# Unpronouncable (by non locals) town names **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 20, 2015, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpronouncable-by-non-locals-town-names/715544 "2015-03-20T22:03:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2015, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpronouncable-by-non-locals-town-names/715544/61 "2015-03-22T06:25:16Z")
It’s hard to beat Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch Here’s [how you say it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BXKsQ2nbno). ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2015, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpronouncable-by-non-locals-town-names/715544/62 "2015-03-22T07:56:30Z")
Ah, but Welsh is pronounced exactly the way it’s spelt - provided you know the spelling rules for Welsh. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2015, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpronouncable-by-non-locals-town-names/715544/63 "2015-03-22T08:04:07Z")
> [@Scarlett67](#): > > There’s also Omro, which does not rhyme with “home row” but rather shares its vowels with “combo.” I would instinctly pronounce it like “combo” anyway…? > [@](#): > > Foreigners always say “suh-VILL” for Seville, Oddly, though this is what I and any Brit would say for the city in Spain, I distinctly remember my mother talking about SEV-ille oranges (the bitter oranges used for marmalade). I don’t know whether that was just her, or an older pronunciation from times when people only knew such names from written sources rather than hearing people who had been there. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2015, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpronouncable-by-non-locals-town-names/715544/64 "2015-03-22T08:13:34Z")
I am uncertain how Hoquiam (WA) is pronounced. I have heard a rumor that, to the locals, there is no “w” sound in it. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2015, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpronouncable-by-non-locals-town-names/715544/65 "2015-03-22T09:34:49Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Foreigners always say “suh-VILL” for Seville > [@PatrickLondon](#): > > Oddly, though this is what I and any Brit would say for the city in Spain, I distinctly remember my mother talking about SEV-ille oranges (the bitter oranges used for marmalade). I don’t know whether that was just her, or an older pronunciation from times when people only knew such names from written sources rather than hearing people who had been there. Another Briton here: per my more or less lifelong experience, in the UK it’s “suh-VILL” for the city, but “SEV-ille” for the type of orange. For what it’s worth, in the 19th-century Tennyson’s ballad _The Revenge_ – about a dramatic naval encounter in the bitter war in Elizabethan times between England and Spain – there’s this pair of lines: “Let us bang these dogs of Seville, the children of the devil; For I never turn’d my back upon Don or devil yet.” Here, the pronunciation is obviously “SEV-ille”; but that might just be so as to make the rhythm and rhyme work. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2015, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpronouncable-by-non-locals-town-names/715544/66 "2015-03-22T11:22:11Z")
Ouachita Baptist University, good luck guessing that one. 😉 Its in Arkadelphia Arkansas. Across the street from Henderson State University. Mike Huckabee is an alumnus of Ouachita Baptist University. Wash-a-ta ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2015, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpronouncable-by-non-locals-town-names/715544/67 "2015-03-22T11:31:51Z")
El Dorado Ark \*\* is not\*\* pronounced El-Do-rha-do. Its El-do-ray-do It rhymes with Laredo. I grew up in South Ark and know the local pronunciations. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2015, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpronouncable-by-non-locals-town-names/715544/68 "2015-03-22T11:54:48Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > El Dorado Ark \*\* is not\*\* pronounced El-Do-rha-do. Its El-do-ray-do It rhymes with Laredo. Ohio has one of these too. Also a Rio Grande with a long I. ---
**Author:** ![Catamount](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/catamount/32/2840_2.png) [@Catamount](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catamount)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2015, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpronouncable-by-non-locals-town-names/715544/69 "2015-03-22T13:35:53Z")
A couple from Eastern NC: Shallotte is pronounced shuh-LOAT (rhymes with “boat”), not like the onion. Washington is called “Little Washington” to differentiate it from D.C. ---
**Author:** ![cwthree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@cwthree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwthree)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2015, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpronouncable-by-non-locals-town-names/715544/70 "2015-03-22T13:57:25Z")
Cairo, IL, pronounced KAY-row Peru, IL, pronounced PEE-roo Gratiot, MI, promised GRA-shit (leading to the inevitable joke about how to pronounce “Bultiot”). ---
**Author:** ![Avarie537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/48db29/32.png) [@Avarie537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avarie537)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2015, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpronouncable-by-non-locals-town-names/715544/71 "2015-03-22T14:16:09Z")
All in Indiana: Peru = PEE-roo Milan = MY-lan Versailles = ver-SALES Carmel = CAR-mel Advance = AD-VANCE (equal stress on the syllables) ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2015, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpronouncable-by-non-locals-town-names/715544/72 "2015-03-22T14:34:10Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > Pennsylvanians can’t even pronounce DuBois correctly (they say it “Dew-boyz”) so the chances of them getting the several hundred Indian place names and towns right are pretty much nil. Rumor was Michael Jackson liked it there. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2015, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpronouncable-by-non-locals-town-names/715544/73 "2015-03-22T14:35:42Z")
> [@Avarie537](#): > > Versailles = ver-SALES We have one of those in the Pittsburgh area. ---
**Author:** ![Wednesday\_Evening](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b2d939/32.png) [@Wednesday\_Evening](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wednesday_Evening)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2015, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpronouncable-by-non-locals-town-names/715544/74 "2015-03-22T17:18:36Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > San Luis Obispo, Ca. Clearly a Spanish name (but of a French bishop, who did much of his ministry in Spain). A lot of people seem determined to give “Luis” a French pronunciation, Looee. Also, Luis in this case is not the Spanish pronunciation either. It’s pronounced like the name Louis. Or, skip the whole pronunciation problem altogether and just say SLO (“slow”). Saves time too. I never understood why in the Boston area Worchester is pronounced “Wuh-ster” but Dorchester is “Door-chess-ter”. ---
**Author:** ![MsJinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/278dde/32.png) [@MsJinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsJinx)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2015, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpronouncable-by-non-locals-town-names/715544/75 "2015-03-22T18:33:52Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Here in Missouri (aka “missour-ah”) we have > > New Madrid, pronounced MAD-rid > Japan, pronounced JAY-pan > Nevada, known as Nev-AY-dah > Bellefontaine, pronounced bell-fonton > Des Peres, which even the locals can’t decide to pronounced DAY pair or dah PAIR > Gravois, which we call GRAV-oy > > and a host of others > > Meanwhile, my wife is from Cleveland, and none of her relatives can agree on how to pronounce “Cuyahoga.” I’ve heard everything from a carefully enunciated Kye-ah-HO-gah to something like “kwogga.” * * * My SO laughs every time I refer to Advance (MO) pronounced AD-vance. He thought I was pulling his leg, until he overheard my mother say it just like that. Also the Courtois River, Coataway, as in float away on the Coataway. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2015, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpronouncable-by-non-locals-town-names/715544/76 "2015-03-22T18:40:55Z")
> [@Wednesday\_Evening](#): > > I never understood why in the Boston area Worchester is pronounced “Wuh-ster” but Dorchester is “Door-chess-ter”. The pronunciations which you cite, are in fact correct copying of “English English” practice in this matter. Per my atlas, the W-city in Massachusetts which you cite, is actually spelt “Worcester” – like the English city from which it (presumably) takes its name. Dorchester, Mass., spelt like the English original Dorchester. There are numerous towns in England whose names end in -cester, -chester, or -caster. These name-endings indicate that the place concerned was, during the time when the Romans were in Britain, a Roman encampment or fort – from the Latin _castrum_, signifying that function. The Latin word was taken over in time, by the Anglo-Saxons, via whom it changed to Old English _ceaster_ – fort, or military establishment. Many towns were given varying names, but with _ceaster_ as a suffix – the Old English word variously mutating, as above. For some reason (or none), it seems that on the whole, where the suffix has become -chester or -caster, the name is usually pronounced as spelt – as in Dorchester, above. Where it’s become -cester: in pronunciation-versus-spelling, a syllable gets cut out pronunciation-wise. Thus Worcester, above – in England as with you, at least approx. “Wuh-ster”. We likewise pronounce Gloucester as “Gloster”. Variously further east and north in England, Bicester is “Bister”; Towcester, “Toaster”; and Rocester, “Roaster”. I’ve no idea why this should be – Googling, if one were interested enough, might at any rate come up with some theories. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2015, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpronouncable-by-non-locals-town-names/715544/77 "2015-03-22T20:00:39Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Wau **KESHA** (Emphasis mine) That’s one that I intentionally mispronounce, thanks to the most awesome singer of all time. Wisconsin also has **KE** no **SHA** , but that doesn’t lend itself so easily to mispronunciation for my purposes. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2015, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpronouncable-by-non-locals-town-names/715544/78 "2015-03-22T20:48:04Z")
> [@Scarlett67](#): > > I came in here to post Oconomowoc but got ninjaed. So I’ll post a subtle favorite: > > Little Chute. Emphasis on the first word, not the second. > > I live in (well, near) one of the “Wau-” towns, and I always have to pronounce/spell it over the phone to customer service people. > > Oh! The OP forgot Wauwatosa. > > There’s also Omro, which does not rhyme with “home row” but rather shares its vowels with “combo.” I lived just about 20 minutes from Omro. Just a speedbump on the way to the greatest store ever, Fleet Farm.🙂 I did add “sounds so nice had to say it twice” 'Tosa in the OP, but in the text, rather than the list. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2015, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpronouncable-by-non-locals-town-names/715544/79 "2015-03-22T20:49:12Z")
I think Missouri is one of those names that varies depending on which part of the state you are from. On the east side, the name ends in “-ee” while on the west side it ends in “-uh”. I could be mistaken about that. But if you are more than about a thousand miles from Oregon, you will probably not be able to pronounce “Oregon” correctly. It is not a noble gas. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2015, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpronouncable-by-non-locals-town-names/715544/80 "2015-03-22T22:24:14Z")
> [@Sangahyando](#): > > Another Briton here: per my more or less lifelong experience, in the UK it’s “suh-VILL” for the city, but “SEV-ille” for the type of orange. > > For what it’s worth, in the 19th-century Tennyson’s ballad _The Revenge_ – about a dramatic naval encounter in the bitter war in Elizabethan times between England and Spain – there’s this pair of lines: > > “Let us bang these dogs of Seville, the children of the devil; > For I never turn’d my back upon Don or devil yet.” > > Here, the pronunciation is obviously “SEV-ille”; but that might just be so as to make the rhythm and rhyme work. Yeah, it doesn’t really fit into this thread well, because most non-Spanish speaking people will pronounce it that way. The locals pronounce it (approximately) Seh-VEE-eh. Oh, and **Yachats** , Oregon is pronounced is pronounced YAH-hahts. And for those in the Midwest, its OR-i-gun, not Or-i-GON. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpronouncable-by-non-locals-town-names/715544.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unpronouncable-by-non-locals-town-names/715544.md?page=5)