All right, how is that spelled then?
Des Plaines.
–Once a few years back, I turned on the local evening news in time to catch a newly arrived anchor babe read a story about Illinois senate majority leader, “Pate” Phillips whom she repeatedly referred to as Pâté. Even the guys sitting at the desk next to her could hardly contain themselves.
Brett Favre must have felt right at home there.
That’s priceless!
She was probably wondering why they were laughing, and thinking to herself, “What am I, chopped liver?”
I would never have guessed! So should it be Dez Planes?
Personally, I don’t understand how you get “plawhn” from “plaines.” The years of French I took in HS and college tell me it’s somewhere between “playn” and “plehn.”
The public schools are good about mispronunciations, too. Nobel School pronounces it “noble,” which tells me that their school is named after the namesake of the Noble Prize. Personnel at Herzl get offended if you pronounce it “HERTZ-uhl,” and I really shudder to think what would happen if you properly pronounce the name of Dvořák to that school’s principal. (In case you don’t know, it’s “DVOR zhahk.”) It gives me nightmares that they pronounce “Dumas” as “DOO muhs.” yikes.
Yup. I specifically remember puzzling over this name on a visit. I wondered if it was one of those towns whose correct local pronunciation is the incorrect one. I heard the cabbie say “Dez Planes” and breathed an internal sigh of relief that I didn’t pronounce it all French-like like some sort of rube.
Even bus drivers differ on street pronunciation. <sigh> I think there as many ways as there are bus drivers. Wonder if the CTA has a guide?
I tell visitors to inform the driver what street they want and sit as close to the driver as possible. If on the subway, stay by the doors and track the stops shown on the maps above the doors. (I always give the stop/street before PEOPLE GET READY and the stop/street after GONE TOO FAR THIS TIME. Works for the freeways, too.)
I say it more like “duh/deh/dih-SPLAINS,” as if it were one word. The first vowel is something like a schwa or a short “e” or “i”, but the “s” is definitely unvoiced (like an “s”) and not voiced (like a “z”), but I’m sure the exact pronunciation varies from person to person. I’ve certainly heard the following locally: “dez plains,” “dess plains” and “displains.”
Well, from Answers.com (real trustworthy, I know): “According to the book “Streetwise Chicago:A History of Chicago Street Names” by Don Hayner and Tom McNamee (published in 1988), Paulina Street was named by real estate developer Reuben Taylor in honor of his wife Paulina Taylor.”
I wouldn’t trust answers.com, but at least it references a source, and the source might be trustworthy and say how the lady pronounced her name.
And this may be the key - the last name is properly Tayler (thanks, google!). Google gives a lot more hits about Reuben and Paulina that way.
Happy researching.
I have that book. It says nothing about the pronunciation, alas. Although the Google link you provide indicates that the lady was a Canadian. Maybe they say things different up there, eh? 
I took a cab to Third Coast on my first trip to Chicago–it was interesting trying to get the cabbie to understand where I wanted to go (he ended up pronouncing it “go-tee”).
Hi, I’m the guy who asked the original question: Why Paw-LIE-nah? Clearly it has not been answered, and I think I like it that way. There’s still a little mystery in this world.
Regarding Throop Street: I live on it, and I discovered recently that I’ve been pronouncing it the wrong way for some months now. A cabbie corrected me from Throop to Troop. However, lest ye think it’s just another Chicago aberration – like one, two, tree or turty-turd street – Amos Throop, teetotaling abolitionist and failed Chicago politician, actually pronounced his last name minus the diagraph-inducing “h.” Realizing that Chicago was a bum steer, Amos split for the west coast where he founded the school that is now known as Caltech.
What an awesome bit of trivia. I’ll also feel free to interpret this as a sign that I need to get the hell out of Shitcago and take myself to Southern California, where good things will happen.
I take it you don’t ride very often. About a decade ago, stop-calling duties were transferred to a prerecorded voice, who properly pronounces Goethe and Balbo.
Wait, so how is “Balbo” pronounced? It’s not BAL-boe? 
Wow. My daughter just moved to an apartment on Paulina Street. I’ll have to learn to pronounce it correctly.