# You're not from around here, are you? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 10, 2005, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-from-around-here-are-you/311817 "2005-07-10T04:10:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2005, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-from-around-here-are-you/311817/81 "2005-07-11T23:23:06Z")
Dang, I came in here to post my favorite Wisconsin place name, **Oconomowoc,** but somebody beat me to it! That’s OK, though, I’ve got more: Omro (OMM-row, not OHM-row) Shawano (SHAW-no, not sha-WAH-no) Berlin (BER-lin, not ber-LIN) And all the “Wau-” names screw up outsiders as well: Wauwatosa, Waupaca, Waupun, Waunakee, Wautoma (in Waushara County), Wausau, and probably some others. Gotta love those Indian names. I’ve probably told this story here before: A friend who was living in Kaukauna (kaw-KAW-na) at the time was traveling to Hawaii. Once there, some Hawaiian official asked to se her ID. His eyes lit up: “Ah, Ka-ooh-ka-OOH-na! What island is that on?” * * * And not about place names, but still related to the thread topic: Mr. S once heard some radio guy, not from WI, talking about how weird we cheeseheads are – including going on and on about how we always go out for SAUSAGES on Friday nights. SAUSAGES??! What an idiot! The Friday night tradition in WI is and always has been THE FRIDAY FISH FRY. You can’t escape it. You wanna talk about crazy WI traditions, you don’t have to make them up – we have enough real ones! This moron would have known about the Friday fish fry if he had ever paid any attention at all once inside the state line. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-from-around-here-are-you/311817/82 "2005-07-12T01:38:40Z")
> [@Bendarr](#): > > Oh and here is one that pretty much trips up a non-native: Rio. that’s right Rio, Wis. Pronounced like the river? Duran Duran reference? Nope. Pronounced RI(long I) - oh. RI-oh. Also pronounced “RYE-oh” is Rio Grande, Ohio, a town known for [the Bob Evans farm](http://www.bobevans.com/) and [a basketball player named Bevo.](http://www.rio.edu/Athletics/bevo.htm) **kunilou** : I’m a native of Cuyahoga County, and the “kie-a-HAWG-a” pronunciation is preferred among the old guard, while newer arrivals generally say “kie-a-HOE-ga” (with each letter _a_ pronounced as a schwa in both examples). I can’t recall hearing any of the other pronunciations you used, except from people who were mockingly relating conversations they had had with clueless outsiders. ---
**Author:** ![Bendarr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e56c9b/32.png) [@Bendarr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bendarr)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-from-around-here-are-you/311817/83 "2005-07-12T02:19:43Z")
Thank you **Sternvogel** , you came up with a better phonetic spelling of Rio than I did. I was running a mite low on the sleep when I did that post. **Scarlet67** , How someone could confuse our love of the Friday Fish Fry and our love of Brats is beyond me. After all you get the Friday Fish fry on fridays and Brats the rest of the week. ---
**Author:** ![Section\_408](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@Section\_408](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Section_408)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-from-around-here-are-you/311817/84 "2005-07-12T02:30:42Z")
I hate when people migrate here from up north during the winter and say “Flar-ih-duh” instead of “Floor-duh”. That and they drive like… well, idiots who don’t know how to drive. ---
**Author:** ![Ruby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-from-around-here-are-you/311817/85 "2005-07-12T04:19:08Z")
> [@Ashes](#): > > \How do you pronounce Worcestershire (as in the sauce)? I pronounce it Lea & Perrins. Around here, we call it WORST-uh-shure. (worst sounds similar to horse). The key to pronouncing it right is saying it really, really fast. That way, if you’re f’ing it up, no one knows the difference. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-from-around-here-are-you/311817/86 "2005-07-12T05:41:53Z")
> [@Ashes](#): > > Brisbane is pronounced Briz-bin, I’ve been told. Is that true? > > How do you pronounce Worcestershire (as in the sauce)? I pronounce it Lea & Perrins. Brisbane is more like Briz-bnn, as Melbourne is Mel-bnn and Cairns is Care-nnz. The sauce is WUSS-ta-sheer (first syllable rhymes with PUSS, not PUS), and while we’re at it Lancastershire is LANK-a-sheer, and Berkshire is BARK-sheer. Which makes its rhyming slang derivation _berk_ rather odd, but there you go. Moving on to English last names, Featherstonehaugh is pronounced as Fan-shaw, Cholmondeley as Chum-lee, Farquahar as Far-qwa, Colquhoun/Colquohoun as Cull-hoon and Saint John as Sin-jon. This kind of thing is the basis of the MP line about Raymond Luxury-Yacht being pronounced Throat-Warbler Mangrove. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-from-around-here-are-you/311817/87 "2005-07-12T05:53:23Z")
**A Brooklyn shibboleth** And it was so that the men of Brooklyn said unto him, “Art thou a Manhattanite?” If he said, “Nay,” then said they unto him, “Say now ‘Kosciusko.’” And he said “Kosh-ee-OOS-ko,” for he could not frame to pronounce the “c” as a “k”. Then they took him and slew him at the passages of the BQE. **A greater Detroit something-or-other** Lahser Road, a major suburban artery, may be pronounced as spelled (LAHzer) or as commonly _mis_spelled (LASHer). ---
**Author:** ![Dark\_Side\_of\_the\_Floyd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bb73d2/32.png) [@Dark\_Side\_of\_the\_Floyd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dark_Side_of_the_Floyd)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-from-around-here-are-you/311817/88 "2005-07-12T05:55:52Z")
Houston (howston) Street and Houston (hueston), TX. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-from-around-here-are-you/311817/89 "2005-07-12T06:09:26Z")
Tsawwassen, a ferry terminal outside Vancouver, is pronounced suh-WAH-sen…but only by bus drivers. Everyone else, even the recorded voice on the ferry, says tuh-WAH-sen. ---
**Author:** ![stochastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e19b73/32.png) [@stochastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stochastic)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-from-around-here-are-you/311817/90 "2005-07-12T06:59:13Z")
> [@Johnny L.A.](#): > > Even some people who live in Westminster, CA call it 'West **minister**. I grew up in Fountain Valley, the suburban sprawl neighbor of Westminster, and everyone I knew called it West **minister**. When I lived in Seattle, my non-native stature was revealed the first few times I tried to pronounce Puyallup, Snoqualmie or Issaquah. Unfortunately, the provincial PNWers don’t take well to us CA folks invading their mildewy state, so I quickly learned to pronounce like a native to blend in. ---
**Author:** ![exastris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b38774/32.png) [@exastris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/exastris)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-from-around-here-are-you/311817/91 "2005-07-12T08:21:21Z")
There are lots of native names in Florida. It was always fun to hear the non-Floridians muck up Kissimmee. (Its kih- **SIM** -mee, not **KISS** -ih-mee.) Caloosahatchee and Okeechobee aren’t too badly mangled; I think people just get put off by the length of the words and give up somewhere in the middle, randomly adding -ee syllables in. (ka- **LOO** -sah- **HACH** -ee and **OH** -kah- **CHOE** -bee). Choctawhatchee is chock-taw- **HACH** -ee, not choct-ah- **WATCH** -ee. (If you ever see hatchee in a Florida name, it means river or creek - river of the Choctaws.) Islamorada is **EYE** -luh-more- **AH** -duh, not **I-SLAM** -uh- **DOOR** -uh. (Really, I’ve heard people say that.) And the old timers in Miami used to call it my- **AM** -uh. As for the mid-west: Had relatives from Missouri (muh- **ZUR** -uh). I always loved Salina (sah- **LYE** -nuh), Kansas, but I’ve never heard the Saline river pronounced. Does it keep with the town pronunciation? suh- **LINE**? ---
**Author:** ![hlanelee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3bc359/32.png) [@hlanelee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hlanelee)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-from-around-here-are-you/311817/92 "2005-07-12T10:05:01Z")
So the guy that leased the hunting rights to the adjacent property had trouble starting his truck and when he walked to my house to ask for help, he introduced himself as a “professional tracker”. My first thought was, is there much business for a “professional tracker” in New Jersey? I went and helped him start his truck and them we walked around some, just so I could get to know who/what he was all about. After a while he noticed that I was in flip-flops and asked, “Aren’t you worried about being snake bit?” And I replied casually, “No, cottonmouths are closer to the water than we are and you always smell a rattler long before you see one.” I thought, him being a “professional tracker” and all, he would have known such things. I honestly thought that his knee-high snake boots were for show. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-from-around-here-are-you/311817/93 "2005-07-12T13:22:47Z")
> [@exastris](#): > > There are lots of native names in Florida. It was always fun to hear the non-Floridians muck up Kissimmee. (Its kih- **SIM** -mee, not **KISS** -ih-mee.) But the mispronunciation makes an aviation joke work. Before U.S. airspace was reclassified, there were **A** irport **R** adar **S** ervice **A** reas. ‘Did you hear they’re putting a new ARSA in Florida? Kissimmee ARSA!’ ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-from-around-here-are-you/311817/94 "2005-07-12T14:16:22Z")
“I’m going to Carl’s to get some ice cream.” No, you aren’t. You’re going to Carl’s to get some frozen custard. ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-from-around-here-are-you/311817/95 "2005-07-12T14:29:34Z")
If you pronounce Montevideo, Minnesota “Mon-ta-vi-AY-oh” you’re going to get some funny looks. It’s “Mon-ta-VIDeo” (with video pronounced like video tape). Most of the time, though, it comes out “Monnavideo.” ---
**Author:** ![yellowval](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/919ad9/32.png) [@yellowval](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowval)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-from-around-here-are-you/311817/96 "2005-07-12T14:31:09Z")
Oops. That should have been “Mon-ta-vid-AY-oh” of course. Preview is my friend. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2005, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-from-around-here-are-you/311817/97 "2005-07-12T14:42:21Z")
The state is ARKnsaw. The river is arKANzas (as in Kansas). Natives of the state are arKANzans. Natives of the river are mostly mud puppies and catfish. ---
**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2005, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-from-around-here-are-you/311817/98 "2005-07-13T02:54:04Z")
Please, someone from north of Sacramento - they’re still called short ‘a’ amonds, not ahhmonds, or worse, allmonds - right? They were when I went to school in Chico, just a short distance from Orland, where they grow a lot of amonds. ---
**Author:** ![La\_Llorona](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@La\_Llorona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/La_Llorona)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2005, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-from-around-here-are-you/311817/99 "2005-07-13T02:59:32Z")
Anyone want to hazard a guess at Wilkes-Barre? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2005, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-from-around-here-are-you/311817/100 "2005-07-13T03:08:18Z")
> [@Civil Guy](#): > > Please, someone from north of Sacramento - they’re still called short ‘a’ amonds, not ahhmonds, or worse, allmonds - right? They were when I went to school in Chico, just a short distance from Orland, where they grow a lot of amonds. I was making one of my CA-to-WA drives a couple of years ago, and it took me a while to understand what ‘ammins’ were. The Almond Growers Association (or something like that) kept saying ‘ammins’ during an NPR interview, and it didn’t connect that the spokesman would mispronounce ‘almonds’. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-from-around-here-are-you/311817.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-from-around-here-are-you/311817.md?page=6)