In California - Delano (duhLAYno), Mission Viejo (veeAYho), Tulare, (tooLEHrie) Tehachapi (tuhHAchuhpee), Port Hueneme (wyeNEEmee), San Jacinto (hahSEENtoe), Vallejo (vahLAYo).
In Massachusetts - Leominster (LEHminster), Haverhill (HAYvrill). You could even include Boston, which I heard someone from Salem pronounce as Ba[flat a as in “hat”]-stin.
In Iowa - Dubuque (duhBYOOK), Des Moines (deh MOYN), Okoboji (okaBOJuh [there are those who say okaBOJee but they are though to be putting on airs], Osceola (oseeOHluh), Keokuk (KEEuhkuk), Keosaukua (keeuhSAHKwuh), Maquoketa (maKOHkuhtuh)
Ah, of course. Lousy Massholes not pronoucing things right, I’ve lived around enough of 'em to pass as a local…I know how to pronounce all the towns, and can pull off a good enough accent, cause I know not to lay it on too thick. (No, I don’t go to school there, or anything. I just know a lot of them, and have relatives there.)
Around me (VT), well, let’s see…
Vergennes- it is NOT pronounces ver-GIN-ees, as Norm McDonald thinks (he mentioned it in one of his weekend updates on SNL once) It is pronounced Ver-jenz.
Charlotte- It does NOT sound like the girl’s name, it is shar-lot.
And any town that has it’s last sylable start with a ‘t’ (Ripton, Milton, Bristol (my town :)), Monkton) the ‘t’ is not pronounced. This has more to do with our accent, but that’s how we say 'em, and if you say ‘em different then you are obviously a friggin’ out-of-stater.
In Oklahoma, there is a small town in the panhandle with the name Boise City. They pronounce their Boise as “Boyce” (one syllable), Rhymes with Rolls Royce.
I don’t know if anyone has mentioned it yet, but my home state is “Col a rad a” (short initial and last a) or even “Col o rad o” (for the city folks) but never “Col o rod o”.
I grew up in Montrose, Colorado. If you are local, you pronounce it “Mont’ rose” (with a nasal “t”) as opposed to the English “Mon trose’”.
Bit of a Hijack but I saw this and had to mention it. In this town (Bloomington, IN) we have the Twin Lakes Sports Park. They actually DRAINED ONE OF THE TWIN LAKES to make the Sports Park in the first place!
I’ve got a cabin outside Scranton and the locals there seem to think it’s pronounced Wilkes-Burra…but, being from Philly I’ve heard it butchered a million different ways…hey, if you not paying attention you’ll think their saying Fluffya instead of Philadelphia.
I’m from Hughesville (about 20 miles outside of Williamsport) and it’s Wilkes-Bear (unless you actually live there, in which case it’s Wilkes-Berry…snobs <g>).
However, I’ve lived a long, long time in Arizona and so:
Tucson is TOO-sahn, not Tucks-sun
Mesa is MAY-sa, not MESS-uh
Tempe is Tem-PEE, not Temp
Mogollon Rim is MUH-gee(hard g)-yon, not Muggy-ON or Moe-GOY-yun
Prescott is PRES-kit, not Pres-COT
Canyon de Chelle is Canyon duh Shay, not Canyon dee Shelly
Fort Huachuca, if you please, is pronounced Wa-CHOO-ka
And for heaven’s sakes, if you can’t cope with Casa Grande or Sierra Vista, just go home!
When I went through NY by train last month the conductors called it renns-leer both times, coming and going. Better straighten out Amtrak.
Like Indiana, Kentucky also has a Versailles (ver-sayles), but the one that separates the natives from the sane people is Louisville. It is definitely not lew-ee-ville or even lew-us-ville it is plain, old lou-uh-vul. Make sure you slur it all together now.
Heh. At least if they pronounced it Muggy-on instead of Mo-go-lon. And I had a friend from Prescott who had a lot of fun with that “it’s PRES-kit - like Biscuit”
Canyon De Chelly (not Chelle) - OK, I can understand that one. I’m a native and the first time I saw it in print I didn’t realize that it was the same canyon that I had heard mentioned before.
And you left out a few very common ones:
Our famous gila monster (along with the town Gila Bend) - pronounced HEE-la.
The slightly less famous javelina (have-a-LEE-na) - it’s a kind of wild pig.
Some of our desert plants - Cholla (CHOY-a) and Ocotillo (o-co-TEE-o). The mighty Saguaro has already been covered in this thread.
But if you really want to impress the locals, pronounce Tlaquepaque correctly (tuh-LA-kuh-PAH-kee).
Allow me to introduce you to the jewel in the Louisiana crown,
Natchitoches.
There’s even a local joke about this one. Couple is driving through Natchitoches and can’t figure out how to pronounce it. So they stop for lunch at a fast food joint and decide to ask the person taking their order. “Excuse me miss,” the man says, “My wife and I are from out of town. How do you pronounce the name of this place?”
The ggirl looks at him quizzically for a few moments and then says, slowly, “Bur-ger King.”
HAR!
It’s actually pronounced “NAK-a-dish”.
Someone mentioned New Orleans. They have such gems as Calliope (KAL-e-ope) and Burgundy (bur-GUN-dee). There are others, but those are the two that come to mind. And yes, those are the official pronunciations.
“New Orleans”, by the way, is pronounced “New OR-luns” or “NAW-lins”. NEVER “New or-LEENS” unless you’re rhyming it with “Do you know what it means” in that song.
I think that differences between Scots-English and English-English are highlighted by two syllable names. English people often seem to get the stress wrong, whether it goes on the first syllable or the second. This seems to be even more pronounced with Americans.
For example: Falkirk gets pronounced wrongly as Falkirk and Oban gets pronounced Oban.
However, Dundee gets pronounced wrongly as Dundee.
It would be interesting to hear whether there are English placenames that we habitually pronunce wrongly.
To add to Futile Gesture’s list:
Hawick, which is correctly pronounced something like “Hoick”
Dumfries; “Dumfrees” is correct, and it’s interesting to read that that’s how it’s said in Virginia as well
Alford; silent “l”
Culzean; should be “Cullane”
Fraserburgh; “The Broch” (only joking)
I forgot about Gila Bend being mangled so often. Would you believe that way back in the 60s and 70s you’d occasionally hear a tourist refer to the ‘Nava-JOE’??? (There should be a smiley for ‘banging one’s head on the nearest solid object’.)
I’ve lived around enough of 'em to pass as a local…I know how to pronounce all the towns, and can pull off a good enough accent, cause I know not to lay it on too thick. (No, I don’t go to school there, or anything. I just know a lot of them, and have relatives there.)
