Unique local pronunciations for place names

[Roadgeek Adam]

Houston, DE is pronounced House-ton

Common pronunciation. Hints back to Houston Street in Manhattan, which is pronounced the same way.

[agentsteel53]

A few from California:

Milpitas - mill-PEE-tahs
Los Banos - loss BAH-nos
Manteca - man-TEE-kah
Ojai - O-high
San Joaquin - sahn huah-KEEN
San Rafael - sahn rah-FEL
Soquel - soh-KEL
Suisun City - soo-SOON CIH-tee
Tehachapi - teh-HATCH-ah-pee
Tulare - too-LAHR-ee
Ukiah - yoo-KAI-ah
Vallejo - va-LAY-ho
Yucaipa - yoo-KAI-pah

some of these are standard Spanish pronunciations.

I don't remember how Mokelumne or Cosumnes are pronounced, but they are not how I thought they would be.  Cosumnes is not standard Spanish, for instance.  I was visiting a friend in that area on Monday and he pronounced them sufficiently differently that it took me a second or two to figure out what he was referring to.

[Jim]

Haha this is what I have heard from people, so I believe it is true.

Is it Cok-suh-kee (emphasis on the kee) or Cok-suk-ee (emphasis on the suk)? Please at least tell me it's the former

I think that may be it, the Cok-suh-kee.

I've mostly heard cook-SOCK-ee.

Then there's nearby Valatie, NY, pronounced va-LAY-shuh.

[xcellntbuy]

As a former Columbia County, New York resident, one of the most butchered 17th century Anglicized-Dutch towns is Claverack, pronounced, CLAW-vrik.

A few others are:

Albany, is ALL-bany (not "Al" as in a short form of Albert.)
Renssealer, is REN-slur or REN-sa-lur
Cairo, is CAY-row
Delhi, is DELL-high
Milan, MY-lan

Conversely, Clermont, is exactly what it is.  The "Clairemont" was the first steamboat in 1807.

[PAHighways]

Latrobe, PA ("LAY-trobe", not "lah-TROBE")

It is pronounced either way.  The proper pronunciation is the latter because it is named for the architect of the US Capitol, Benjamin Henry Latrobe.

[PAHighways]

Latrobe, PA ("LAY-trobe", not "lah-TROBE")

Really?  I coulda sworn Arnold Palmer used to say luh-TROBE on his Pennzoil commercials...

That is how it was pronounced on old Rolling Rock commercials as well.

[aswnl]

How is Amsterdam NY being pronounced ?

(The original sounds more like Om-ster-DOM )

[huskeroadgeek]

How is Amsterdam NY being pronounced ?

(The original sounds more like Om-ster-DOM )

I'm guessing it's pronounced as if it rhymes with ham-which is how most of us in the US pronounce the one in the Netherlands too.

[njroadhorse]

Newark, NJ - Nark
South Side neighborhood of Pittsburgh, PA - Sah Side
Ohio is prounounced Ahia in Pittsburgh

[Jim]

How is Amsterdam NY being pronounced ?

(The original sounds more like Om-ster-DOM )

I'm guessing it's pronounced as if it rhymes with ham-which is how most of us in the US pronounce the one in the Netherlands too.

That's right - both the first and last syllables are pronounced as rhyming with "ham" here in Amsterdam, NY.  That's also how I've always heard Amsterdam Avenue in NYC pronounced.

[PAHighways]

South Side neighborhood of Pittsburgh, PA - Sah Side
Ohio is prounounced Ahia in Pittsburgh

Pittsburghese: places

[Coelacanth]

Just a few from MN of the top of my head

New Prague: new PRAGG or new PRAYG, never new prahg
Mower County: Joe Mauer, not Lawn Mower
Wayzata: why-ZETT-uh
Lake Gervais: known to the locals (other than me) as Lake Jarvis

[mightyace]

Other pronunciations I've heard:

Lebanon, TN and KY: leb-a-nin

Interesting, I live about an hour from there and knew two women who were from there and they both pronounced it Leb-ah-non like the country in the Middle East.

I'm not saying that some locals here don't say it that way, just that I haven't run into one of them.

Here are mine:
Maury County, TN pronounced like Murray in Bill Murray not like Maury Povich.
The town of Santa Fe in Maury County is pronounced San-ta Fee not San-ta Fay like the city in New Mexico or the railroad.
Lafayette (both city and street names are pronounced) La-FAY-et not LA-fay-et (emphasis on the wrong syllable)

Louisville, OH is pronounced Lou-is-vil not like the city in Kentucky.
When I lived there, Cuyahoga Falls, OH was usually pronounced by the locals including myself as KI-yog-a Falls not KI-ah-ho-ga Falls.

And, who can forget Balmer, Merlin.  (Baltimore, MD)

[hm insulators]

One I must add from California:
Lompoc-Lahm-poke, NOT Lahm-pahk. This is a big one with me because I was born there(actually Vandenberg AFB).

Two more California ones:

Tujunga (Tuh-HUN-gah)
La Canada (Lah Can-YAH-dah) Flintridge (where I grew up).

A few from Arizona:

Prescott (PRES-kit, not Press-scott)
Ajo (AH-ho--Spanish for "garlic.")
Gila River, Gila Bend, Gila monster (HE-lah, not Gillah)
Not a town, but the famous cactus called "saguaro" is pronounced "suh-WAR-roh), not "sa-GWAR-oh", or even worse, "Cigaroh")

For fun, let's try some from Hawai'i: (Technically, there is supposed to be a punctuation mark called a "glottal stop"--it looks like a reversed apostophe--between the two I's. When you see this, the correct pronunciation is a slight hiccup or hesitation between the two vowels, much like the English "Uh-oh".)

Hilo (HEE-low, not "High-Low" like the "Price is Right" game)
Koke'e (Koh-KAY ay--again, though most tourist maps leave out the glottal stop ', technically, it's supposed to be there--so it not "Kokey" or "Kokay.")
Kaua'i (Kau-WAH ee--not "Cow-wee" and for God's sake, not "Cow-eye"!)
Napo'opo'o (Nah-poh oh-POH oh, not "Nah-pupu")

It has never ceased to amaze me the number of radio and TV reporters that can pronounce place names like "Phnom Penh" or "Riyadh" or "Khazakastan" without batting an eyelash, but they stumble over Hawaiian place names. (Come to think of it, when that big fire was burning above Los Angeles last summer, I must've heard five different mangled pronunciations of La Canada on the Weather Channel alone!)

[golden eagle]

How would you guys pronounce Winona and Lithonia? Most people in Mississippi tend to say Why-nona, while I tend to say Win-nona. For Lithonia, GA, I've mostly heard it pronounce LIE-thonia, though I tend to say it with the the short "i" sound (li-thonia).

Here's another one too: Boutte, LA. I've heard it pronounced "booty" and boo-TEE. A lady I work with who's from Louisiana said it's boo-TEE, though "booty" is not incorrect.

One more: Reading, PA--is it "reeding" or "redding"?

[shoptb1]

One more: Reading, PA--is it "reeding" or "redding"?

Reading, PA == RED-ING

[huskeroadgeek]

How would you guys pronounce Winona and Lithonia? Most people in Mississippi tend to say Why-nona, while I tend to say Win-nona.

I always say Win-nona, which is how I think most people say the one in Minnesota(and Missouri too).

[SidS1045]

I think I mentioned Worcester.

You mentioned it, but you still don't have it right.  It's WUS-ta.  (I lived there for 21 years.)

Peabody is another one. Pee-buh-dee (say it fast to sound like a real Massachusettsian  )

Nope.  PEE-bi-dee.

Gloucester: glaw-ster

GLOS-tah.

Leominster: lem-en-ster

LEM-ins-tah.

Remember (excuse me, "remembah") that in Massachusetts the final "r" doesn't exist.

We have others, too:

Leicester:  LES-tah
Concord:  CON-kid
Pawtucket (RI):  pi-TUCK-it
Barnstable:  BAHN-sti-bul

[exit322]

Rio Grande (River): alot of people wrongly call it the Rio Grande River, that makes no sense, I mean Big River River?? And us Texans say Rio Grand instead of Grandae

But if we're switching languages, wouldn't it be the Big River Rio?

[Scott5114]

I'm sure if we were to translate the Rio Grand it would end up as "Grand River", since we have about four and a half billion of them already.

[Ian]

I think I mentioned Worcester.

You mentioned it, but you still don't have it right.  It's WUS-ta.  (I lived there for 21 years.)

Peabody is another one. Pee-buh-dee (say it fast to sound like a real Massachusettsian  )

Nope.  PEE-bi-dee.

Gloucester: glaw-ster

GLOS-tah.

Leominster: lem-en-ster

LEM-ins-tah.

Remember (excuse me, "remembah") that in Massachusetts the final "r" doesn't exist.

We have others, too:

Leicester:  LES-tah
Concord:  CON-kid
Pawtucket (RI):  pi-TUCK-it
Barnstable:  BAHN-sti-bul

Really? Wow I was off

[SidS1045]

Really? Wow I was off

Don't beat yourself up too much.  No one ever believes it until they come here and hear it for themselves from the locals.

[huskeroadgeek]

Another Massachusetts one I've noticed watching Boston TV news clips on Youtube is that Quincy sounds like it's pronounced "Quin-zee" instead of "Quin-see".

[Ian]

Really? Wow I was off

Don't beat yourself up too much.  No one ever believes it until they come here and hear it for themselves from the locals.

Yeah, those New England town names are tricky to pronounce. I am surprised on the Worcester one, since thats what I heard from my grandparents, who lived in the area for what, 50 years? But thanks for clearing it up for me. I know some people think Wellesley, MA is an odd name, but not too me, since thats where I usually go when I go visit my grandparents.

[yanksfan6129]

The fact is, I think, that a great number of these local pronunciations are actually INCORRECT pronunciations that came into popularity due to local accents and passed time. If you pronounce Prescott, AZ as "Press-kit", you are a dumbass...that is not a proper English pronunciation. That "local" pronunciation probably just came into existence as locals saying the name too fast.