Mispronunciations by non-locals

[treanir]

I'm in a German / Pennsylvania Dutch section of PA. There are just too many places to list that are hard for non-locals to get on the first try.

I'd probably be one of the few persons to get them right. If I remember to let my Dutch vowels lead the way, of course.

From the above, I'd mispronounce the ones that are pronounced in an American accent. The British ones I'd get (yes, even the Scottish one, 'cause we have the /x/ sound in Dutch as well)

 

[douseiai]

how bout locals? in austin not many people pronounce the spanish right... like guadalupe... goo ah dah loop....
so when non-locals come we tell the to go up guadalupe by saying goo ah dah loop... then they complain when they can't find it...
when i was in california everyone thought they spoke spanish so everything was said very heavily accented... so carmen dr was turned to Kharrmenn durri veh ... go stupid people

 

[tx_doc]

We also have a street Manchaca but pronounced MAN-CHACK
There is also a small city south of Austin: Manchaca and pronounced MAN-Cha-Ka

There is Lake Buchannan pronounced Byoo-Can-Nun

 

[sb]

visiting celebrities always have trouble saying Brisbane and Melbourne.

 

[MidnightPrism]

Birmingham in Alabama it's pronounced "BUR-MEN-HAYYUM"

 

[apdragon]

several I've heard over the years:

Pronouncing the "S" at the end of Illinois, making it Ill-E-Noise.

Replacing the "I" at the end of Missouri in favor of an "A", making it Miz-oo-Ra.

Totally f-ing up Hawaii by pronouncing it Hi-Wa-Ya. (old southern people I know always called it that.)

My Mom and Aunt overly emphasize their pronunciation of London and it comes out as Lon-Don (as is Lon Chaney and Don King).

The only other ones that come to mind are just regional accent mispronunciations.....MO-tel, HO-tel, PO-lice.

 

[Swellegant]

We were just talking about that at work today! I'm the only one on the team who's from Oakland and is familiar with all of these names, so some of the team have been pronouncing things funny... such as the girl who pronounced Prescott Elementary as PRE-scott rather than PRES-cott, and the boy who pronounced Chabot Elementary as CHA-bott instead of Sha-boh; and yesterday I had a parent who insisted on referring to Joaquin Miller Elementary as Jah-KWAN Miller, even though I corrected her twice (Wah-keen).

Then there are the English and Spanish names of streets in my neighborhood that give some people pause, such as Grosvenor Avenue (pronounced GROVE-ner, not GROSS-venner) and Portal Boulevard (por-TAL, not POR-tal).

But my favorite is one in San Francisco: Gough Street. The "ough" can be pronounced any number of ways in English, it's one of the stumbling-blocks in our language; once a friend and I tried to list every different possible way of pronouncing it, to rhyme with Through or Enough or Thorough or Cough. It is supposed to be pronounced to rhyme with Cough, and I love hearing people say otherwise.

Funny story... a few years ago, SF MUNI installed voice-over mechanisms in their buses that would announce the intersections as they were passed, so passengers always knew where they were. But the recordings were made in Japan by a person who didn't know English except phonetically, and rhymed Gough with Thorough. So every time a bus crossed Gough, the voice-over said "Such-n-such and GO!"

Perhaps you had to be there.

 

[ozguy]

visiting celebrities always have trouble saying Brisbane and Melbourne.

Yeah .... the emphasis is on the FIRST syllable, not the second (Yanks take note! ).

And my town .... Albany ..... is often pronounced "All-bany" by non locals. That's wrong! It's "Al" as in pal.

 

[doctorsun]

Cuyahoga = ky-uh-haw-gah OR ky-uh-hoe-gah...both are acceptable

Mantua = man-away

Wooster = the double "o" is pronounced as it is in "book".

Tallmadge = tal-mij

 

[cbtfan]

isn't this a bit of a
you say to-ma-to... I say to-may-to thread?

accents are what makes us different.

 

[justsimon]

In Portland (where I've lived off an on) there is a Couch St. (Kooch) and a Macadam Blvd. (Mac-adam).

Here in Washington we have:

Chehalis (Shu-hail-us)
Sequim (Squim)
Quilcene (Quill-scene)
Lilliwaup (Lili-wop)

And many more...

 

[ixthrock]

my favorite is one in San Francisco: Gough Street. The "ough" can be pronounced any number of ways in English, it's one of the stumbling-blocks in our language; once a friend and I tried to list every different possible way of pronouncing it, to rhyme with Through or Enough or Thorough or Cough. Perhaps you had to be there.

I've been there, and thank the locals for pronouncing it for me. In town, we have Bronough Street. Locally, we pronounce it BREW-NO or ber-NO, but never BRO-nuff.

 

[RenaissanceMan]

I'm guessing most non-locals wouldn't figure out that the k in "Etobicoke" is silent.

 

[gmoney]

I always know when someone is not from Atlanta. They almost always say Atlanta. Natives have always said "Atlanna".

 

[Lube]

isn't this a bit of a
you say to-ma-to... I say to-may-to thread?

accents are what makes us different.

What makes it especially cumbersome in the US, is that you don't know if the street/village/city was named by an Englishman, a Spaniard, a German, a Frenchman, an Irishman, a Scotsman, a Native American, or a hybrid: such as Minneapolis (native American "water" + greek "city" or whatever).

 

[Lube]

I always know when someone is not from Atlanta. They almost always say Atlanta. Natives have always said "Atlanna".

Is that like Taranna?

 

[Zeremonie]

In Idaho, very close to the Washington border is a town that I would have no idea how to pronounce if someone didn't tell me:
Coeur D'Alene (I think it's supposed to be pronounced "Core-da-lane")

In Seattle area, I notice that only the locals are good at figuring out how to pronounce Puyallup (poo-yowl-up - or something close to that).

Of course apparently chief Sealth turns in his grave everytime a white man says his name, which is why the city has to be called "seattle" and not "sealth" so that our chief is not constantly turning in his grave.

 

[ambiguity]

And I've never lived there, but what do you people from Saskatchewan think of people why pronounce Regina like "Rijeena" instead of rhyming with "Vagina." If I lived in a town that rhymed with "vagina," I'd never get over it, and I'd try to find ways to penetrate that word into every conversation

Wooo!!! I live in Regina

Also lots of people mispronounce Saskatchewan ... Sus-KA-chew-won or Sus-KA-chew-one. Both are said here.

 

[justsimon]

In Idaho, very close to the Washington border is a town that I would have no idea how to pronounce if someone didn't tell me:
Coeur D'Alene (I think it's supposed to be pronounced "Core-da-lane")

In Seattle area, I notice that only the locals are good at figuring out how to pronounce Puyallup (poo-yowl-up - or something close to that).

Of course apparently chief Sealth turns in his grave everytime a white man says his name, which is why the city has to be called "seattle" and not "sealth" so that our chief is not constantly turning in his grave.

Pyoo-wal-up

 

[cocktales]

It's the same with the State of .........NEVADA!

The locals pronounce it: Ne - VAY - dah...

The auslanders pronounce it: Ne - VAH - duh

Soooo, when ALL youse guys come to NeVAdah.....remember to say it correctly; otherwise you are NOT a local!!