# Town/City names butchered by Americanization **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 9, 2010, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/town-city-names-butchered-by-americanization/560042 "2010-11-09T15:26:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/town-city-names-butchered-by-americanization/560042/61 "2010-11-09T22:19:07Z")
In Clorado, Buena Vista is pronounced Byoo-na Vista by almost everyone. This one isn’t Americanizing, but about half of the people pronounce the town of Westminster - West minister. ---
**Author:** ![whole\_bean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@whole\_bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whole_bean)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/town-city-names-butchered-by-americanization/560042/62 "2010-11-09T22:22:33Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > There’s also “No-ter Daym”, the Indiana school, and “Notruh Dom”, the _city in France_. cathedral in Paris? ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/town-city-names-butchered-by-americanization/560042/63 "2010-11-09T22:22:38Z")
The county seat of Charles county, MD is La Plata. Pronounced La PLAY-tah. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/town-city-names-butchered-by-americanization/560042/64 "2010-11-09T22:33:48Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > Race of the Sun, right? > > It’s a good name for a place of wealth and arrogance. It’s a pretty boring place (well, it _is_ in Orange County). A gated community for old people. My grandparents weren’t particularly wealthy and they definitely weren’t arrogant, so I don’t know if it really captures the essence. Old People Who Like Golfing Del Sol was apparently taken. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/town-city-names-butchered-by-americanization/560042/65 "2010-11-09T22:37:35Z")
> [@kushiel](#): > > And my favorite, that I am surprised **Cat Whisperer** has not brought up, the capital city of Saskatchewan, our crowning jewel: Regina. Pronounced not like the Queen, but rather the part of the Queen which the heirs popped out of. We call it ‘The City That Rhymes With Fun!’. 😕 Regina, as in Elizabeth Regina, does indeed rhyme with vagina. How did you think it was pronounced? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/town-city-names-butchered-by-americanization/560042/66 "2010-11-09T23:03:06Z")
> [@robardin](#): > > I’m thinking of the Budweiser commercials advertising the beer as being made by “Anheuser-Busch, St. \, Missouri”. (And “Mi-ZUR-ee”, not “Miz-ZUR-uh”.) In fairness, here in the Show-Me State the -ee vs. -ah division is so ingrained that the only neutral territory is the fight cheer for the Tigers (Miz-zoo-RAH -RAH-RAH!) And you’ll notice the first two syllables in the cheer are Mizzou, not Mizzur. If we could’ve compromised like that in 1860, state history would have been different. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/town-city-names-butchered-by-americanization/560042/67 "2010-11-09T23:21:37Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Valdez, Alaska (val-deez). > Houston Street in NYC (house-ten) > > Not a town, but it bugs me every time I hear it: a plant that’s called a [sinkfoil](http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/1370553245043817016aXVZtg). It’s name comes from the French _cinq fuilles_, meaning “five leaves”. Ooh oooh, I know this one. Houston Street is named after William Houstoun (pronounced House-ten). It predates the city of Houston by 20 years. Since the city is named after Sam Houston, it’s nothing but a coincidence - not a mangling. Update: oops didn’t see the first answer - still they didn’t mention what came first. ---
**Author:** ![StuffLikeThatThere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc8723/32.png) [@StuffLikeThatThere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StuffLikeThatThere)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2010, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/town-city-names-butchered-by-americanization/560042/68 "2010-11-10T04:50:55Z")
> [@Drain\_Bead](#): > > Ohio is full of them. Lima, Toledo, the aforementioned Rio Grande and Bellfontaine, and I’m sure tons I’m forgetting. Also Medina (Muh-DIE-nuh) and Seville (Suh-VIL). Very confusing if you have even rudimentary Spanish. Though it’s not a mispronunciation as such, Wooster is also constantly taking crap for the fact that its double o makes the same sound as the double o in book and look instead of the sound of the double o in rooster and booster. I especially like it when people from Massachusetts talk crap about this. Because _their_ Worcester is spelled _exactly_ like it sounds. 🙂 ---
**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 10, 2010, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/town-city-names-butchered-by-americanization/560042/69 "2010-11-10T05:02:11Z")
> [@velvetjones](#): > > I spent the first 5 years of my life in New Berlin, WI…pronounced New BUR-lin. I’m not sure about New Berlin, but I’ve been told by natives of Berlin, WI (different town, but also pronounced BUR-lin) that they changed the pronunciation from burr-LIN during one of the World Wars, when being German in the U.S. wasn’t terribly popular. And, speaking of Wisconsin, the town where I went to high school, De Pere (named for Father Marquette, one of the original explorers of the area) is pronounced: Duh PEER ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2010, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/town-city-names-butchered-by-americanization/560042/70 "2010-11-10T05:03:29Z")
Madras, Oregon. The one in India is pronounced mah-DRAHS, more-or-less. As you’d expect, the American one is pronounced MA-dras (short A’s as in ‘hat’). ---
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2010, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/town-city-names-butchered-by-americanization/560042/71 "2010-11-10T07:42:01Z")
> [@cwthree](#): > > Illinois is a serial offender. > Bourbonnais. Pronounced “Bur-BONE-ess.” > Peru. Pronounced “PEE-roo.” > Cairo. Pronounced “CARE-oh.” To say nothing of the name of the state itself, which is ill-in-noy and not eel-een-wah. ---
**Author:** ![KinkiNipponTourist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e9bcb4/32.png) [@KinkiNipponTourist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KinkiNipponTourist)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2010, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/town-city-names-butchered-by-americanization/560042/72 "2010-11-10T07:48:45Z")
I live in Tokio! Another misunderstanding I think is kinda cute occurs in some guidebooks (hopefully corrected by now). Mt. Fuji is called Fuji-san in Japanese, “san” referring to ‘mountain.’ Some guidebooks claim that Mt. Fuji is referred to in this way to assert the Japanese people’s deep fondness and respect for this holy mountain. NOT! baw haw haw! ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2010, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/town-city-names-butchered-by-americanization/560042/73 "2010-11-10T08:22:31Z")
My favorite is the town of Hialeah, surrounded by Miami. Apparently the name Hialeah is a bastardization of Jai-Alai (meaning both one of a type of sports played by hitting a ball against a wall, and the location where these sports are played), it’s how someone wrote the Basque word using English phonetics. But the way the town’s name is pronounced is “Haya LEEah”, it’s got an extra “ah” and the last two vowels inverted. And of course it’s in Florida, pronounced FLOreedah if you’re speaking English and floREEdah if you’re speaking Spanish. > [@spark240](#): > > Race of the Sun, right? > > It’s a good name for a place of wealth and arrogance. Not even “race”; you can say that somene or an animal is “de casta” to mean he/she/it is a fighter, but in most contexts the meaning of casta is closer to “social class handed down from their ancestors” (eg., Indian castes) than to “ancestry and/or culture”. So either the people there are the Children of the Sun, or the place belongs to a bunch of astronomic stars… ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2010, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/town-city-names-butchered-by-americanization/560042/74 "2010-11-10T08:29:45Z")
Sorry, Hialeah doesn’t have an extra a, what it does have is the last two vowels inverted and the stress and pause in the wrong spots from Jai-Alai. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2010, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/town-city-names-butchered-by-americanization/560042/75 "2010-11-10T09:06:27Z")
> [@Colophon](#): > > 😕 Regina, as in Elizabeth Regina, does indeed rhyme with vagina. How did you think it was pronounced? Seeing at it’s Latin, most people would assume it is pronounced as in Latin, ray GEE nah. People forget that the British anglicize pronunciations as much as or more than we Americans do. I never did understand why the S is the one thing that they insist must retain the French pronunciation. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2010, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/town-city-names-butchered-by-americanization/560042/76 "2010-11-10T10:23:15Z")
I’ll worry about the “Americanization” nonsense when someone can explain to me why “Leicester” is pronounced “Lester.” ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2010, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/town-city-names-butchered-by-americanization/560042/77 "2010-11-10T10:31:19Z")
Unless “Des Moines” is pronounced as something approximating “Day Mwahns” (and I’m not sure how it’s actually pronounced because I’ve never heard the name spoken by anyone from the US) then it’s been Anglicised/Americanised… ---
**Author:** ![Pitchmeister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pitchmeister/32/3459_2.png) [@Pitchmeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pitchmeister)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2010, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/town-city-names-butchered-by-americanization/560042/78 "2010-11-10T11:19:01Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > I’ll worry about the “Americanization” nonsense when someone can explain to me why “Leicester” is pronounced “Lester.” Can I piggyback on that and ask how in the world you get from “Southwark” to “Sathark”? ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2010, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/town-city-names-butchered-by-americanization/560042/79 "2010-11-10T11:39:56Z")
> [@Pitchmeister](#): > > Can I piggyback on that and ask how in the world you get from “Southwark” to “Sathark”? It’s more like “SUTH-uhk”, not “Sathark” (with th as in then, not as in thin). It’s quite a common pronunciation quirk in British place names to shorten the vowel in a stressed first syllable and gloss over unstressed parts of the rest of the name - see also Southwell (“SUTH’ll”, although oddly most locals seem to pronounce it as spelt), Leominster (“LEMM-stuh”), Rainworth (“RENN-uth”), Slaithwaite (“SLA-wit”), Teignmouth (“TIN-muth”) and many more. In some cases you just pronounce the beginning and end of the word and ignore the middle bit - common in the West Country with places like Woolfardisworthy (“WOOL-zer-ee”), Alverdiscott (“OLZ-cot”), Fowey (“FOY”) and Puncknowle (“PUN-nel”). ---
**Author:** ![Pitchmeister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pitchmeister/32/3459_2.png) [@Pitchmeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pitchmeister)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2010, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/town-city-names-butchered-by-americanization/560042/80 "2010-11-10T11:44:24Z")
Thank you - I love the dope! ETA: Also, that last paragraph seems bizarre. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/town-city-names-butchered-by-americanization/560042.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/town-city-names-butchered-by-americanization/560042.md?page=5)