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Pronunciation of place, street, etc. names

Tirvine

ancient grey sweatophile
In Austin we have plenty of Spanish names, and an inordinately large number of them have become quite Anglicized. Pedernales in pronounced Perdnallies. Guadalupe is pronounced Guadaloop. It happens elsewhere. San Franciscans say Ka-brillo Beach, not Cabreeyoh Beach, at Anglenos, in addition to misprouncing the name of their whole city, call the street Se puhl va duh. It is nice to note that increasingly we are reinstituting correct Spanish pronunciations. There are many towns and cities that are picky about the ways their names are pronounced (New Orleans, Houston, Louisville, etc.). It often seems more appropriate but also affected to use foreign cities' names in their foreign forms like Milano or Roma. These things never seem to occur to us when pronouncing country and city names from English speaking countries with very different accents and pronunciations. For example, no one in the USA says Austrylia or Dooblin. Curious.
 

luvmysuper

My elbows leak
Staff member
Des Moines, Iowa is pronounced de-moyn, but the Des Plaines River is pronounced dez-playnz.
Maybe because people who mention the river don't want to have people think they are Tattoo from Fantasy Island.

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I've thought about this before too. If it's a US locale, I try to say it the way the locals do up to the point of it feeling affected. Loving the town, but not being from there, I couldn't say "N'awlins" with a straight face. But saying "NOO OR LEE uns" or "NOO OR LEENS" is too far away from what the locals say. I go with "NOO ORluns".

As far as foreign towns, saying "PAIR EE" instead of the standard English pronunciation of "Paris" would make me feel weird. I think things like that draw attention to the speaker instead of the message.

(Any pronunciation of Louisville other than "LOO uh vull" is bad and wrong.)
 
I've thought about this before too. If it's a US locale, I try to say it the way the locals do up to the point of it feeling affected. Loving the town, but not being from there, I couldn't say "N'awlins" with a straight face. But saying "NOO OR LEE uns" or "NOO OR LEENS" is too far away from what the locals say. I go with "NOO ORluns".

As far as foreign towns, saying "PAIR EE" instead of the standard English pronunciation of "Paris" would make me feel weird. I think things like that draw attention to the speaker instead of the message.

(Any pronunciation of Louisville other than "LOO uh vull" is bad and wrong.)

That's exactly the way I learned it.
In the USA, pronounce like the locals.

But the names of many foreign nations have English translations.
You can't pronounce Spain the way the Spaniards do
because they don't say Spain.
 

EclipseRedRing

I smell like a Christmas pudding
saying "PAIR EE" instead of the standard English pronunciation of "Paris" would make me feel weird.
I always make an effort at basic words and phrases in any country that I visit as it is polite to do so, and it is generally well received by the locals - everywhere except Paris, where in my experience the locals are so miffed by anything less than perfect French that I no longer bother. In fact I get some small enjoyment from intentional mispronunciation of French words, or even better simply speaking English. Mon Dieu! Apologies to any of my French friends 👍
 
Just as a side note, they do the same in Mexico. They say Nuova York, fútbol, carro, etc.

In Italy they say Londra, Parigi, Monaco, Lione. US places however tend to be called with the original name . Few exceptions, like Niagara (Falls) which is pronounced Niagara and not “Naigra” as we oddly do here.
 
In California Buena Vista is pronounced Bway-na Vista. In Colorado the locals voted to say it Bu-na Vista where the Bu rhymes with view.
 
When I was trucking some new Trucker was on CB trying to get info on grocery wearhouse bye was going to deliver to.

He kept say Pi-O-Nix, finally some one realized when they said what state. He replied Arizona.

Phoenix was his destination, CB traffic after that goof was funny.
 

Doc4

Stumpy in cold weather
Staff member
Here we call Northern Ireland, Norn Iron. Windows are windys. In fact we absolutely slaughter the English language.
I was going to say ... try having this conversation with an Englishman from wus'tr'shr. Or as everyone else would say ... from Wor Kes Terr Shy Er.
 
As a Texan I try to give the local pronunciation, if possible. Pecos: PAY-cuss. Lamesa: luh-ME-suh. Mexia: muh-HAY-uh. Nacogdoches: nack-uh-DOE-chee.... not to be confused with Natchitoches, Louisiana: NACK-uh-tosh. Christoval: kris-TOE-vuhl.
 
My last name is tough, people screw it up all the time.

At VA anything close I answer too. One person said did I get last name right.

My reply is that was close enough.
 
As a Texan I try to give the local pronunciation, if possible. Pecos: PAY-cuss. Lamesa: luh-ME-suh. Mexia: muh-HAY-uh. Nacogdoches: nack-uh-DOE-chee.... not to be confused with Natchitoches, Louisiana: NACK-uh-tosh. Christoval: kris-TOE-vuhl.

I don't think any non-Texan ever gets Mexia correct.

The town of Llano is pronounced LAN oh, but the Llano Estacado (high plains of TX and NM) is pronounced YAHN oh.

In Georgia, there is a town named Martinez but they pronounce it
MAR-tin-EZ. :confused1
 
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Doc4

Stumpy in cold weather
Staff member
A family from The South was on a road trip up in Canada. They went to British Columbia, and through the town of Salmo. It's pronounced like it's spelled. Later, they were headed to the town of Salmon Arm. A heated debate among the family members ... was the "L" in Salmon pronounced (like Salmo), or silent? No agreement could be reached, so they decided to stop at the first commercial establishment in town and get clarity from the locals.

They pulled into the first parking lot, and all marched inside the business.
"May I help you?"
"Tell us, very clearly and very slowly, the name of the place we just came into."
"Um ... Dd ... aa ... rrr ... yy ... ... Q ... uu ... eeeeee ... nn."
 
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