Forgive me, I’m from Ohio! I just knew it wasn’t pronounced like the constellation Orion as most people assume.
Piling on to add that Illinois also has a New Berlin pronounced this way.
Cairo has already been mentioned.
And Athens, Illinois is pronounced with a long A.
In fact, it seems to be pretty common that when a small town has the same name as a major world city, it’s pronounced differently. Although I don’t know the “official” reason for this, I suspect it’s done deliberately to distinguish between the two.
Los Feliz
Natchitoches, LA. Pronounced NACK-uh-DISH.
Lots of places in England.
For example, Godmanchester.
Pronounced “throatwarbler mangrove.”
It is pew-allup. If you need a catchy ditty to help you remember (whether you want to or not), the Puyallup Fair commercials ran pretty much nonstop in the region, and still do for all I know:
I came in here to say San Pedro, CA – “pee-dro.”
There’s a current TV commercial making much of this, and arguing that you should get a local company that won’t mispronounce your town name. including
Haverhill (“HEYv’r’ill” – I had to listen to an audiobook where they pronounced it Haver-Hill throughout)
Peabody (“P-b’dee”)
Scituate (mentioned above – “SIT-choo-it”)
A lot of them in upstate, NY, too
Nunda (“nun-day”. I always wondered if there was a “Nunda hyundai”, which would not only be mispronounced, but would rhyme)
Honeoye – (“Honey-oy”)
Charlotte (neighborhood of Rochester) – (“Shallot” or "“SHAR-lot”) The “R” is optional)
We have some towns and streets around the St. Louis area named in French colonial times, and the various pronunciations are hilarious.
Sauget. Locals pronounce it Sew-Jay, everyone else pronounces it Saw-Get.
Des Peres. Local: De Pear. Everyone else: Dez Perez.
There’s a street/avenue in St. Louis named Chouteau. Locals: Show-Tow. Everyone: Chow-Toe or Chow-Two.
There’s also a Brad Pitt movie (“Killing Them Softly”) in which a supposed local does this as well. It’s really discordant to hear.
There are a lot of Native American names in the NW that will reveal if you are a local or not by the way you say them.
I once got pulled over by an Oregon (Ory Gun) state police trouper while riding a motor cycle. I had no endorsment to ride a motorcycle, or insurance, or whatever, I did have a valid drivers license. He looked at the registration that I had and it was for a town right across the Columbia River called Skamokawa. Pronounced Scam Auk Away. Apparently my immediate pronounciation impressed him enough that he didn’t ask me any more questions and handed me back the registration and drove off.
Skamakawa is in Wahkiakum County, Washington. Waa Ky A Cum.
There’s a number of Texas towns and locations that have odd pronunciations, mostly due to Anglos butchering Spanish or German pronunciations:
Gruene (pronounced “Green”)
Manchaca (pronounced “MAN-shack”)
Buda (pronounced “BYOO-da”)
Refugio (pronounced “Re-FURY-oh”)
Palestine (pronounced “Pal-es-STEEN”)
Manor (pronounced “MAY-ner”)
Llano (pronounced “LAN-oh”)
Prague, Oklahoma is also pronounced Praig.
San Pedro, California is San PEE-dro
El Segundo, California is El Se-GUN-do.
Oklahoma has many towns with Indian origins that no one would ever get correct without local knowledge. But we also have some that people think they would know, like:
Miami - my-AM-muh. Never my-AM-me.
Alex - EL-luk
The town I was married in, Taneytown, MD, is pronounced TAW-nee-town.
Not “day,” the De would be closer to “duh” in English pronunciation.
There are a lot in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia:
Buena Vista is pronounced byoona vista.
Botetourt Is pronounced but-a-tot.
Staunton is pronounced stanton.
Prescott, AZ = “Presskit”
Ah.
But here’s a real English example, one I grew up near (and I’ve posted before.) Torpenhow Hill is somewhat famous for it’s multiple redundancy (means Hill hill hill hill); Torpenhow is pronounced Tropennah.
Bonus: Leigh near Manchester is pronounced Lee. Leigh in Surrey is pronounced Lie.
j
Had a nice vacation this summer up in Ulster County, in the Catskills, near the town of Accord.
That’s pronounced with the accent on the first letter, a flat A, so it rhymes with “knackered.”
Some of my relatives, on my mom’s side, have lived in Oostburg. It’s high up on my list of fun place names to say.
Up the road a ways from Oostburg (and just outside of Green Bay) is the town of De Pere, where I went to high school. If it were pronounced like it would be in the original French, it’d be something like “d’ PAIR.” But, no, it’s “dee PEER,” or even “DEE-PEER” (similar stress on both syllables.)
Also, Kiln, Mississippi, the hometown of former Green Bay Packers star Brett Favre, isn’t pronounced “kiln.” It’s pronounced “kill” – and, apparently, usually has a “the” in front of it (“the kill”), as well.
(But, then, Favre’s name, too, isn’t pronounced how it looks: it’s “farv.”)
Not when you pronounce it with the classic St. Louis accent, which is 1 part southern Illinois, 1 part German, 1 part French, and 17 parts Missouri Ozarks.