How could they? Emperor Norton forbade it.
There’s a “Street Road” near Philadelphia, in Bensalem.
Speaking of which, when I lived in Red Stick for 7 months I was repeatedly corrected everytime I said “Lo-eeze-i-ana” instead of “Looze-i-ana” (pardon my lack of proper pronunciation marks)!.
California is a funny place for this, though. In some instances knowing Spanish actually causes a newbie to pronounce the name incorrectly.
For example, i remember on my first visit to San Francisco i saw Vallejo Street. Wanting to make clear that i wasn’t some ignoramus, i pronounced it:
Vay-EH-ho
Only to be told by the locals that everyone calls it:
Val-AY-o
Guess i should have spelled that: Vy-EH-ho.
Anyway, you get the picture.
What, no one from Central Texas posts here?
The city of Llano is pronounced “LA-no” Just as sensibly, the city of Elgin sounds like “el-gun” when spoken. Also Manor is pronounced like “Maynard”, without the d at the end.
Manchaca, both the city south of Austin and the road that leads to it, are probnounced “MAN-SCHACK.” Note that both syllables are stressed and it’s a tossup as to whether the ch is pronounced as a ‘ch’ or an ‘sh.’ Someone once mentioned to me that this originated as a Czech pronounciation of the Spanish/Mexican family name. It’s plausible, especially given the number of Czech and German people who settled this area, but the person that said it may have been drinking at the time.
The Guadalupe River, said “GUAD-uh-LOOP.” My apologies to Jesus’ mother and everyone who has a drop of Mexican blood, but that’s the river’s name, no matter if it was named after the Virgin of Guadalupe.
New Braunfels, which the Guadaloop runs through, is pronounced “New BRON-fuls”
The Pedernales River is the “Purduh-NAL-is” when spoken. Yes, it has three syllables, no matter how it may read.
Koenig Lane (in Austin) is pronounced “Kay-nig”, and the city of Boerne is pronounced “BUR-nee.” Actually, these are pretty good approximations to the original German pronounciations.
Most of the ones I know are already listed, but I’ll add that there’s a street in Midtown Memphis called “McLean,” which is pronounced “Mc-LAIN.”
Just for the record, most people pronounce it “Don Joo-lee-o”
We also have Seamus Avenue, pronounced “see-muss”
…and Issaquah, the sound-it-out-slowly town name.
Interloper:Iss-ACK-quh, or worse, ICE-ACK-QUH
Instater: ISSS-suh-quah
Resident: IZZ-zuh-quah
Nooksack
Well, there are no natives left where I live, other than me and a half dozen or so old farts. So, allow me to point out that you guppies never did figure out that back when they were small towns, instead of suburban intersections the following were pronounced:
Muh-clain’, not Mac’ lain {McLean}
A’ mus vil, not A miss’ vil. {Amissville}
Cat harp’ in, not Ca- thar’ pen. {Catharpin}
However, most of those places are not even places anymore. Like Skunk Holler, which has been Annandale now for so long that even the skunks don’t remember it.
Further west we have Stan’ ten, rather than Stawn’ tun. {Staunton}
And Beautetort is pronounced bot’ e tot, and I don’t want to try to spell the attempts.
Ro’ noke {Roanoke} only has two syllables.
The ships dock at Naw’ fek, {Norfolk}, no matter what the navy says.
Tris
Damn. I got Albany wrong. It’s awl-BIN-ny.
Yep… my hometown in North Jersey was near Boonton (Booh’n, as best as I can get it down) and Moun’n Lakes. Moun’n, we all knew we were mispronouncing, but Booh’n was more or less official.
IME, the “Rens-lur” pronunciation was most used for the town, but “Rens-sel-LEER” was used for the school. (When not just saying “RPI”, of course.)
And then there’s Accord, which was pronounced AK-erd.
In central NJ, there’s a town named “New Egypt”, which is naturally pronounced “New Egyp”.
Kircudbright pronounced Kikoobree.
Make that Kirkcudbright (sp)
I once heard a conductor on the Chicago & Northwestern (What’s it called now? Metra?) annouce Deh Plahn. Was this his first run on his first day in Illinois? Who knows? I just got off the train at Dess Playns and went home.
Out here, there was a BART operator that mangled Martinez (mar TEE nez) as Mar Tin EZZ.
A lot of these examples are of Native American or foreign origin and were named when a much larger percentage of our population was illiterate, or near to it. So, not pronouncing something wrong is wrong. Only in America… :rolleyes:
You grew up in St. Andrews, right?
When they leave the hey outta Mexia.
A Seattle newsman reported a tornado in Ankeny, Iowa. He pronounced it Ann Kenny. (It’s ANK-uh-nee.)
It was funny, because I’ve heard so many Washington State names pronounced wrong by Iowa news guys.
Driving with sister-in-law, watching road signs, when she says “There’s the sign for Wa-CHEE-ta”. Wa-CHEE-ta? I looked up at the sign. Wichita.
My hairdresser tells me that Melbourne is “Melbin”. She married an Aussie. Or is it Ozzie?