I just came in to point out that (despite the fact that I am one) Oregonians should not be allowed to determine how to pronounce anything. I used to live near Couch street. Pronounced “Cooch”.
That’s just wrong. Wrong wrong wrong.
None of you have anything to complain about. Those of us living in Washington state, however…
Attention, everyone:
There is no “R” in the word “Washington”.
Please reserve your use of the letter “R” to words such as moron, illiterate, and inarticulate.
I don’t recall how she pronounced it, actually, but my father and uncle (who both grew up in Eugene) pronounce it you-GENE.
And delphica, even though I’ve never lived in New York, I know to say “HOW-ston” when I’m visiting there. There’s a street named after my family in Brooklyn, so I consider myself an almost-native.
Well, if the folks that live there are the ultimate authority on how to pronounce the name of a place, then everyone is going to have to start pronouncing the name of that city in Murlin, as Balmer.
Now ask me how the City got its name.
Tris
To be fair, about 20% of our population (the Spanish-speaking part) does say Flo-REE-da. Even when speaking English. It’s like the SEEdy of MeeYAmee, down south. And Miami isn’t even a Spanish word.
Hey say what you will about the Boston accent, but we’ve got the place names down. This is the area that has to contend with Worcester, Gloucester, Leominster, Woburn, etc - throw a dart at a map of Massachusetts and whatever you hit will probably be pronounced completely differently than it’s spelled. Bostonians have evolved a separate area in our brains reserved exclusively for memorizing the correct pronunciations of localities.
most of you will pronounce “almond” with the “l” sound. I was raised where we grew those nuts and it was always a silent “l”. Both pronunciations are in dictionaries. I’ve had people bust my balls about this for 25 years, which only makes me resolved to never ever pronounce that damn “l”. If you got a problem with that, then it’s also acceptable to pronounce it “nut”
Well, I’ve been living in CT for the past couple decades, and have yet to hear any person or local broadcast pronounce New Haven the way you decribe; even the friends I have that live there. IMO, the way you describe the Gilmore Girls pronunciation is the correct one.
As for the OP, unless you want to pronounce New YAWK and Boston (how would I even spell that phonetically?) the way the natives do, you have no basis to gripe.
Tell me, how did the city get its name?
And, I hear “BAWL-mir”, hon. 
Is this why my Natik, Mass -raised MIL only ever has mus-tihd and never mustard?
Obviously none of you are familiar with the Constant Consonant Theorem (at the bottom of that page. It states that the quantity of consonants in the English language is a constant and conserved quantity. Thus, when a Bostonian pahks his cah, the lost r’s migrate southwest, causing Texans to warsh their car and invest in erl wells. Some of the r’s don’t make it to Texas, they get sidetracked along the way and cause New Yorkers to get idears.
Well, you see, long ago, the city was originally settled by two different tribes, the Balts, and the Morons. In later years the Balts migrated elswhere.
Tris
You’re from the Central Valley?
A friend of mine (from Nevada, incidentally!) pronounces “almond” this way on the principle that the people who grow them ought to be the authorities on how to pronounce them.
Absolutely. (I love the movie “The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming” where the Russian submariners try to deal with the name “Gloucester”.)
Living here, I have come to the conclusion that there are no correct or incorrect pronunciations, but it is a way to tell who comes from here and who is not. It is even more evident when one goes to Maine. Try pronouncing Bangor “Banger” when in Maine. This is an enduring atrocity perpetuated by Roger Miller in “King of the Road”. Mainers just cringe when they hear it.
Just smile and deal with it, and be glad that you aren’t living in England and dealing with American tourists.
We don’t care how they say it France or California. When you’re in Versailles, Indiana, it’s ver-SAILS. When you’re the expensive town of Carmel, Indiana, it’s CAR-mull.
That explains SO MUCH.
Isn’t it “ont-AIRY-AIRY-AIRY-o”? :dubious:
(Damn, but I hated that song!)
And they ain’t no Bahstonians going to force us to pronounce Leominster as Lemminster.
Gotta agree with the Ory-GAHN or Ory-GOAN thing being as annoying as hell. However, like the OP, I notice it most when there’s some actor from Elsewhere trying to claim to have been there, or trying to play somebody who’s from there.
Yeah, uh, if you wanna sound like you’re from Oregon, you could at least make an effort to say it the way residents do.