Oh, yeh, Natchidoches, LA is Nakudush, but is NACH-i-doch-us in TX. Mostly, I don’t even try to pronounce the LA stuff – they’re all impossible! I forgot about Lima – that one is always fun. It does give me a giggle to have people in Naw-fuck call, though. Only time I get to say fuck to a customer without a write-up…
Oyutsiders tend to pronounce Moonachie NJ as mun-AUCH-ee. It’s MOON-auk-ee.
And Hasbrouck Heights is “Hasbro.”
Kearny, NJ is pronounced ‘Car-nee’, but as I found out a few years ago after directing my husband to Kearny Street in San Francisco, it’s pronounced ‘Kerr -nee’ out here. (The namesakes of both are related - nephew/uncle, I think.)
The last syllable in Moscow, Russia is pronounced as “cow”, like the farm animals.
Moscow, Idaho, however, is pronouced “moss-co”, like a company that produces moss, or something.
Recent similar thread.
Some I mentioned there:
There is also a MYE-lin (Milan) New Hampshire (just north of Berlin).
JAY-pan (Japan), MO.
Also in Missouri: Creeve core (Creve Coeur). Bellfountain (Bellefontaine).
We pass Bolivar, NY on the way to my in-laws. I’m informed that the locals call it “BALL-ver”.
And I grew up just down the street from Swarthmore (home of Swarthmore College), which has long since lost the “r” from its pronounciation.
And the original town of that name is new-uck.
I don’t know what the natives call it, but when I hear them mention Delhi, NY on the radio it’s DEL-high.
Where are you from? In NJ, it’s more like “Noork”
La Place, Illinois, is Lay Plase.
In NJ, the difference in pronounciation of “Newark” and “New York” is only a short vowel sound in the second. “Noork” and “noo-york”
The original town is in the UK. That’s where I am living right now.
Nevada, Mo. is pronounced nuh-VAY-duh.
Kansas’ best contribution to funky phonics is Salina (suh-LY-nuh), seat of Saline (suh-LEEN) County. Trips up the new out-of-state TV newsweenies every time.
Is Kansas the only place El Dorado is pronounced with a long a?
Buena Vista, CO is pronounced Byoo-na Vista by locals.
Drives me crazy.
In addition to Versailles (Ver-sales), Ky., we also have nearby Garrard County, pronounced Gare-ed. Not far from Cay-row, Ill., is the Kentucky town of Kuttawa, or Kuh-TAO-Wuh.
We Californios have our own local exceptions to proper Spanish pronunciation, all the more jarring because mostly we do try to hold to the correct way of saying it. If you stumble over “Costa Mesa”, you’re not from around here.
Still, its residents call it San Peedro, not Sawn Paydro.
Of course, in ‘Москва’ itself, it’s not pronounced like a “cow” at all, but “Moskva”.
[In the UK and other non-US anglophone countries, the Russian capital is pronounced in the “Idahoan” manner.]
When I lived in Hawaii, I quickly learned to say HOE-NOE-lulu, not HAH-NA-lulu. Long O on both. People would make fun of me for pronouncing it like a mainlander.
Blackley in Manchester is, confusingly, pronounced Blake-lee.
In Massachusetts it’s Wis-ter.