Unique local pronunciations for place names

[wxfree]

In Texas:
Joshua is Josh uh way (the younger people don't say it that way now)
Eldorado is El duh ray duh
Leakey is Lakey
New Braunfels is New Braunsfels or New Braunsfel to many people, though not accepted locally
the Pedernales River is the Perden alice
Italy is It lee
Marathon is Mare uh th'n, but Alpine is Al pine
Balmorhea is Bal morray
Miami is Mye amm uh
McLean is McLane
Mexia is (usually) Muh hay uh

[TheHighwayMan3561]

One more from Minnesota:

Mahtowa (mat-o-wa). I thought for the longest time it was "mah-TAO-wa".

There's a town called "Beroun" but I've never heard its name said so I'm not sure if it's pronounced "baron" or "ber-OON".

[Molandfreak]

There's a town called "Beroun" but I've never heard its name said so I'm not sure if it's pronounced "baron" or "ber-OON".

ber-OWN.

[roadman65]

The real way to say Kissimmee in Florida as I am sure tourists are calling it Kiss a me LOL!

[empirestate]

How about ubiquitous mispronunciations? "Worchester", MA–I don't know where people insist on finding an "H" in the spelling of "Worcester"! Or "Lane Caster", PA–anyone who's spent time there (despite the assertions of a certain TV journalist I saw recently) knows "Lancaster" rhymes with "prankster".

Or ubiquitous misspellings? "Binghampton", NY. Who is this Binghamp fellow, and why would they name a city after him?

[NE2]

Who is this Binghamp fellow, and why would they name a city after him?

Maybe he's buried here: http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=41.71925,-89.31078&z=15&t=T

[agentsteel53]

How about ubiquitous mispronunciations? "Worchester", MA–I don't know where people insist on finding an "H" in the spelling of "Worcester"! Or "Lane Caster", PA–anyone who's spent time there (despite the assertions of a certain TV journalist I saw recently) knows "Lancaster" rhymes with "prankster".

I would claim that "Woosta" and "Lankster" are mispronunciations, themselves.  it's a matter of "what is accepted by fiat", as opposed to "what conforms to the general rules of English".

[huskeroadgeek]

Maryland: 


Taneytown is TAWneetown.

Taney County in Missouri is pronounced either TAY-nee or TAN-ee. I've heard the former most often for the county, but Lake Taneycomo seems to often be pronounced like the latter.
One of my pet peeves locally in Lincoln and a way to tell later arrivals from longer residents is the pronunciation of the unincorporated town of Cheney and the street named Old Cheney Rd. as "CHAY-nee", instead of "CHEE-nee", which is correct. This undoubtedly comes from the pronunciation of former Vice-President Dick Cheney's name as "CHAY-nee"(who was born in Lincoln and whose name was originally pronounced "CHEE-nee"). I believe Cheney, Washington is also pronounced "CHEE-nee".

[Brandon]

How about ubiquitous mispronunciations? "Worchester", MA–I don't know where people insist on finding an "H" in the spelling of "Worcester"! Or "Lane Caster", PA–anyone who's spent time there (despite the assertions of a certain TV journalist I saw recently) knows "Lancaster" rhymes with "prankster".

I would claim that "Woosta" and "Lankster" are mispronunciations, themselves.  it's a matter of "what is accepted by fiat", as opposed to "what conforms to the general rules of English".

English is a funny language.  It has rules and routinely breaks them.  It also pirates words from other languages and bastardizes them while leaving some here and there with their original spelling and pronunciation.  And two different dialects may be as mutually intelligible as Spanish and French.

[empirestate]

How about ubiquitous mispronunciations? "Worchester", MA–I don't know where people insist on finding an "H" in the spelling of "Worcester"! Or "Lane Caster", PA–anyone who's spent time there (despite the assertions of a certain TV journalist I saw recently) knows "Lancaster" rhymes with "prankster".

I would claim that "Woosta" and "Lankster" are mispronunciations, themselves.  it's a matter of "what is accepted by fiat", as opposed to "what conforms to the general rules of English".

Well, conforms with English in general, or with English place-names? A quick survey of toponyms in actual England would quickly show that surprising pronunciations are more the rule than exception, and thus no longer surprising. In fact, I've been known to successfully guess the pronunciation of an unfamiliar place-name based on rules I've gleaned from ones like Worcester and Lancaster; and closer to home, I've certainly noticed some definable rules in Upstate NY pronunciations as well.

(One example: In non-Indian names, initial vowels, particularly "A", tend to be short: Albion, Avon, Almond, which all begin with "A" as in "cat". But medial and terminal[!] vowels, particularly "A", tend to be long: Nunda, Ischua, Pulaski, Chili, which rhyme with "Sunday", "fish away" and, roughly, "The last guy" and "jai alai".)

[agentsteel53]

Nunda, Ischua, Pulaski, Chili

those first two aren't native names?  Pulaski is Polish and I certainly know approximately how that sounds in the original Polish.

terminating "Chili" in a long I is just ... stupid.

[Brandon]

Since when did "Pulaski" have a long A?  Around Chicago, it's pol-lah-skee.

[agentsteel53]

Since when did "Pulaski" have a long A?  Around Chicago, it's pol-lah-skee.

similar to the original Polish; the middle syllable rhymes approximately with "bar"; though it is shorter, more like the one in "Bart".

however, I'm pretty sure the skyway in New Jersey has the middle syllable rhyme with "cat".  (Steve?)

(wait, that is short A.  long A is the sound in "train".  then what is the sound in "bar"?  long schwa??)

we won't get into the Polish "l", which is really a "ł" and pronounced closer to English "w".

[cpzilliacus]

Since when did "Pulaski" have a long A?  Around Chicago, it's pol-lah-skee.

U.S. 40 between Baltimore City and the Maryland/Delaware border (and across the line in to Delaware as far as its junction with U.S. 13) is named the Pulaski Highway.  Always pronounced Pull-ah-ski.

Added on edit:  I do not claim to know what the correct way to pronounce Casimir Pulaski's name in Polish is, but I do  know that there has long been a substantial Polish-American population in and around Baltimore.  If Pull-ah-ski was very wrongly pronounced, I would think that the speakers of Polish in and near Charm City might have complained.

[Big John]

Pulaski, NY is pronounced Pul-as-sky

[empirestate]

Since when did "Pulaski" have a long A?  Around Chicago, it's pol-lah-skee.

It doesn't; guess it's not such a good example of the long medial vowel, which is a less consistent rule. It's there as a long final vowel specimen.

[SidS1045]

I would claim that "Woosta" and "Lankster" are mispronunciations, themselves.  it's a matter of "what is accepted by fiat", as opposed to "what conforms to the general rules of English".

The only response I can think of is from the musical "My Fair Lady."  In the song "Why Can't A Woman Be More Like A Man?" Professor Higgins refers to the English language:  "In America, they haven't used it in years."

And "Woosta" is NOT how the locals say it (I lived there for 21 years).  There's someone driving around Worcester with a vanity plate "WUSTA."  That's more like it (WUSS-tah).

[elsmere241]

Pulaski, NY is pronounced Pul-as-sky

As are (with the emphasis on the middle syllable) Pulaski Highway in Delaware, and Casimir Pulaski Elementary School in Wilmington, DE.

[agentsteel53]

And "Woosta" is NOT how the locals say it (I lived there for 21 years).  There's someone driving around Worcester with a vanity plate "WUSTA."  That's more like it (WUSS-tah).

yeah, "oo" as in "book".  I've always seen it spelled "woosta" or even "woostah" when people are making fun of the Boston accent.  "pahk, the cah in Hahvahd yahd" and that kind of thing...

[1995hoo]

The "woosta" pronunciation is almost certainly derived from the same origin that gives us Worcestershire sauce (wusta-sheer). I assume it's British. They "compress" a lot of pronunciations like that.

[hotdogPi]

Anything that ends in "cester" is strange:

Worcester, Gloucester, Leicester

[english si]

Cirencester is the best - even the locals have gone with a more 'like how its spelt' pronunciation. It was 'sister' or 'sisister', now it is 'sirensester'. Or, more usually, the short form of 'siren'.

Towcester is 'toaster'. But that makes sense, as toa is how you would pronounce 'tow' (pull things along - not that I can think of another meaning) anyway - rhyming with 'bow' that is a knot in shoe laces, rather than 'bow' that is the front of a ship.

Americans have a lot of trouble with the -cesters, but Brits have no problem at all - they are all consistently 'ster' (except Ciren-). The joke is that lie-ces-ter square was named to rile up American tourists (it is pronounced lester square). American's can't even pronounce it as-spelt: Lei is not the same as Lie, now is it?

Loughborough is brilliant - the midlands university town is 'Luffbra' and Loughborough Junction railway station in South London is 'Luffbura'. The station is often nicknamed after poor pronunciation attempts (apparently some get so flustered that Junction goes wrong). To be fair - there are two 'ough's there and it is the letter group with the most pronounciations (and uses two different ones in the word). /ʌf/, /ɒf~ɔːf/, /ɔːθ/, /aʊ/, /oʊ/, /ɔː/, /uː/, /ə/, /ʌp/, /ɒk/ and /ɒx/ = 11 (10 UK English, 6 US English).

[pianocello]

Loughborough is brilliant - the midlands university town is 'Luffbra' and Loughborough Junction railway station in South London is 'Luffbura'. The station is often nicknamed after poor pronunciation attempts (apparently some get so flustered that Junction goes wrong). To be fair - there are two 'ough's there and it is the letter group with the most pronounciations (and uses two different ones in the word). /ʌf/, /ɒf~ɔːf/, /ɔːθ/, /aʊ/, /oʊ/, /ɔː/, /uː/, /ə/, /ʌp/, /ɒk/ and /ɒx/ = 11 (10 UK English, 6 US English).

Interesting. I never would have guessed that. On I-55 in St. Louis, there's an exit for Loughborough Ave. When we went past it on a church trip, my pastor, who lived in St. Louis for a few years, pronounced it "LO-bo-ro". The two "-ough's" were pronounced the same.

[empirestate]

Loughborough is brilliant - the midlands university town is 'Luffbra' and Loughborough Junction railway station in South London is 'Luffbura'. The station is often nicknamed after poor pronunciation attempts (apparently some get so flustered that Junction goes wrong). To be fair - there are two 'ough's there and it is the letter group with the most pronounciations (and uses two different ones in the word). /ʌf/, /ɒf~ɔːf/, /ɔːθ/, /aʊ/, /oʊ/, /ɔː/, /uː/, /ə/, /ʌp/, /ɒk/ and /ɒx/ = 11 (10 UK English, 6 US English).

Any Monty Python fan worth his salt knows "Loughborough". Hell, from them I learned more about not only British history and culture, but worldwide, than from anywhere in my own formal education.

[formulanone]

...yet more reminders that while Americans spell words in English improperly, the British truly destroy it by pronunciation.