Damn, that takes me back. I was even at the fair in the late-70’s watching Bill Cosby doing a routine on how he couldn’t pronounce the place. And we had a fast-food burger chain that he’d never heard of.
No way, dude.
Humptulips
You forgot Muswellbrook (Muswell sounds like Muzzle) and Canowindra (like Can-ound-ra) there Loaded.
We of course have Prahran here in Melbin. 
Don’t forget La Cienega, pronounced “La see-YEN-neg-uh.” My friend laughed hysterically when I came to visit her in LA and told her I was on “la see-yen-NAY-ga.”
Others already mentioned the big local ones from my area: Vallejo, Frisco, San Pablo–and I do say “San Paaaablo” and never thought twice about it until I started dating my boyfriend, who’s from the Midwest and cringes whenever I say it. Hey, if we were going to be speaking correct Spanish all the time, we’d be saying “Los AN-he-les” instead of “Laws AN-juh-lus.”
From my boyfriend’s neck of the country, there are towns like Cape Girardeau (accent on the “rar”), the aforementioned Cairo (CAY-ro), and New Madrid (New MAD-rid).
If you’re from the Kanawha valley in West Virginia, you know that the correct pronunciation is not “kan - AH - wa” but “ki - NAW”.
Acksherly, it’s “MUSCLE-brook” (no ‘z’ sound)
Naah, I didn’t, did I? Too lazy to go back and check. Anyway, the honest burghers of said town are REALLY anal about it, too. They go ballistic if you mess it up.
I’m still unsure how to pronounce that, as I’ve even heard Melburnians give different versions. It’s pran, isn’t it? That’s what I stick with. Then again, you guys are a bunch of weirdos. 
You come up to NSW and say New-CASSLE, American-style. It’s New-CAH-sle, dear.
Yeah, the name of the guy, Gen. Mariano Vallejo should be pronounced as “vay-eh-ho”, but the city/street is pronounced half English/half Spanish. There’s no way you could know how to pronounce it just by looking at it.
Another Bay Area shibboleth is San Rafael. It’s pronounced San Ru-FELL. I think I was about twenty-two years old (and had taken Spanish for years and years) when I realized this was a bizarre pronounciation.
In LA, there’s a street called Los Feliz, pronounced Los FEE-liz. Nice.
In Chicago, I initially prounounced both Devon (di-VON) and Paulina (paw-LIE-na) Avenues incorrectly.
Actually, you’re correct there, in a way. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch apparently isn’t a traditional Welsh placename at all, but is only about a hundred years old. It was concocted by the railway company for the station name as an early form of tourism gimmick.
You might be able to help me with something else. The town of Lithgow, west of Sydney is a coal mining town, and not surprisingly has some historical Welsh connections. There is an area in it called the Vale of Clwydd. Now the locals call this the Vale of CLUE-id, but I’m pretty sure they’re butchering it. Isn’t the Welsh one pronounced Cleyth or something weird like that?
Ohio:
Lima: It’s [laI m@] (LIE ma) not [li ma] (LEE ma)
Delhi: It’s [dEl haI] (DELL high) not [dE li] (deli)
Bellefontaine: It’s [bEl faUn n] (bell FOUNtain) not [bEl fAn tEIn] (bell fon TAIN)
Russia: It’s [ru S@] (ROO sha) not [rVS j@] (RUSH ya)
Versailles: It’s [v@r sEIlz] (ver SAILS) not [ver saI] (vair SIGH)
From what little I know of Welsh pronunciation, the locals are close, but not quite there. It should be CLOO-ith (voiced “th” as in “breathe”) if they were trying to approximate genuine Welsh.
Two streets in Houston:
San Felipe - San FILL-uh-pee
Kuykendahl - KIRK-en-doll
A town is SE Texas:
Refugio - Re-FUR-i-o (“fur” is said like “your”)
HA! I wish. But it was nearby. I’m from Utopia/Pennfield (We lived on the border of Utopia, then they changed the name, then we were Utopia, address was still Pennfield, then it was Utopia, now it’s Pennfield again… but if you’re a local, I’d say I was from Utopia and everyone would know what road I was talking about).
Hmmm … when I was there it was NO-FUK. I won’t mention how ‘Virginia’ was pronounced.
Anyhow, someone upthread mentioned a few from around Central Texas. But I wanted to say that pronounciation is not the primary way we screw with yankees here.
Around these parts, we like to refer to a particular road or street in a way not reflected in the signage for that particular throughway. For example, your map may say “Loop 1”, but if you ask someone, they are going to refer it it as “Mopac”. (and BTW, Loop 1 doesn’t loop, not even close). Your map might designate a road as “Capital of Texas Highway”, we call it “Loop 360” (doesn’t loop either).
Also, just because a street is called something in one block, that don’t mean that it has the same name in the next. For example, we have a Highway 290 which becomes Koeing, which becomes Allandale, which becomes Northland, which becomes FM2222.
FilmGeek could you please pronounce Ousdahl for me? When I was in Lawrence, I heard anything from ooze-doll, to Ozdale.
Not exactly in the spirit of the thread, but in Missouri Nevada is Nuh-VAY-duh and Versailles is Ver-sales. It’s kinda like fingernails on a chalkboard to me.
Now, is that Hump-Tulips or Hump-Two-Lips?
Another one from the linguistic land of confusion that is Louisiana: Nachitoches.
That’s NACK-uh-dish.
Even though I have never been to California, I know this one: San “PEE-drow” not San “PAY-drow”.
Or, I think that is right, atleast.
Good ones, all. We native South Austinites can usually tell transplanted Northsiders (you know, came to Austin from California and have lived there for a few years, never dips south of Riverside Drive, shops only at Central Market and Whole Foods on Sixth)or fur’ners by the Manchaca Road thing. Don’t forget Burnet, durn it. And one of my faves: Niederwald!
Boston is a whole 'nuthin world. Scituate? “Sitchoowait.” Billerica? “Bill-ricka.” And nobody, I mean nobody, ever calls it “Beantown.” Occasionally the Hub, but never “Beantown.” Even the sportscasters who use it in jest get dirty looks.
Most fun I had with a Massachusetts place name - the town where Emeril Lagasse hails from, on Route 27, I think. The signs say “Fall River” but everyone calls it “Faw Wivva!”
I found the pronunciation differs depending on what side of the river you live on.
Here on the East Side, Kuy-uh-HO-guh is the preferred pronounciation.
Most West Siders I know say Kuy-uh-HAWG-uh
The pronunciation of one of Buffalo’s suburbs, Cheektowaga, also varies in the region. Most say “Cheek-toe-WAH-guh.” Those living there say “Chick-uh-tuh-WAH-guh” or, in some cases, “Chick-uh-tuh-VAH-guh.”
Hey, you forgot Coxsackie. It is “Cook-sockie.” It gets some pretty interesting pronouncations, as you can imagine.
Here in AZ the Spanish names get some odd treatmentgs by newbies. There’s a story about two guys driving to Gila Bend, and they argued all the way as to whether it was “Hila” (correct) or “Gila.”
When they got to town, they pulled into a gas station and decided to settle it by asking the attendant. When he came to the car, the driver asked, “Say, how do you pronounce this place, anyhow?”
The guy look at him strangely for a minute, and slowly said, “TEX-A-CO.”
And yet, right outside of VerSALES is a distillery pronounced “LaBROE and Graham”. Why don’t the natives call it “LaBROT?” That’s how it’s spelled.
We also have AY-thnz (Athens) and YOE zi mite (Yosemite).
I’m originally an East Side Clevelander and agree that it’s Kuy eh HO guh.
I thought that the Portland Oregon locals pronounced the river Will AMM it.
I heard a new one last week. Apparently a transplant weather gal was giving the forcast for Meth-un. :rolleyes: Methuen has three syallables, not two.
Haverhill: Hav-rill
Portsmouth: Ports-mith
Plymouth: plim-ith
Coos: Co-os (co as in co-ed)
Calef: Kay-lif
Raynham: Rain-um
Fall River: Fall Riva
Weare: Ware
Wolfeboro: Wolf-burro
Fall River is a city, for the record. I wish I could remember some of the more eye-raising manglings of various lakes and rivers in NH (with names like Pemigewasset, Ashuelot, and Nubanusit they beg to be mangled)… my hall director sophomore year was famous for it. Chocorua was an entertaining attempt.
Even I’m not exactly sure how Ammonoosuc River is pronouced, but I take it to be phonetic am-mono-suck (or maybe sick). I think that’s what trips people up - they see something like Souhegan and Pemigewasset and don’t realize you can pretty much sound them out: sow-he-gan; pemme-gee-wah-sset.