How do you pronounce Pnomh Penh?
[size=1]and did I spell it right?[size]
I decided not to be exhaustive, masonite. There’s so many names in Western Washington that get mangled. I had to pick my favorites. 
But let me add Tenino, Issaquah, Burien, Montesano, and Sedro Woolley.
FISH
Well, Betsy is a Coed, so it’s not too much of a stretch.
Thanks for the thread, Fish. As your neighbor to the south (who knows how to pronounce Puyallup, even), I have a few to add:
The river that runs through Portland is the Willamette (will-AM-it), NOT the Williamette or Willa-MET.
Though even most locals get it wrong anymore, the town southeast of Portland named Molalla is actually (or traditionally, anyway) pronounced MO-lala, not Mo-LA-la.
The coastal town between Newport and Florence named Yachats is pronounced YAH-hahts, not YATCH-its.
But I’ve yet to hear an Oregonian get N’Awlins right (last one I heard try it said NOR-lins). (I grew up in Flah-duh, I oughta know).
Speaking of Flah-duh, I was interested to hear that Melbourne, Australia is pronounced Melb’n. In Flah-duh it’s pronounced MEL-b’rn. I can’t train my Oregonian husband to stop staying Melborn.
Biloxi, MS and Mobile, AL.
I often hear people pronounce the former as “Bil-AH-xi,” but growing up in Florida, I was taught to pronounce it “Bil-UH-xi.”
As for the latter, it’s “Mo-BEEL.” Not “MO-bil.” Or “Mo-BILE.”
Again, these are the pronunciations I learned in Florida, and have understood to be the local pronunciations as well. If I’m wrong, please correct me.
California seems rife with pronunciations of spanish that, while correct 'locally," really grate on my sensibilities: if I pronounce Contra Costa or Alameda or Junipero Serra or Vallejo or Guerrero by the original Spanish style, I find myself getting corrected, which is maddening. The list goes on and on: Vacaville, Rodeo, San Rafael…
CONEtruh COASTuh versus CONtrah COSTuh
AhlahMAYdah versus a nasal ALuhMEEduh
HooNEEpayroh SayRAH versus JUNE-ip-ERR-oh SEHR-ruh
There are plenty of regionalisms that might be considered mispronunciations by people from elsewhere. For instance, there are the names “Jordan” and “Marion” that are regionally correct if pronounced “Jur-dun” and “May-run.”
Although it may be slightly off-topic, I always liked the “ghoti” spelling of “fish” (attributed, I think, to GB Shaw).
Then there are places like Murfreesboro and Cookeville, where “Muffs-burr” and “Coo-uh-vul” are how most locals would say them.
The “better” dictionaries will provide alternative pronunciations, based on usages, with some indication of where those usages are prevalent. This even applies to words that aren’t proper nouns. It’s as if to say that alternatives are allowed.
One set of words that always puzzles me is the group that have either an -int- or -ent- embedded in two or more syllables, like “Kenton” or “Clinton” or “printer” or “winter.” My mother-in-law rejects the notion that the “t” even appears in them, and says “Kennon” and “Clinnon” and so on. I always have the “t” connected with the “n” in the same syllable, as in “Kent-'n” or “print-'r” but hear others say “Ken-ton” and “prin-ter” and feel that one of us must have it wrong.
All I know is that I’d hate to be a court reporter or one of those folks who have to put the closed captions on things happening on the fly! Have you ever noticed how mangled some of those things get?
Are you sure about this one? I have major family connections in Cookeville, spanning many generations, and I have never once heard this pronunciation. We say it as you’d expect. Granted, I’ve never actually lived there myself, so you might be right – it just surprises me, being (sort of) “from there”.
Any Winterpeggers reading this thread? I spent a weekend there (at Christmas time - don’t ask), and to this day, three years later, I’m still ticked off about Portage St.
Did you really have to anglicize everything!?! I bet you still por-tahj your canoe, and yet the street is por-tege.
Oh the wonders of Canadian regionalism!
PS anybody want to take a swing at Penetanguishene?
The “cook-vill” I refer to is way further east and south than Seattle. There are, naturally, residents of that same state, including myself, who refrain from the intensely regionalistic pronunciation I mentioned, but then there are the ones closer to resident status who elide most of the consonants involved. Same state has a Nolensville, that’s often pronounced “nohns-vul.”
Since you mentioned Murfreesboro in the same sentence, I assumed you were talking about the Cookville in Tennessee that is about an hour east of Nashville.
Now I’ve heard “Cookvul” but that’s a different matter. The “K” has never been dropped in my hearing. But then, as I said, I never lived there myself.
Masonite you have the right state. There are so many who do NOT mispronounce the town’s name that it would be unfair ro generalize it. I was merely pointing out that some people do have the odd pronunciation. In fact, I read that mispronunciation as given in William Least Heat Moon’s “Blue Highways” and had the same doubts you have expressed. Then I listened for it myself and, sure enough, found some.
For that matter, Nashville itself can be said several ways. Even Tennessee. It might be a fun study to number/weight the various ways of saying those names.
Same with “Wisk-on-sun” or “Wi-skon-san” or “W’-skan-s’n” where I find I say “Wis-kon-sun.”
“Aussies”, meaning Australians, is pronounced Ozzies. A hard z sound, not a soft s as in the usual American attempt “Ossies”.
It’s also a short o sound at the beginning, as in “top”, not a vowel like “awe” or “ah”, but mostly I think that is an accent thing rather than a mispronunciation.
South of me, we have Russia, Ohio. Pronounced ROOSHEE.
Also, Versailles, which is pronounced Vr-SALES, Bellefontaine, which is pronounced Belle-FOUNT-n, and Lima, which - you guessed it - is LYE-muh.
My mom was originally from Logansport, and she used to say PEE-ru, too.
Growing up, one of my friends could not prounounce “Penelope” it was always “Pen-eh-lop” (long ‘o’).
Just found out she gave birth, kid’s name? “Penelope.” (I just can’t help but think “you couldn’t even say it for 2/3rds of your life… whatever possessed you?”)
What? Nobody has mentioned Buttafuoco yet?
I realize that the thread was dedicated to places but I have a long standing dispute with a friend (nigh on 25 years now…) over pronunciation of the word tin foil and you folks seem like the perfect people to ask.
So. For the record, is it tin-FOIL or TIN-foil?
thanks
Ok. I just remembered one that applies to this post.
There is a town in my state called Duchesne. Pronounced “Du-Shane”. A highway patrol trooper was alerted to a poacher one time when he had a man pulled over who kept insisting that he was indeed from “Du-ches-ne”. He couldn’t figure out what the problem was. Too bad for him that he couldnt have been pulled over near Roy instead.
Aluminum foil.
See they CLAIM these names are from the native americans but it’s us honkeys that screwed up the spelling. I mean take Puyallup… they say, “it’s indian, it’s pronounced PYOO-all-up. put it’s spelled puyallup…” which by all standards should be POO-yall-up. I highly doubt the native americans had a rule in their language that if a u is followed by a y the y is pronounced first… i think we just screwed up the spelling.
Same goes for Sequim - pronounced SQUIM. SQUIM for chrissakes… don’t even get me started on the Slough - slew thing.