I’m under the impression that almost anything except “New Or-leens” is acceptable. Never mind that the parish is Or-leens Parish. Logic has nothing to do with it.
Hmph, she was wrong, not you. It’s pronounced Chee hwa hwa, with an almost not there h for some people. There’s a little more emphasis on the first syllable, but since there’s no accent, all the syllables should receive nearly identical emphasis. Pronunciation can vary depending upon the region and how careful the person is about using proper pronunciation, but I’ve never heard anybody actually from Mexico say SHE-WA-wa.
There’s a teeny town near here named Japatul. Now, I don’t claim to know the correct pronunciation, but the generally accepted way is to say Ha-pa tool or Hapahtl, not Juh pate oolie. Then there’s the Ewiiaapaayp band of the Kumeyaay, which is also the name of a town, which pretty much defeats everybody except the Kumeyaay. Generally people just say ‘the town named after the native americans with the name that starts with a K.’
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.
Ha. I remember that commercial. Two days ago I got asked if the #1 train stops at Hyoo-stuhn Street. Twice.
(Houston Street is pronounced House-ton Street.)
Here in Iowa, we seemed to have forgotten how other places pronounce their placenames, but we still use 'em anyway.
For example, Madrid, Iowa is actually MAD-rid.
Nevada, Iowa is nuh-VAY-duh.
I was also thrown for a loop by Stange Drive in Ames, IA - it’s pronounced as “stang”.
My late father always pronounced “menu” as “may-noo.” Confused many a waitperson with that one, he did.
Yup… and the river that flows through Wichita, Kansas, is, so help me, the Ar-Kansas River. None of this “Arkansaw” bidness in the Cow Pie State!
Ashes[sup]2[/sup], dear, that was meant to be dripping in sarcasm…
But of course; I just had to point out the *many ways * in which she was a fool. I’m very helpful that way.
Or how about Carnegie? Everyone else in the world pronounces it CARN-a-gee.
Not here in the Steel City, oh no. It’s carn-NEHG-ee. That’s one way to tell if someone’s a native Pixburgher an’at.
Heh! I grew up in Altoona, which is firmly in Pittsburgh’s orbit (no true Altoid is an Iggles fan!). We always said car-NEHG-ee, mostly under the influence of Pittsburgh TV stations (KDKA and WTAE were on our cable system as “local” channels…Myron Cope and Joe DeNardo were icons of my childhood). Even the school, when I was looking around for one in my senior year of high school, was pronounced car-NEHG-ee Mellon.
Wisconsin is said the way it’s spelled. Not West-sconsin or Wes-con-sin. Wisconsin. Sheh-boy-guhn, not Shee-boy-gan. K’no-sha, not Key-naw-sha. Oconomowoc? O-co-no-mow-ock? Oc-mawna-awk? Just hush. O-conna-muh-wok is what you want. Please, leave Pewaukee to the natives.
Oh, and you know that cow with the nose ring, no udder, and a bad temper? I hate to break it to you, but that’s no cow. It’s a bull.
That’s very true. You’ll hear natives say NAW-luns, New OR-lee-uns, New AW-leen-uns, New OR-luns, New AH-luns, or even creating a few more syllables as need be. But it is never, ever, EVER New Or-LEENS. Unless it’s, as Whiterabbit said, Or-LEENS Parish.
Oh, another you know you’re not from here New Orleanian pronunciation that’s commonly mispronounced by the entire rest of the world: Tulane University, which is correctly pronounced with the accent on the first syllable, i.e. TOO-lane.
Re: Tulane. My friend used to live on Freret. Nice area; but the Burgundy digs were better when I visited because it was right there at the Quarter.
Anyway…
Even some people who live in Westminster, CA call it 'Westminister.
Well, Western PA, then. Hell, I think they even speak our language in Eastern Ahigha!
Some streets around Metro Detroit (mostly East Side, because, well… :: points at location :: )
Gratiot – GRA-shit (short a, like ‘apple’)
Cadieux – CAD-jew
Schoenherr – SHANE-err
Dequindre – De-KWIN-derr
Charlevoix – SHAR-le-voy
Dix – Dicks (though I doubt many people would know the proper pronunciation of that word)
And of course, the city itself : Detroit. Heh heh heh.
Surprisingly, Beaubien is pronounced pretty much correctly.
Seen on a guest list in the Jedi afterlife: Anakin Skywalker (Nee Vader)
Sorry
Bala Cynwyd: it’s Baa-laa kin-wood.
The Schuylkill is pronounced, more or less, school-kul or school-gul. If you’re really from Philly, it’s probably going to sound more like skoogil. It is not shu-yil-kill.
How are you doing on Des Plaines (river/suburb), Devon(street) and Goethe (street)?
When that kid up north shot up his school a national correspondent said the wounded were taken to a hospital in BEEMEEgee.
Also:
Not a pronunciation but a typo. The local news did a report on the Coast Guard station in Duluth and the graphic said the interviewee was a Bozens Mate.