Unique local pronunciations for place names

[ClarkE]

Quite a few in Kentucky. For some places, longer town names are abbreviated by taking out the middle syllable, for example, Barbourville sounds like Bar-vull. 

As for French names, Monticello is mon-ti-sello, Versailles is ver-sales.

Apparently Loyall, KY is pronounced like "lull."

Hindman has a long I, so the Hind rhymes with mind.

There's a small town near me called Fisty, but it's pronounced "fiesty" and the neighboring town is Dwarf, so the fire department is the Fisty-Dwarf Volunteer Fire Department. It's just fun to say. 

I'm sure there's many more in Kentucky too.

[Jordanah1]

Wisconsin:

-What is the EASIST and FASTEST way to tell the out-of-staters from the locals?  Ask them to pronounce 'Shawano' (a city and county in the northeastern part of the state).  It is 'SHAW-no', *NOT* 'sha-WA-no'!

-Also, MANY national network sports guys get Green Bay wrong.  It is 'green-bay' (equal light accent emphasis on each word), *NOT* 'GREEN-bay'.

Others:
-Berlin and New Berlin - 'BER-lin' (yep, the WWI thing in those two places, too);
-Menasha - 'muh-NASH-uh' (*NOT* 'mi-NaSH-uh' - long 'A', not a short 'a', in the middle syllable);
-Beloit - same way as in Detroit (city in Michigan), *NOT* the French way;
-Ripon (birthplace of the GOP!  ) - 'RIP-in' (*NOT* 'ri-PON', as in the city in California);
-Wausau - WA-SAW (equal strong accent on both syllables which rhyme with each other, *NO* 'r' sounds).
-Racine - 'ruh-SCENE', *NOT* 'RAY-scene'.

Mike

here is the right, and wrong way to pronounce some of these http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGcQCtFlENA

[Takumi]

The city of Staunton, VA is pronounced "STAN-ton". The U is silent.

[pianocello]

My favorite (and one I looked through 7 pages without finding) comes from southern Gratiot (GRAH-sh*t) County in Mid-Michigan (NOT Central MI):

Pompeii. Not like the ancient Roman city, but POMP-ee-eye.

[lamsalfl]

I don't know if my blood pressure can sift through 7 pages of this thread to address a couple of Louisiana things.

New Orleans is pronounced "New Or-linz" carefully blending the w before the Or as if the W was in the orleans part.
HOWEVER... if you're talking about the parish (which has the same boundaries as the city) you say Orleans Parish. (rhyming with jeans).  The ONLY time you pronounce Orleans like jeans is when you see it without the New in front of it. 
or-LEANS Parish... or-LEANS parish School Board... or-LEANS Parish Prison...

But, New OR-Linz Police Department... New OR-Linz Saints... New OR-Linz City Council. 

Hardcore locals with the Y'at dialect (See wikipedia) might pronounce it New Wallinz.  NEVER should you say N'awlins.  No locals say anything remotely like that.  It just means tourists looking stupid trying to be cool.  I should stress that the "New" in New Orleans is always distinguishable and heard. 

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Lafayette, LA is pronounced Laugh-ee-yet.    Laugh as in hahahaha, not Loff like waffle. 

[Alex]

When visiting Washington in 2006, learned that Camas is pronounced KAM'-uhs

A bunch of pronunciations for place names in Washington are listed at http://www.ap.org/washington/pron.html

[corco]

When visiting Washington in 2006, learned that Camas is pronounced KAM'-uhs

Wait, how do normal people pronounce it?

[pianocello]

I don't know if my blood pressure can sift through 7 pages of this thread to address a couple of Louisiana things.

New Orleans is pronounced "New Or-linz" carefully blending the w before the Or as if the W was in the orleans part.
HOWEVER... if you're talking about the parish (which has the same boundaries as the city) you say Orleans Parish. (rhyming with jeans).  The ONLY time you pronounce Orleans like jeans is when you see it without the New in front of it. 
or-LEANS Parish... or-LEANS parish School Board... or-LEANS Parish Prison...

But, New OR-Linz Police Department... New OR-Linz Saints... New OR-Linz City Council.

Funny, I went there back in summer 2010 for a national church youth gathering. When the mayor came to speak to all 25,000 of us, he always pronounced "New Orleans" with 4 syllables. (New Or-le-ans)

[lamsalfl]

yeah old people tend to do that

[pbrisebois]

The local pronounciation for Toronto actually has no t's = Churono

[hotdogPi]

There is a Beaufort in both North Carolina and South Carolina, pronounced differently.

Also, anything ending with "cester": Worcester, Gloucester (both exist in Massachusetts and other places too)

And every Berlin in New England (MA, NH, CT) has the accent on the first syllable because of WWII.

[Big John]

DeKalb

IL:  pronounced as it is spelled
GA:  The "l" is not pronounced - De cab, and Ponce de Leon Avenue there is pronounced as if it was in English, don't use the French pronunciation there.

[roadman65]

Newark, DE is Nooh ark and not like New Jersey that says it as written. 
Bogota, NJ does not say it like the Columbians do.  I believe it is Boh go tah.

Louisville, OH is pronounced like it should with it being Louis and not Louie!

NYC which has a Houston Street pronounces it House-ton Street.

Ponte Vedra Beach, FL is pronounced with the e's as eeeh and not ayh as an e in Spanish is pronounced like the letter A in English.  That must be the cheap way to say it and over time it got accepted that way, but in proper Spanish Pon tee Veedra is incorrect!

[Thing 342]

Corolla, NC is pronounced KER-AW-LAH, not KER-OHL-LA.

[Brandon]

And please what ever you do in Joliet, don't call it Ju-LEE-it or Ja-LEE-it. It is Joe-LEE-it.  There had been an ordinance, don't know if it still on the books, that you could spend the night in jail for mispronouncing the city name.

Yes, the ordinance is still on the books.  It's actually pronounced similar to Joliette, Quebec as it is the same family.  Joliette, Quebec was named for an descendant of Louis Jolliet.  The original spelling was Jolliet and modernized in French later to Joliette.  We retain a version of the older spelling.  Interestingly enough, the mall here is pronounced the same way - "lou-ee joh-lee-et", rarely "loo-is" unless spoken by ignorant Chicagoans in ads (we call it "lou-ee mall" for short).

[roadman65]

Boston is pronounced Bah ston by Bostonians even though most of us say Boss-ton.

[Jordanah1]

There is a Beaufort in both North Carolina and South Carolina, pronounced differently.

Also, anything ending with "cester": Worcester, Gloucester (both exist in Massachusetts and other places too)

And every Berlin in New England (MA, NH, CT) has the accent on the first syllable because of WWII.

Berlin in Wisconsin also has the different accent as well, though its my understanding that his was a WWI switch, not a WWII switch. WWII didn't see as much if an 'anti-German' sentiment as an 'anti-nazi' sentiment, while WWI was all 'anti-German' with sauerkraut being renamed 'victory cabbage' and whatnot.

[apeman33]

Somewhere in the first two pages, a poster wrote that "Ar-Kansas" is the pronunciation in at least part of the state for the river. It's said that way from Colorado border to Oklahoma border, influenced by the fact that everywhere the river runs in Kansas is in the Wichita media market, so the weathermen and newscasters have spread that pronunciation throughout the area.

However, here in southeast Kansas, you'll find people saying it both ways because some aren't aware it's pronounced "Ar-Kansas" instead of "Ar-kan-saw." When you're in the Joplin media market, neither the river nor the town come up very often.

There are a couple of very small towns near me with interesting pronunciations:
Xenia, Kansas. It's pronounced "Zee-nee." Silent A.

Bronaugh, Missouri. There's no real consistency. Seems like the old timers say "Burr-noll" whereas younger people say "Burr-naw." In neither is there an indication that there's a G in the word. And I've actually heard some people pronounce it as though it starts with a "V" instead of a "B", so you get "Ver-noll."

And I've heard the occasional mangling of "Chanute" (Proper: Sha-noot; mangled: Sha-noo-tay) and Salina (Proper: Sa-ly-nuh; mangled: rhymes with "Salinas").

Liberal, Missouri seems to be pronounced with a slight hint that there's an E. Liberal, Kansas is said more like "Lurr-brull".

[NE2]

Liberal, Kansas is said more like "Kahn-surrv-tivv".

[Molandfreak]

Not much in Minnesota, but here's what I have to offer:
Wabasha: first syllable is stressed. WAH-ba-shaw
Willmar: I've heard a South Dakotan say will-MAHR, but it isn't. it's WILL-mur.
Luverne: pronunced LOVE-urn.
Le Center and Le Sueur: "Le" is not pronunced as "Lay," rather it's like "the."
Isanti: pronunced with a flat A. i-SAANT-ee, not i-SAHNT-ee.
Cloquet: this isn't anglicized. it's CLO-kay.
Kasson: I've heard CASE-in from somewhere, but in the Rochester area, it's always kASS-in.
Motley: No moats here. It's pronounced like Mötley Crüe.

[empirestate]

Also, anything ending with "cester": Worcester, Gloucester (both exist in Massachusetts and other places too)

Yes, what about anything ending with "cester"?

(If I'd brought it up, it would be to point out the difference from anything ending with "chester".)

Newark, DE is Nooh ark and not like New Jersey that says it as written. 
Bogota, NJ does not say it like the Columbians do.  I believe it is Boh go tah.

Louisville, OH is pronounced like it should with it being Louis and not Louie!

NYC which has a Houston Street pronounces it House-ton Street.

yawn

[KEVIN_224]

Berlin, CT, with the stress on the first syllable, said as BER-lin. Supposedly, the locals wanted to distance themselves from the Prussian capital early last century.

It drives us from Connecticut nuts when an outsider says NEW Haven instead of New HAY-ven.

[Alps]

It drives us from Connecticut nuts when an outsider says NEW Haven instead of New HAY-ven.

Everyone around NYC/NJ says NEWhaven.

[DSS5]

Advance (Add + Vance, like the name), NC.

Although that does sound like "advance" with a southern accent, there is no other way to pronounce the town's name.

There's also "Boon-a" Vista, Winston-Salem, NC's richest neighborhood.

[cpzilliacus]

Maryland: 

Havre de Grace is correctly pronounced as haverduhgrace.

Anne Arundel County is pronounced as annahrundul or annRUNdel (and with so many boring and duplicated county names (Montgomery comes to mind - my home county is Montgomery County, Maryland) across the U.S., there is one and only one county named for Anne Arundel).

Galena is pronounced GAHlayna.

Mount Rainier is rain-E-er, not like the mount in the Pacific Northwest.

Taneytown is TAWneetown.

In the Commonwealth of Virginia:

I see that Staunton has already been mentioned upthread, but what about Galax?  Pronounced GAYlax.

Varina is varEYEna.