Exactly the same here (in my head it alternated between Mark Knopfler and Bob Dylan’s voice).
Since we’re posting songs to illustrate various pronunciation options, I’ll submit this one by
The Kinks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oiscau0zJKc
Nina Hagen: “New York is the hottest place for a honeymoon in a hotel room!”
(1983. “I just saw the freakiest woman on TV!” “You mean Cyndi Lauper?” “No, this lady would tell Cyndi Lauper to go back to Sunday school.”)
Why oh why is it always southern speak?
I said that in my head like this:
Wa–hy o’ wa–hy is it a’ways us-ins, y’all?
Do you guys not think we go to other places and think “dang, these folks talk weird, fast, wrong, unusual or unintelligible”? We do.
OP, say it any way you feel comfortable saying it. It’s ok with me.
^ This.
The English language can be quite forgiving at times, this is one of them. Say “hotel” with the emphasis on either syllable at any time.
Or Missouri itself (Mih-zoo-RAH). In addition to DEE-troit, I also say “KEN-tucky.”
My folks live in a part of Ottawa named Orleans. They don’t pronounce it in the French way (Ohr-lay-AHN) though I think the local Francophones do, but rather like “Or-LEANS,” as does everyone else in the Capital Region. Only after I actually met someone who was a native of New Orleans, did I understand I’d been pronouncing that city’s name wrong. It’s supposed to be “New OHR-linns,” right?
There is also Mih-ZER-uh.
Yep