# Please don't call it... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 22, 2013, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883 "2013-08-22T16:13:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/21 "2013-08-22T16:55:07Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > How do you feel about Cahuenga and Sepulveda? La Canada? I haven’t heard anyone mispronounce Cahuenga or La Cañada, but I heard an Englishman on a public radio station say ‘Sepple-veeda’ and ‘Puh-SAD-innuh’. 😛 (He may have been joking.) ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/22 "2013-08-22T16:55:56Z")
Don’t call it a comeback. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/23 "2013-08-22T16:58:03Z")
> [@The\_Second\_Stone](#): > > My Dad, a fifth generation native almost never says the whole name. Nobody calls L.A. by its full name of ‘El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Río de Porciúncula’. Everyone calls it L.A. Please don’t call it ‘LA’. Different climate entirely. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/24 "2013-08-22T17:20:48Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I haven’t heard anyone mispronounce Cahuenga or La Cañada, but I heard an Englishman on a public radio station say ‘Sepple-veeda’ and ‘Puh-SAD-innuh’. 😛 (He may have been joking.) Talking GPS units make mistakes all the time like that. Here’s one that’s unlikely to be known by non-Wisconsinites: “Shawano,” a town in the Menominee Indian Reservation. It’s pronounced “SHAW-no” (one syllable), NOT “shuh-WAH-no” (two syllables). It’s an easy word to use to separate the natives from the tourists. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/25 "2013-08-22T17:26:13Z")
It is okay to say that you know the way to “San A Zay”? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/26 "2013-08-22T17:34:54Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > It is okay to say that you know the way to “San A Zay”? San hO szay. The song gets it right. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/27 "2013-08-22T17:42:21Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Talking GPS units make mistakes all the time like that. Change your GPS language to Australian sometime. Makes good fun with USA pronunciations. FWIW, we deliberately changed ours to Australian because the clarity and diction is better than with American English. Of course, it’s fun when we take a different route than what the GPS thinks we’re going … “Recalculating, … mate.” ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/28 "2013-08-22T17:44:04Z")
Yes, the song does get San Jose right, but as a local I’d say the “alternate” pronunciation is heard just as much. ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/29 "2013-08-22T17:45:50Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > Having grown up in areas with oddly pronounced place-names, I don’t really mind when outsiders say things wrong. It makes it easy to distinguish locals from outsiders. Same. I’m a native of the Philadelphia (you can totally call it Philly) suburbs, and all the Welsh town names around here instantly separate the natives from the transplants. Uwchlan and Tredyffrin are two near me that always trip people up. And Lancaster is LANG-kuster, not LAN-CAST-er. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/30 "2013-08-22T17:48:50Z")
> [@gallows\_fodder](#): > > And Lancaster is LANG-kuster, not LAN-CAST-er. Lancaster, CA is LAN-caster. ---
**Author:** ![kevja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/aeb1de/32.png) [@kevja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kevja)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/31 "2013-08-22T17:51:04Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > If only Californians would stop saying “The 405” for I-405. That’s SOUTHERN California. In the Bay Area, there is no the or I. How do you get there? Well you could take 580 and connect to 5. ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/32 "2013-08-22T17:51:57Z")
There’s a road in Asheville named Leicester Highway. I was told that you can call it LEE-cester, or you can call it Lester, but you better not ever call it LIE-chester. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/33 "2013-08-22T17:58:32Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > This is a bizarre elitist NorCal thing. Some NorCal dudes think that because SoCal will say “THEE 101” and here in NorCal dudes say “the 101”\*, somehow “The 101” is wrong, evil, low-class, low-brow and badwrongfun. If a news announcer sez it the SoCal way on TV, hundreds of angry emails are generated. I don’t get it. > > - Yes, I know NorCalers \*claim \*they don’t say “the” but I hear many of them say a very soft “the”. True, it’s no-where near as pronounced as SoCal. I’m a lileflong Northern Californian and have never heard anybody (besides somebody who grew up somewhere else) say “The 101” (or “The 80” or “The 580”, for that matter). “The Bayshore” or “The Nimitz,” sure (although even those terms are hardly ever used any more), but not “The \”. Speaking of not calling it things…don’t call it “NoCal”. The correct abbreviation for Northern California is “NorCal”. “NoCal” is a way to describe water. (I understand why people say it - “SoCal” is correct for Southern California, so they just figure NoCal is correct as well - but that doesn’t make it correct.) > [@blondebear](#): > > Yes, the song does get San Jose right, but as a local I’d say the “alternate” pronunciation is heard just as much. How about “Sawn Ho-SAY”, which, IIRC, is how you pronounce the one in Costa Rica? Just don’t call the Vietnamese section “Little Ho Chi Minh City”. I found it highly “coincidental” that United pretty much went out of its way to not say Ho Chi Minh City (the departure board at the gate used the airport code, SGN; the flight attendants kept calling it Saigon) for a flight from Boston to Ho Chi Minh City that went through San Francisco. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/34 "2013-08-22T17:59:44Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I haven’t heard anyone mispronounce Cahuenga or La Cañada, but I heard an Englishman on a public radio station say ‘Sepple-veeda’ and ‘Puh-SAD-innuh’. 😛 (He may have been joking.) Huh. I’ve never heard “Sepulveda” pronounced but I would have guessed something like “Sepple-VAY-da”. I guess that’s not it. I see the original Spanish name has an accent on the U, so is it “Suh-POOL-vi-da”? Or an Anglicised “Seh-PUL-vi-da”? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/35 "2013-08-22T18:00:50Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > Speaking of not calling it things…don’t call it “NoCal”. The correct abbreviation for Northern California is “NorCal”. “NoCal” is a way to describe water. (I understand why people say it - “SoCal” is correct for Southern California, so they just figure NoCal is correct as well - but that doesn’t make it correct.) I usually say Northern California. I’ve been known to say NorCal. I don’t say NoCal. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/36 "2013-08-22T18:26:16Z")
> [@Draelin](#): > > Nobody lives in New Joisey, and we don’t talk like that. Shut the fuck up. I absolutely _love_ this faux complaint. I remember many, many years ago when a poster here brought this one up and less than 2 days later I saw a clip of the Governor of NJ saying exactly “New Joisey” on the news. (Among other Joisey-isms.) All too often people with accents are unaware they have them and object to others echoing them back. Anyway … Oregonians rightfully object to the dreadful “Or-y-gawn” pronunciation. But for some reason the will insist it’s pronounced “Or-y-gun”. Actually, it’s pronounced “Or-gun” when they aren’t trying to highlight the pronunciation. ---
**Author:** ![Draelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/37 "2013-08-22T18:47:52Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > I absolutely _love_ this faux complaint. I remember many, many years ago when a poster here brought this one up and less than 2 days later I saw a clip of the Governor of NJ saying exactly “New Joisey” on the news. (Among other Joisey-isms.) Okay, for the sake of clarity–having lived in New Jersey for more than thirty-five years, I have probably met less than ten people who talked like that for real. And the vast majority of them had close relatives from New York. 😛 > [@](#): > > All too often people with accents are unaware they have them and object to others echoing them back. I can’t argue your point, but I can promise you that I can at least pronounce the name of the state I live in reliably. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/38 "2013-08-22T18:48:46Z")
Please don’t call Long Island “LongGUYland.” In the several years I lived there I never heard anyone say that, except jokingly. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/39 "2013-08-22T18:49:23Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > I’m a lileflong Northern Californian and have never heard anybody (besides somebody who grew up somewhere else) say “The 101” (or “The 80” or “The 580”, for that matter). “The Bayshore” or “The Nimitz,” sure (although even those terms are hardly ever used any more), but not “The \”. > > How about “Sawn Ho-SAY”, which, IIRC, is how you pronounce the one in Costa Rica? > > . I have had this debate for decades. Once, at a meeting we had even taped, and I played back diehard Norcalers saying a slight “the” some of the time. But when I used that for evidence, the purists said “OH, well he was born in SoCal” “Oh, he lived in SoCal for a while” or even “His wife is from down there”. It became a “no true scotsman”. And honestly, who gives a rats ass? It is not a mark of being low-class. Like I said, the South almost always uses it and emphasizes it. The North uses it less often and it’s soft. But they do say it. Even traffic reporters. We tend to use that pronunciation for our Sister City down South. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2013, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883/40 "2013-08-22T18:50:45Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > You’re welcome to call Cleveland the CLE or the 216, whatever you like, as long as you’re speaking about Cleveland at all. Even “The land of Cleve” is better than “the town where the river caught fire.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-dont-call-it/666883.md?page=3)