Before moving to England I lived in Northern California. FAR north. About 450 miles north of Frisco (YES California extends that much further north).
The county was Del Norte, which is Spanish and should be pronounced Del Nor-tay. However, even the locals called it Nort - which drove me nuts.
There is a town 20 miles nearby called Gasquet. Not Gas-kit, but Gahz-gee (kee).
As many of the place names are either Spanish in origin, or Native American, it is all too common to mispronounce the names. As those of you in Hawaii are all too familiar as well - if it doesn’t look like it ought to be pronounced, it will be pronounced wrongly.
Perhaps when Kal and I take our road trip next month we’ll go through Wore-sester-shire (Worcestershire), Looga-bore-ooga (Loughborough) and Lie-cester (Leicester)…
I’m still learning over here, but haven’t made too much an arse of meself yet…
There was a young fellow from Boise
Who at times was exceedingly noise;
So his friends’ joy increased
When he moved way back east
To what people in Brooklyn call Joise.
Every time I go home, my parents ask, “So how’s DEE-troit?” Heavy emphasis on the “De.”
ARGH!
Everyone around here I know pronounces it “Dih-troit”, and almost runs it together like one syllable. I grit my teeth whenever I hear the other pronunciation.
Manchaca Road is pronounced that way because it goes to a town called Manchaca, which is pronounced “Man-shack”. The school, however, is Manchaca Elementary, prounounced “Men-sha-ca”. We all know there’s an “a” on the end, we also all know it’s silent, as long as you’re talking about the town or the road. There’s something amusing about hearing somebody speaking in fluent Spanish about where they’re going, and they throw “Man-shack” into the middle of it when they describe the road and the town.
As for Burnet, the road is named after a person, and it’s pronounced “Burr-net” kinda like Carol Burnett pronounces her name. The town outside Austin is Burnet, pronounced like “Burn it.” If memory serves, you can’t take Burnet Rd to Burnet, TX.
And then there’s Buda, where I went to high school. People who aren’t familiar with it tend to want to call it “Buddha”, but those who know better pronounce it correctly, “Byoo-duh”.
Why all these differences in pronounciation? Mostly because the first people to settle some of these towns didn’t pronounce the names correctly, and then that incorrect pronounciation became the accepted way to say it after time had gone by.
This is also why the Guadalupe River can be pronounced either way: “Gwad-a-LOO-pay” or “Gwad-a-loop” or even “Gwad-loop” or “Gwad-loopy”.
Elvis Rojo, just don’t start trying to correct people who’ve lived there their entire lives. They’ll get really annoyed.
Now, I moved from Austin to Frisco, TX last year, and some of the towns up here give me the same problem. There’s Corinth, which the locals pronounce “CAR-rinth”, Palestine, which is pronounce “Palis-TEEN” and a couple of others I can’t think of right now.
If you live in New Jersey, then you know that the capital is pronounced Trent’n. Everyone else (including those heretics in Trenton, Delaware) pronounce it Tren-ton.
In a similar case, I’m told that Houston street near Greenwich Village in Manhattan is pronounced “how-ston”, not “you-ston”. It was named long before Sam was born.
My parents used to live in Mountaintop (one word, BTW), down the road from Wilkes-Barre, and they heard both pronunciations. But they also heard even locals call it “Wilks-Barry.” I guess no one could make up their minds on what the town is really called.
As previously mentioned, all Spanish names in California provide the opportunity for manglement.
The most common one I hear is where tourists get it right and locals got it wrong: the largest city in Marin County is San Rafael, pronounced ra-FELL by the locals, and Ra-fa-yell by visitors.
When I was a kid, I thought there were two different cities near San Diego–one on the map named “La Jolla”, and another one I heard of, called “La Hoya”. Turns out they’re the same place.
Holy crap! I grew up in Almond! And this is the SECOND time it’s been mentioned on the boards! It’s a tiny village of 500 people!!
The locals pronounced it EL-mund, so my family makes a point of saying AHL-mond, like the nut. My relatives make fun of the town by saying EEEEEEL-mind.
But right now I’m going to school up north, in the town of Ashland, which is in the Chequamegon Bay area.
Chequamegon is, of course, pronounced shu-WA-mi-gin and not CHECK-a-ma-gon or che-QUA-me-gon or whatever other godawful mispronunciation the tourists spew out.
For the last time people, the second c in “Connecticut” is silent. You’d think people would know this by now. Oh, and nobody around Hartford has a New England accent. Maybe in the eastern part of the state, but being equidistant from New York and Boston makes the accents cancel out, so nobody says “Hahtfuhd.” Another reason why I hate United, someone in a commercial says that.
