# Pronunciations which are legit but sound pretentious to outsiders **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 3, 2018, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-which-are-legit-but-sound-pretentious-to-outsiders/823939 "2018-11-03T18:17:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2018, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-which-are-legit-but-sound-pretentious-to-outsiders/823939/61 "2018-11-04T01:15:20Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > And New Berlin WI is “New BUR lin”. To differentiate it from Germany’s “Bur LIN”. 🆒 More like bear LEAN (but not quite) ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2018, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-which-are-legit-but-sound-pretentious-to-outsiders/823939/62 "2018-11-04T01:20:53Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > My older Indian relatives used to say “Det-tree-Ott,” rhyming with “patriot.” I even once saw some airport person spell it Detriot. I have no idea why they thought that was the name. They might now consider the place more détruit than détroit. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2018, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-which-are-legit-but-sound-pretentious-to-outsiders/823939/63 "2018-11-04T01:23:23Z")
Mischievous. Many people add a pretentious sounding extra syllable to it that just doesn’t exist, since there is NO i after the v. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2018, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-which-are-legit-but-sound-pretentious-to-outsiders/823939/64 "2018-11-04T01:37:14Z")
> [@DavidwithanR](#): > > More like bear LEAN (but not quite) I somehow have trouble saying “Bear LEAN” without adding “mein Führer!” :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2018, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-which-are-legit-but-sound-pretentious-to-outsiders/823939/65 "2018-11-04T01:41:39Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > This Wisconsinite pronounces it “Prairie du Sheen.” > > As do most natives of the town, IMHO. > > [My Prairie du Chien](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7LewD_uK4g) I’ve always heard “Shane,” but then I’m from Minnesota. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2018, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-which-are-legit-but-sound-pretentious-to-outsiders/823939/66 "2018-11-04T02:07:02Z")
[Actually, Tony, I think you’ll find it’s “ignoramuses”. It’s from the Latin. We are ignorant. That makes it a verb, not a noun.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u96yOj3iz4I) ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2018, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-which-are-legit-but-sound-pretentious-to-outsiders/823939/67 "2018-11-04T02:07:39Z")
Cairo (KAY-roh) Illinois New Madrid (MAD-rid), Missouri ---
**Author:** ![Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/59ef9b/32.png) [@Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorkshire_Pudding)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2018, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-which-are-legit-but-sound-pretentious-to-outsiders/823939/68 "2018-11-04T02:09:44Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > My older Indian relatives used to say “Det-tree-Ott,” rhyming with “patriot.” I even once saw some airport person spell it Detriot. I have no idea why they thought that was the name. “In a musty old hall in Detroy-it they prayed…” If it’s good enough for the Lightfoot, it’s good enough for me. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2018, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-which-are-legit-but-sound-pretentious-to-outsiders/823939/69 "2018-11-04T02:17:01Z")
> [@Penfeather](#): > > [Actually, Tony, I think you’ll find it’s “ignoramuses”. It’s from the Latin. We are ignorant. That makes it a verb, not a noun.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u96yOj3iz4I) Brilliant bit, but “ignorant” is an adjective, not a noun. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2018, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-which-are-legit-but-sound-pretentious-to-outsiders/823939/70 "2018-11-04T04:38:51Z")
Croton NY: ( KRO-uhn ) Long “O”. Anyone who goes out of their way to make it two syllables and enunciates the “t” is a weirdo. Newark NJ: ( Nork ) Using two syllables is forgivable if the vowels are very flat. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2018, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-which-are-legit-but-sound-pretentious-to-outsiders/823939/71 "2018-11-04T04:50:20Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > Cairo (KAY-roh) Illinois > > New Madrid (MAD-rid), Missouri Yes. I listened to all three volumes of Shelby Foote’s The Civil War on audiobooks and after 60 or so hours both of those still bothered the hell out of me. Niche - neesh. Makes me slappy. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2018, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-which-are-legit-but-sound-pretentious-to-outsiders/823939/72 "2018-11-04T05:01:18Z")
In Green Bay, where I grew up, we had several streets with French names. Only, most of them weren’t French, exactly; they were Belgian, as, historically, Green Bay had a lot of people descended from Walloons (French-speaking Belgians). So, we had a Grignon Street, and a Beaupre Street. Pronounced “GRIG-nun” and “BOO-pree,” respectively. There are also two suburbs named for French priests who had been among the early explorers of the area, neither of which are really pronounced in a French fashion. Allouez (named for Jesuit missionary Jean-Claude Allouez) is pronounced “AL-uh-way.” De Pere (named for several French priests, including Allouez and Jean Nicolet) is pronounced “Dee-PEER.” ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2018, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-which-are-legit-but-sound-pretentious-to-outsiders/823939/73 "2018-11-04T06:01:51Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > In Green Bay, where I grew up, we had several streets with French names. Only, most of them weren’t French, exactly; they were Belgian, as, historically, Green Bay had a lot of people descended from Walloons (French-speaking Belgians). > > So, we had a Grignon Street, and a Beaupre Street. Pronounced “GRIG-nun” and “BOO-pree,” respectively. > > There are also two suburbs named for French priests who had been among the early explorers of the area, neither of which are really pronounced in a French fashion. Allouez (named for Jesuit missionary Jean-Claude Allouez) is pronounced “AL-uh-way.” De Pere (named for several French priests, including Allouez and Jean Nicolet) is pronounced “Dee-PEER.” While GRIG-nun and dee-PEER are both pretty grating in French, sort of like pronouncing “New York” as “Nave your-EEK”, it’s different with AL-uh-way - that’s just an extreme example of speaking French with an English accent. ---
**Author:** ![Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/59ef9b/32.png) [@Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorkshire_Pudding)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2018, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-which-are-legit-but-sound-pretentious-to-outsiders/823939/74 "2018-11-04T12:20:28Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > Niche - neesh. Makes me slappy. Whereas niche pronounced “nitch” doesn’t happen in British English. Well, it might, but only if people have read it but never heard it: “neesh” is simply the only way to say it here. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2018, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-which-are-legit-but-sound-pretentious-to-outsiders/823939/75 "2018-11-04T13:42:16Z")
**MoonMoon** and **Thudlow Boink** both write of “aunt” pronounced to rhyme with “taunt” or “haunt”: to one, it sounds normal and right, whereas “ant” sounds ridiculous; to the other, it’s the “taunt / haunt”-rhyming pronunciation which seems absurd. > [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > Now I’ve been through a similar thing with “aunt.” I’ve only known two groups of people who rhymed it with “taunt,” snotty bluebood Bostonians, and black people. My people are more likely to give the word two syllables (ay-unt). The insect is much the same but with a little less of a long A and more of a short A. But I got to eavesdrop on a person I know who said she always, always pronounced it the proper Boston-snob way, and she was lying through her teeth. She is a California native and she pronounced it “ant” until she talked to the snob. > > I’m okay with never saying the word foyer again, but I’m gonna have a hard time with aunt. These posts have this Brit struggling a little, as regards assorted pronunciations of the word for a parent’s sister. I’m from the more southerly part of England, and brought up mostly with “BBC English / Received” pronunciation – in which I and pretty well all fellow-Brits encountered, pronounce the world like “ahnt”. I understand that in the north of England it’s often said like “ant” (as the insect); but have virtually never encountered this first-hand. I have long been aware that in North America, the word is often pronounced “ant”: but the “taunt / haunt” pronunciation, from anyone, has been unknown to me before today. You live and learn ! As a child, coming across Ogden Nash’s little verse “The anteater Is an uncle-beater; On the other hand, the skunk’ll Beat his aunt and eat his uncle.” puzzled me a bit – having not yet become aware that “aunt” is often said “ant” west of the Atlantic; I thought that Ogden was just being a bit randomly goofy and weird. Learning of the American pronunciation option, allowed me to properly see the point of the jingle. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2018, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-which-are-legit-but-sound-pretentious-to-outsiders/823939/76 "2018-11-04T13:54:47Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > My nomination for the OP is when I say “octopuses.” Most people want to correct me to “octopi.” This, plus **Yorkshire Pudding** ’s “octopodes”; put me in mind of a peripheral feature of Harry Turtledove’s fantasy novels set in the imaginary land of Videssos. Said country is quite closely modelled on the historical Byzantine Empire; including names, and excerpts of its supposed language, being quite strongly Greek-sounding. The octopus is a creature which has some slight prominence in these books, largely as an item on the menu: the Videssians make the word’s plural, “octopoi”. Well, it’s Harry’s fantasy universe, and he can have pronunciations in it, whatever he wants them to be… ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2018, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-which-are-legit-but-sound-pretentious-to-outsiders/823939/77 "2018-11-04T13:55:23Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > “Herbs/erbs” is the main thing that came to mind when I read the OP. > > But I’m also trying to remember a scene in a movie–don’t recall the movie’s name–featuring prep-school guys teasing one of their number who’d come from a less-advantaged background, over his pronunciation of a ski resort. I think it was one in Switzerland, though I could be mis-remembering. Ring a bell with anyone? _Scent of a Woman_. Truman Capote and his rich friends were rubbing it in Robin’s face that he had to spend his Thanksgiving break being Michael Corleone’s seeing-eye dog instead of going skiing in Gdańsk with them. Or maybe they were going to spend Thanksgiving skiing in Vermont, and mockingly asked him if he would be joining them for Christmas in Gdańsk (no). And my memory is a little hazy, but ISTR that one of the rich kids was razzing another rich kid about the way he pronounced it. Anyway, yeah. _Scent of a Woman_. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2018, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-which-are-legit-but-sound-pretentious-to-outsiders/823939/78 "2018-11-04T14:03:48Z")
> [@Yorkshire\_Pudding](#): > > Whereas niche pronounced “nitch” doesn’t happen in British English. Well, it might, but only if people have read it but never heard it: “neesh” is simply the only way to say it here. It is found in Britain (a special case, I suspect – pronounced in the way that will rhyme) in the rude limerick: A pious young lady of Chichester Made all of the saints in their niches stir; And each morning at matin Her breast in pink satin Made the Bishop of Chichester’s breeches\* stir. \*pronounced “britches” ---
**Author:** ![Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/59ef9b/32.png) [@Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorkshire_Pudding)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2018, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-which-are-legit-but-sound-pretentious-to-outsiders/823939/79 "2018-11-04T14:09:35Z")
> [@Sangahyando](#): > > **MoonMoon** and **Thudlow Boink** both write of “aunt” pronounced to rhyme with “taunt” or “haunt”: to one, it sounds normal and right, whereas “ant” sounds ridiculous; to the other, it’s the “taunt / haunt”-rhyming pronunciation which seems absurd. > > These posts have this Brit struggling a little, as regards assorted pronunciations of the word for a parent’s sister. I’m from the more southerly part of England, and brought up mostly with “BBC English / Received” pronunciation – in which I and pretty well all fellow-Brits encountered, pronounce the world like “ahnt”. I understand that in the north of England it’s often said like “ant” (as the insect); but have virtually never encountered this first-hand. This Yorkshireman can confirm it: while aunts and ants may differ in both stature and spelling, they’re unified in pronunciation. ---
**Author:** ![MoonMoon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonmoon/32/2959_2.png) [@MoonMoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoonMoon)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2018, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-which-are-legit-but-sound-pretentious-to-outsiders/823939/80 "2018-11-04T14:33:52Z")
> [@Sangahyando](#): > > These posts have this Brit struggling a little, as regards assorted pronunciations of the word for a parent’s sister. I’m from the more southerly part of England, and brought up mostly with “BBC English / Received” pronunciation – in which I and pretty well all fellow-Brits encountered, pronounce the world like “ahnt”. I understand that in the north of England it’s often said like “ant” (as the insect); but have virtually never encountered this first-hand. > > I have long been aware that in North America, the word is often pronounced “ant”: but the “taunt / haunt” pronunciation, from anyone, has been unknown to me before today. You live and learn! Okay, well, now _I’m_ confused, because “ahnt” has the same vowel sound as “haunt”. So I think we’re pronouncing aunt the same way. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-which-are-legit-but-sound-pretentious-to-outsiders/823939.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pronunciations-which-are-legit-but-sound-pretentious-to-outsiders/823939.md?page=5)