Here in NY’s Capital District, the clearest shibboleth*is Rensselaer. It’s pronounced “Rens-lur,” not “Rens-sel-LEER.”
Even better, though more obscure, is Valatie. Only a native knows it’s pronounced “Vuh-LAY-shuh,” as though it ends with an “a.”
Cohoes also is confusing: the stress is on the second syllable: Cuh-HOES. (Not CO-hoes.)
It’s also fun to hear phone solicitors trying to pronounce Schenectady. (Hint: replace the “ch” with a “k”.) I’ve also been amused by people pronouncing Worcester, MA (Wooster).
Indeed. It is in fact Pull 'um up or Pugh AL up.
My first husband insisted that if Tacoma was pronounced Ta Co Ma then Yakima should be Ya Ko Ma (I have no idea, he was frome Missouri.)
He also was sure Sequim was pronounced See-quee-um (it’s Squim)
This sounds like snippets from the opening of a musical based on the stories of John Cheever.
CalMeacham, you forgot to mention Charlotte (shu-LOTT), and Castile (Cast-tile). There are even a few of us who hold out with the French pronunciation of Le Roy. We are dwindling fast, though.
There’s a “Versailles” here in KY. Foreigners tend to say it the French way. Wrong! It’s “Ver-SALES.” Since the local TV news talking heads are not locals, they’ll often say it wrong, causing everyone I know to laugh hysterically.
I had one hell of a time learning to pronounce “Atchafalaya”. My sweetie, from central LA.(Mansura) derived endless laughter at my early attempts.
In Portland, Or., don’t forget Couch St., properly pronounced “Kootch”.
Oh, and I confirm it’s Pyoo-AL-up.
Everyday I take the bus down San Pablo Avenue. But everyone around here suddenly forgets they are from California and calls it San Paaaaaab-lo (pab rhyming with tab) making it as long and nasal as possible. Like half of town speaks Spanish and people break in to perfect pronunciation asking for local taqueria’s or mentioning mentioning their Latino buddies by name, but they still say San Paaaaaaablo.
I just can’t bring myself to do it. I try, but it’s just to embarrassing.
In Sacramento, Goethe park is “Gate-y Park”, but Don Julio Drive can be pronounced however the hell you feel like it.
In Santa Cruz CA (where locals can take the local/non local divide pretty seriously) the key words are “Soquel” (So-Kel), “Aptos” (App-toss) and “Branciforte” (Brance-uh-fort-ee)
My BF from Hawaii claims that tourists often ask for Pipeline, but get a little zealous with the Hawaiian and say “pip-ee-lee-nay”.
There’s lots of examples in San Diego, too, the canonical one being La Jolla.
Proper Spanish pronunciation: Lah ho-yah.
Local (standard) pronunciation: Luh hoy-yuh.
Tourist pronunciaton: Luh jaw-luh.
It’s not that bad, though, because everyone here is from someone else. Well, my generation is a lot more often natively San Diegan, but I’m definitely not the only East Coast transplant.
Then again, here we have the equally fun pastime of watching people coming from south of us trying to pronounce our English place-names. Spring Valley is a doozy.
FWIW, I say “New Orlins” and “Tren’n” (more like “Treh’n”) and I’ve never been to either town–or state, for that matter. But then again I pronounce Mountain like “Mou’n”.
UrbanChic mentioned Bowie–I hadn’t thought of that, although I grew up in the next town over (Mitchellville, for those keeping score) and it was definitely a common one. I had an irrational fear (well, more like loathing) of David Bowie for a long time before I ever heard him. I got over it, though.
Or, if you’re a true Philadelphian, it’s a sort of mumbled ‘sgoogil’.
In Santa Fe: Well, the dead giveaway is the people who are so surprised that they didn’t need their passport, because they’re not clear on the idea that it’s part of the US! There’s also the Spanish pronunciation that someone else mentioned - for example: you got to the Villa Linda (vi-ya lean-da) mall by going down Cerrillos Rd (not Seh-ril-los).
Strachan Avenue = Strahn. (One syllable, and don’t pronounce the “ch.” Loved the visitors who were looking for “stra-chan” though.)
Stouffville = STOW-ville (The Fs are not pronounced, but outsiders do try.)
Toronto (sorry, Tronna) is also very good at putting “the” in front of certain of its streets, and dropping “road,” “avenue,” etc. from the street name. Visitors are always asking for Danforth Avenue or Lakeshore Boulevard when Torontonians just call them “The Danforth,” or “The Lakeshore.”
And Avenue Road always throws people off. One business visitor asked what that was all about–he said it was like having a thoroughfare named “Street Boulevard.” Well, hey, that’s Tronna.
or Pugh AL up.