced red-ding.  I mean, it just rhymes with breading, dreading, and treading.

[CtrlAltDel]

Houston Street in NYC,  though not a town, is pronounced House Ton and not like the city in Texas.  Alright not like someone else won’t derail this later.

This pronunciation is the one that's pronounced like it's written, as evidenced by your transcription. It's the city in Texas that isn't, by giving the "ou" a very uncommon "yoo" sound.

[kphoger]

Houston Street in NYC,  though not a town, is pronounced House Ton and not like the city in Texas.  Alright not like someone else won't derail this later.

This pronunciation is the one that's pronounced like it's written, as evidenced by your transcription. It's the city in Texas that isn't, by giving the "ou" a very uncommon "yoo" sound.

Yeah, I'm struggling to come up with a single word other than Houston where the hou is pronounced as hew.

[NWI_Irish96]

Houston Street in NYC,  though not a town, is pronounced House Ton and not like the city in Texas.  Alright not like someone else won't derail this later.

This pronunciation is the one that's pronounced like it's written, as evidenced by your transcription. It's the city in Texas that isn't, by giving the "ou" a very uncommon "yoo" sound.

Yeah, I'm struggling to come up with a single word other than Houston where the hou is pronounced as hew.

House and hound are the most common words starting with hou and both are pronounced like the street in Manhattan and not the city in Texas.

[Dirt Roads]

Buena Vista, VA is probably the most obvious example in Virginia - it's pronounced "byoona vista".

Right next door is the town of Natural Bridge, which oldtimer locals pronounced as nat-choo-larr bridge. 

[GaryV]

Houston Street in NYC,  though not a town, is pronounced House Ton and not like the city in Texas.  Alright not like someone else won't derail this later.

This pronunciation is the one that's pronounced like it's written, as evidenced by your transcription. It's the city in Texas that isn't, by giving the "ou" a very uncommon "yoo" sound.

Maybe not with a leading H, but there are lots of words with OU in them that are pronounced "oo". St. Louis for one - which of course is pronounced differently in English vs French.


Yeah, I'm struggling to come up with a single word other than Houston where the hou is pronounced as hew.

[Dirt Roads]

Houston Street in NYC,  though not a town, is pronounced House Ton and not like the city in Texas.  Alright not like someone else won't derail this later.

This pronunciation is the one that's pronounced like it's written, as evidenced by your transcription. It's the city in Texas that isn't, by giving the "ou" a very uncommon "yoo" sound.

Yeah, I'm struggling to come up with a single word other than Houston where the hou is pronounced as hew.

House and hound are the most common words starting with hou and both are pronounced like the street in Manhattan and not the city in Texas.

Sorry to pile on, but the town in West Virginia is pronounced the same way as the big city in Texas, but spelled much differently "Hugheston".  Which of course, is not pronounced the way that it is written (but most certainly everyone here can tell how to pronounce it by its spelling).

[kphoger]

Houston Street in NYC,  though not a town, is pronounced House Ton and not like the city in Texas.  Alright not like someone else won't derail this later.

This pronunciation is the one that's pronounced like it's written, as evidenced by your transcription. It's the city in Texas that isn't, by giving the "ou" a very uncommon "yoo" sound.

Yeah, I'm struggling to come up with a single word other than Houston where the hou is pronounced as hew.

Maybe not with a leading H, but there are lots of words with OU in them that are pronounced "oo". St. Louis for one - which of course is pronounced differently in English vs French.

(Fixed your formatting, because [Preview].)

The "oo" sound is not the sound |CtrlAltDel| mentioned.  Nor is it the sound I mentioned.  The word hew is pronounced hyo͞o.

The "oo" sound is not the sound of the ou in Houston.  To put it another way, I'm betting you don't say L-yoo-iss, nor do you say Hoo-ss-ton.

[kphoger]

(but most certainly everyone here can tell how to pronounce it by its spelling)

hug Hesston ?   

[CtrlAltDel]

(but most certainly everyone here can tell how to pronounce it by its spelling)

hug Hesston ?   

Well, maybe not everyone. 

[webny99]

Reading is pronounced "redding", for example

As I said earlier:

There's no real reason Reading shouldn't be pronounced red-ding.  I mean, it just rhymes with breading, dreading, and treading.

The word "read" can be pronounced "reed" or "red" depending on context. Both are sometimes correct.

That isn't the case with "reading"; the city name is the only exception.

[kphoger]

So...  In order to conform to your expectations, the name Reading should be able to be pronounced two different ways, depending on its grammatical verbal tense?