What? No Ohio yet?
My favorites:
Bellfontaine = BellFOUNTain
Newark = Nerk (There used to be a t-shirt that said something like: I’m from Nerk, Aha)
We also have a LEB-ah-nun, LIE-ma and who knows how many other repeat odd pronunciations.
Mentioned Lima in #14 above.
heh heh hehe - try these on:
Irymple: - Eye-rimp-pool
Merbein: - Mer-bean
Werrimull: - where-im-ool
Boinka: - bow-ink-a
Walpeup: - wal - pee - up
Meringur: - mer - ing -ga
Coomealla: coo - me - al - la (okay, that was easy - doh!)
Dareton: dare - tonne
My hometown, Havre, MT, is pronounced “HAV-ur”, as in “you can”. The fact it’s named after Le Havre, France means nothing.
[QUOTE=Litoris]
[li]One of my faves, Gallatin – pronounced GAL-uh-tin in the South, but gah-LAT-in in the West and North[/li][/QUOTE]
I was born and grew up in Gallatin County, Montana, and have always heard it pronounced GAL-uh-tin. Where in the West is it not pronounced that way?
I used to work in a call center as well, and was always amused by how elderly people from Iowa pronounced their state name as “Ioway”. Also, locals put the emphasis on the “loo” in Waterloo, IA.
Isn’t it strange, Derleth, how it looks like Havre and Favre (as in Brett, from the Green Bay Packers) should rhyme, but they don’t?
Both match the original 
Lancaster, CA is LAN-caster. A Lancaster bomber or Lancaster, PA is LANK-ister.
I’ve heard Sepulveda and Pasadena pronounced as SEPPLE-veeda and pa-SAD-in-a. La Jolla, of course, is often mispronounced La-JOLLA. And it’s mildly amusing hearing people try to say Port Hueneme.
A few times when I have called other call centers (for bill-paying/customer service/whatever on my own accounts) and gotten people with the obvious mid-western accent or the obvious Western lack thereof, they consistently pronounce it gul-AT-in. In MT, where Gallatin apparently was much revered and many things are named after him – not so much. We did get a good giggle when we went to the Marlboro Ranch (at the bottom of the Crazy Mountains) and landed at Gallatin airport – considering we both grew up in Gallatin, TN. Good times, good times…
HI place names aside, the worst I have had to deal with were in the PNW – luckily, I have lived in Oregon and Washington, and am constantly amazing customers with my ability to prounounce such gems as Snoqaulmie and Clackamas.
One other that is a very common name, but pronounced across the board is Oswego. In NY, it’s os-WEE-go, Ill prefers os-WAY-go, and I seem to remember OR is OS-wuh-go.
I pity the fool looking for Taliaferro in Georgia. Little do they know it is to be pronounce Tolver.
On a minor embarrassing note, I recall looking at a US map and wondering why I had never heard of such a large city named Tuk-sun. Oh what fools we mortals be.
It’s about 120 miles SSE of Pa-HO-nicks.
Coogee - COULD-jee
Kuring-Gai - k’RING-guy
Tarana - tarra-NAH
Coolangatta - COOL-an-gatta, but Tallangatta - t’LANG-g’ta
Wollongong - WOOLEN-gong
Manuka - MAH-n-cah
Canowindra - c-NOUN-dra
Gorokan - gorruh-CAN
Ourimbah -uh-RIM-buh
One little shibboleth is that real anglophone Montrealers pronounce it Muntreal. Everyone else, even other Canadians, pronounce it Mont-real with the first syllable rhyming with “want.”
Then of course there’s Saskatchewan, pronounced as two syllables.
I’ve flown in and out of Gallatin Field many times My father was one of the men who did the stonework there in the '70’s.
Pronouncing the name “Gul-AT-in” in Montana is certainly a sign that you are “not from here”. Is there a place in the US where something is named “Gallatin” where they pronounce it that way?
It’s not so much that Montanans revere Mr. Gallatin–it’s that Lewis and Clark did, and named one of the three rivers that make up the Missouri after him. All the other Gallatins are near that river or river valley.
There’s Refugio, TX, which is pronounced “Re-Fury-Oh.”
Then you have Biloxi, MS–said as “B’ LUX-ee.*”
*I don’t know how to make a schwa symbol so the apostrophe is the closest I could come to indicating a lack of a real vowel sound. It’s still said with three syllables!
Ya know, I was in KAY-ro, IL week before last. Up until ten days before I went there I did not know it existed. Yet, here I’ve seen it mentioned three or four times in this thread. Also, Cairo, GA is KAY-ro. Berlin, Ga is BER-lin. Houston Co., GA is HOUSE-tun. Vienna, GA is Vi-EEEN-a (that’s as close as I can get it phonetically. You just have to hear it to understand it). Lafayette, GA and AL is Luh-FAAAY-it, except in my home town where there’s a statue of said Marquis in the town square and the square is pronounced like it’s supposed to be.
Jawja is full of strangely pronounced places.
The former is nearer to how I would pronounce Lancaster Bomber (LAN-castuh, may be closer I think).
Caldmore (suburb of Walsall, UK) is pronounced Karma by the locals – the pronunciation helped identify a paedophile murderer as a local man many years back.
Also found in MI and TN.
I grew up in Louavul, Kentucky.
My daughter was playing Carmen Sandiego, and the next state she had to go to was Missoura. She said “its MissourI, Mom” - I said “not if you’ve been there.”
Hmm. I’ve never pronounced it that way. “Muntreal” it’s always been for me.
Burgaw, NC = bur GAW
Conetoe, NC = kun EE tah
Chinquapin, NC = CHING ka pin
Boger City, NC (not sure, but I wonder)
Chicopee, MA = CHICK uh pee
Puyallup, WA = poo AL up (or so I heard)