# S-M-I-T-H pronounced BROWN **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 15, 2004, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-m-i-t-h-pronounced-brown/280040 "2004-12-15T22:02:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![PastAllReason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@PastAllReason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastAllReason)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-m-i-t-h-pronounced-brown/280040/101 "2004-12-17T01:53:01Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > As for Torquay, that’s not really a quirk, as “quay” is always spelt as “key”. (Torquay is also a town in England, BTW. We also have Newquay. New Quay, on the other hand, is in Wales.) Except of course in Saskatchewan where the town of Torquay is pronounced Tor-kway. And the town of Ceylon is pronounced CEE-lawn. Oddly, the pronounciation of Montmartre is actually pretty close to the French pronounciation. And for anyone who’s not from here, Saskatchewan would be pronounced Se-SKATCH-ewe-wan, not Sask-AT-chew-WAN. Really. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-m-i-t-h-pronounced-brown/280040/102 "2004-12-17T02:01:57Z")
> [@cstamets](#): > > Lanc-aster is in OH. I think the Gratiot thing is splitting hairs, but with this, there can be no dispute! 😃 It’s Lang-K’stir. I’m a Carrollian, m’self… ---
**Author:** ![Rex\_Fenestrarum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rex_fenestrarum/32/7265_2.png) [@Rex\_Fenestrarum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rex_Fenestrarum)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-m-i-t-h-pronounced-brown/280040/103 "2004-12-17T02:21:06Z")
> [@Doctor Jackson](#): > > It’s actually pronounced “duh QUE luh”. You’re absolutely right about new on-air personalities, though. It’s a dead giveaway. > > [sub]Doc, one of the few remaining natives who grew up not far from DuhQUEluh.[/sub] That’s funny - I spent my first 14 years on this earth living in Snellville - first in a duplex on Pine Road while they were building “my” first house on Eastwood Drive. As soon as the city approved the K-mart on Wisteria - which basically put K-Mart’s loading dock a hundred yards from our backyard - the folks moved over to Duluth. After bouncing around Atlanta for a few years - Buckhead, Dunwoody, Alpharetta - I moved to Charlotte to be with the love of my life. And now I run in to someone on the SDMB who’s from that little town “where everybody’s somebody”. :rolleyes: I stand by my pronounciation. It looks like we pronounce it the same way, but you did a much better job with the phoentic spelling. ---
**Author:** ![umop\_ap\_sdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/dbc845/32.png) [@umop\_ap\_sdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/umop_ap_sdn)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-m-i-t-h-pronounced-brown/280040/104 "2004-12-17T02:26:11Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > 've also heard that the word “nuclear” may correctly be pronounced “nucular” [Merriam-Webster](http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=nuclear&x=16&y=14) agrees: > [@](#): > > Main Entry: nu·cle·ar > Pronunciation: 'nü-klE-&r, 'nyü-, ÷-ky&-l&r :eek: I am devastated. Absolutely, utterly devastated. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-m-i-t-h-pronounced-brown/280040/105 "2004-12-17T02:39:18Z")
Again, dictionaries are guides to popular usage, not the arbiters of what a word is. ---
**Author:** ![Omega\_Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7c8e57/32.png) [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-m-i-t-h-pronounced-brown/280040/106 "2004-12-17T02:49:43Z")
> [@cstamets](#): > > Lancaster - Lan-caster is in PA, Lanc-aster is in OH. It’s pronounced Lank-aster in PA too (according to roomates from the area), and Lan-caster in NY. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-m-i-t-h-pronounced-brown/280040/107 "2004-12-17T03:10:07Z")
> [@Omega Glory](#): > > It’s pronounced Lank-aster in PA too (according to roomates from the area), and Lan-caster in NY. Yep. I live in LANK-a-stir, PA. However, if you go more than about 50 miles in any direction from Penn Square, the pronunciation becomes LAN-caster. We can always tell when an announcer on the radio or tv is from outside the area when they have to say the name of the city… ---
**Author:** ![El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-m-i-t-h-pronounced-brown/280040/108 "2004-12-17T03:19:16Z")
jayjay: You were close. It’s “ **Coal** -bren.” Almost a “brn” sound that took me months to learn. People still laugh at me at the general store. ---
**Author:** ![liirogue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dbc845/32.png) [@liirogue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liirogue)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-m-i-t-h-pronounced-brown/280040/109 "2004-12-17T03:38:09Z")
We have a Miami, Oklahoma. But of course we can’t call it My-AM-ee, we call it My-Am-uh :smack: ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-m-i-t-h-pronounced-brown/280040/110 "2004-12-17T03:38:14Z")
> [@El Cid Viscoso](#): > > jayjay: You were close. It’s “ **Coal** -bren.” Almost a “brn” sound that took me months to learn. People still laugh at me at the general store. The one immutable rule of Celtic languages, from what I’ve noticed, is that if you eliminate half of the letters in any given word and pronounce what’s left you’ll be close. ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-m-i-t-h-pronounced-brown/280040/111 "2004-12-17T06:52:51Z")
Brisbane in Australia is pronounced “Bris-bin” (very short i’s, almost non-existent) IIRC. Brisbane, California is pronounced “Briz-bane”. Had a friend in college whose last name is Sczupaj. Most people would choke out something like “Skuh-zoo-padge”, it’s actually pronounced “Shoe-pie”. Got another friend whose middle name is the “peace symbol”. That’s his actual middle name but look at any form that gets entered into a computer and it usually shows up as an “O”. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-m-i-t-h-pronounced-brown/280040/112 "2004-12-17T15:01:39Z")
> [@liirogue](#): > > We have a Miami, Oklahoma. But of course we can’t call it My-AM-ee, we call it My-Am-uh :smack: Miamuh is also the traditional pronunciation in the Dayton, Ohio, area (the “Great Miami Valley”). Don Wayne, who was the anchorman for Channel 7 for many years said it that way every day. But you don’t hear it much anymore, since he retired in the early 1980s. These days I would only expect a real old timer out in the country to say Miamuh. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-m-i-t-h-pronounced-brown/280040/113 "2004-12-17T15:03:59Z")
Near Chillicothe, Ohio, there’s a school district and high school called “Unioto,” because it incorporates parts of Union Township and Scioto Township. Uni-Oto, get it? But nobody in that area says “Unioto,” they all say “UnioNoto,” sticking an extra “N” in there. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-m-i-t-h-pronounced-brown/280040/114 "2004-12-17T15:21:15Z")
> [@Zoe](#): > > They have a _Milan_ – pronounced with the accent on the first syllable and a long _i_ and a _Medina_ – pronounced with the accent on the second syllable and with a long _i_. OK, so Milan pronounced the same way as Italians pronounce the soccer team from Milano, and Medina pronounced as in Spanish… 🆒 I have problems talking with people from Toledo, OH. The way they say it, I’d write Tolido. Loved that Will Smith song where they’d say “welcome to Mayami” in English and “bienvenido a Miami” in Spanish 🙂 I remind people of that song whenever we’re speaking Spanish and they say Mayami. It’s Miami in Seminole, too (I had a 'nole classmate at UofMiami). My first lastname’s structure is “commonlastname de town” (de means from, in these lastnames); this is quite common in Navarra, Álava and Burgos, but very uncommon everywhere else. It leads to a lot of confusion: people who think the part behind “de” is Mr Nava’s lastname (no such person), people who thing “de town” is my maternal lastname, etc. I used to feel kind of guilty and wonder if I was being snobbish for insisting that people use the whole thing, until a classmate with the Commonlastname got called by _my_ whole thing and blew off her top. I feel perfectly fine to be upholding 10 centuries of family tradition, now. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-m-i-t-h-pronounced-brown/280040/115 "2004-12-17T15:34:36Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Loved that Will Smith song where they’d say “welcome to Mayami” in English and “bienvenido a Miami” in Spanish 🙂 I remind people of that song whenever we’re speaking Spanish and they say Mayami. It’s Miami in Seminole, too (I had a 'nole classmate at UofMiami). My understanding is that the name “Miami” has nothing to do with the Seminoles or anything to do with Florida at all. They named the city after the Miamis of Ohio. ---
**Author:** ![fortytwo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f9ae1b/32.png) [@fortytwo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fortytwo)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-m-i-t-h-pronounced-brown/280040/116 "2004-12-17T15:44:00Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Unfortunately, all I have is Italian surnames, and they’re phonetic, so no go. If I were Welsh, now…then I’d have you all beat. I’m Welsh but my name is as common as muck, impossible to get wrong. This on the other hand is a Welsh village name. Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch. Usually abbreviated to Llanfair P G. ---
**Author:** ![Iceland\_Blue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/4bbf92/32.png) [@Iceland\_Blue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iceland_Blue)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-m-i-t-h-pronounced-brown/280040/117 "2004-12-17T16:18:04Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > 🙂 > > As for Torquay, that’s not really a quirk, as “quay” is always spelt as “key”. (Torquay is also a town in England, BTW. It is the venerable home of Iceland\_Blue(yay,waves flag for home town) We are near the River Teign(teen) On it you will find Teignmouth(tinmouth),Teignbridge(teenbridge), Kingsteignton(kings-tayn-ton) and Bishopsteignton(bishops-taing-ton) Four different pronunciations of the same damn word within a few miles of each other… ---
**Author:** ![2sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/e47774/32.png) [@2sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2sense)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-m-i-t-h-pronounced-brown/280040/118 "2004-12-20T06:15:58Z")
Here’s an Anglicism I’ve wondered about: Is Marquis of Queensbury really pronounced “Mar-kwis of Kweens-bree”? ---
**Author:** ![mike1dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@mike1dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mike1dog)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-m-i-t-h-pronounced-brown/280040/119 "2004-12-20T06:39:27Z")
I used to live near a town in Alabama that had two names. Half of the town was Guin(pronounced Gu-Win), while the other half was spelled Gu-Win and pronounced Gwen. I never understood this. ---
**Author:** ![tygerbryght](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9a28c/32.png) [@tygerbryght](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tygerbryght)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-m-i-t-h-pronounced-brown/280040/120 "2004-12-20T08:13:54Z")
> [@Doctor Jackson](#): > > It’s actually pronounced “duh QUE luh”. You’re absolutely right about new on-air personalities, though. It’s a dead giveaway. > > [sub]Doc, one of the few remaining natives who grew up not far from DuhQUEluh.[/sub] I suspect that pronunciation is correct _because_ it’s a Native American name (as are a great many “funny” town names in Georgia). About 12 years ago I made my first trip to GA (other than passing through the airport in Atlanta). My destination was Dahlonega. When I got nearby, I asked another patron in a restaurant for some local information, and got the most polite pronunciation correction I’ve ever received. I said Dah lon EGG ah. She said, “I believe they say it, Dah LON aga.” Lovely little antebellum-type town, with a zillion souvenir stores on the town square. It’s the place where gold was first found (by whites) in North America, which was the reason why the state of Georgia pushed so hard for my ancestors to be disposessed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-m-i-t-h-pronounced-brown/280040.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-m-i-t-h-pronounced-brown/280040.md?page=7)