It’s probably so that people won’t say this:
“Des Plaines, boss! Des Plaines!”
Just gonna toss in one glaring ommision, the pronunciation of the entire state of Illinois. The ‘s’ is silent (Silent damn it!), but AFAIK its a long ways from correct French pronunciation. My French skills are non-existant, but I believe it should be pronounced ILL-een-wah, we just go with the unpretentious ILL-eh-noy.
With a tip of the hat to Alice Cooper we could point out the pronunciation of Milwaukee too.
I’m sure the list is endless, in the Midwest there are alot of bastardized French, German, and Native American words, in the West there are likely alot of botched Spanish titles and in the East I’d guess they have them all.
In Idaho - the capital Boise is pronounced “Boy-see” when it should be Bwa-zay (french boisé = wooded).
The Indian tribe Nez Percé (pierced nose) is pronounced nezz-pierce which confused my (french-speaking) brother to no end when at BSU (Boise state) a teacher told him to go to the nezz-pierce room and he was looking for Nez Percé (as pronounced Nay Pair-say).
Finally, if in front of a North Idahoan you pronounce the name of the town Moscow, Idaho in the same way as Moscow, Russia, they will quickly let you know of your error. Moscow, Idaho is not the commie town.
Reported.
Just for the record, the way you pronounce it in Russia is mahsk-VAH.
OZR. (Obligatory Zombie Reference)
Why should not I pick up a masterpiece or a coin?
I will no longer say Des Moines,
I shall sail into the C. B. & Q. ticket office like a swan,
And ask for a lower to Day Mwahn.
–Ogden Nash
In California, we have Chowchilla, to which the locals give a decidedly English pronunciation – Chow-CHILL-uh.
BTW, for any confused late-comers: This thread got resurrected by a (semi-incoherent) spammer at Post #24, which the mods will probably delete when they get to it. That is what Dewey Finn was reporting in Post #25, which will then become #24.
St. Croix seems to be pronounced correctly.
Duluth is not.
I think the French trying to learn our “Th” sound is revenge for us trying to learn their “R”
You may as well ask me how I did on my first trip to England when I was talking about visiting Devon. Now that I live in southern Illinois I am perfectly ready to embarrass myself by going to Egypt and asking directions to Cairo.
I’m happy Chicago (and Illinois) isn’t alone in unique pronunciations.
How else would you pronounce it? You realize it’s not Spanish, right?
Re “Cairo” #17. I think all the “Cs” in US are pronounced the same. Anyway, the one in NY is pronounced “Care-o”, not Kay-ro. Latter pronunciation marks you as one who knows its not Ki-ro, but hasn’t caught on completely. Fun to hear TV announcers try to get it right! (I think no American variation is at all like Egyptians’.)
I pronounce the one in Russia as MOSS-koh, too. I think that is how most British people say it. Moss-KOW is an American thing.
Well quite, but many major cities (and countries, come to that) have names in other languages that are not pronounced (or sometimes even spelled) the same as the name used by the people who live there. It is not really correct English to call the capital of France Par-ee, or the capital of Italy Rohm-uh.
In Joliet, Illinois, on rt. 80, there is a bridge over the “des plains” river that advertises that “de moin” Iowa is straight ahead.
2000 holy sh**, I fell for a zombie again
and for the record…the above quotes represent how the locals pronounce the words, not what the sign actually says… Hello year 2000, how’s that computer glich working out for you?
I used to have a co-worker who’d call me now and then and introduce herself as “Vickie in DuhLOOT”
Amazingly enough, I am from the city in the thread’s title.
because we don’t speak French in this country. and if you want to get all pissy about that, tell me why the French call Germany “Allemagne” instead of “Deutschland.”
Beijing duck, anyone? Mumbai gin?
In NYC, only out-of-towners and one loser of a cabbie I had pronounce a major street like the big city in Texas. Its “Howston.”
The street was not named after that Texas guy, so cool your jets, Lone-Star dopers.
Edina Minnesota.
Pronounced Ee-Dye-Nuh locally.
Pronounced Ed-in-uh about anywhere else.
Okay, I’ll bite. What is the origin of the name Chowchilla? I really have no idea, if it’s not Spanish.
We also have a quaint little beach town called Avila Beach. It’s pronounced AV-uh-luh, not uh-VEE-luh. That’s because the original Avila person who had a big ranch around there was Portuguese, not Spanish.
It was the name of a local Indian tribe. No idea how the Indians themselves pronounced it. (The presence of the letter “w” should be a giveaway that it’s not Spanish, which uses that letter only in words borrowed from other languages to begin with, like whisky.)