Pronouncing "Guadalupe" in Austin or San Marcos. (San Antonio: neighborhood, to live)

[OzzyRules]

I've noticed something in both Austin and San Marcos. They pronounce Guadalupe without the long "e" at the end. They ignore the e altogether. Both cities have a major street by that name. If you pronounce it correctly they give you a funny look and try to *correct* you.

It's like they don't even understand basic Spanish pronunciation.

What gives?

[love roses]

You're gonna find that all around Texas. Towns aren't pronounced phonetically as you see them. It's probably been that way since day one in Texas. Gruene (Green), Rio Grande (Rio Grand, no long e.), Pedernales (perdenales), Boerne (Burney). I'm going to look up more, so it'll be below this post.

[TexasHorseLady]

It's simply the way it's pronounced here. Much like Manchaca (a misspelling of the name of the gentleman who it's named after, should be Menchaca) is pronounced Manshack, and many people pronounce Pedernales as Purdnales. San Jacinto is San Jasinto. In East Texas, the town Palestine is pronounced with a long "i" and no doubt has been since it was first named.

They are correcting you because here, that IS the correct way to pronounce those street names. When in Rome.

[OzzyRules]

I live in San Antonio. I never hear it pronounced that way here. We are not that far away.

[traveler guy]

I'm from SA and we pronounce Guadalupe "Whadlupe" with the short e. the funny thing is I used to live on a street named Menchaca and always pronounced it like that. But that's how everybody says it even the people that don't speak english say it like that.

[OzzyRules]

Some people in SA might refer to the streets in those towns that way, but that's different. They won't say the name that way.

I mean, it's not like Blanco Street in SA. Everyone knows you pronounce it with an English "a." That's just understood.

[love roses]

Palestine (pronounced Palesteen) but I guess that's what you mean by long I. You also have Lamesa (lameesa), Bexar (bear), Elgin (with a hard g), Humble (said without the H), Pearsall (peersall), Vidor (vie, like eye), Hutto (u is short sound, not "you". It's amazing how many telemarketers get this wrong), Pflugerville (silent p), Borger (soft g), Leander (accent on the a), Troup (troop), Buda (Byooda, not Booda or Buddha ). There is also a lot of German, Swiss and Czech here so I think some gumbo in the pronunciation comes from that as well. Too, some of these places are named after people and surnames can be pronounced very differently from how they look on paper.

[TexasHorseLady]

Arrgghhh! I meant, long e, rather than long i (after all, I grew up there!). My typing just got behind my brain.

Yeah. Jumonville (husband's last name) was originally Jumeauville (well, originally Coulon de Villier, but that's a long story). And as a genealogist, I'm used to things not sounding exactly the way they're spelled or vice versa - never mind that names could be spelled five different ways in the same document written by the same person!

[austin-steve]

I used to live on a street named Menchaca and always pronounced it like that. But that's how everybody says it even the people that don't speak english say it like that.

I own two commercial properties on Manchaca Rd. in Austin. I used to office out of one of them in the late 1990s.

When telling someone on the phone my address, I would always say "Man-tChak-uh" because then they could say "spelled like it sounds?" and I'd say "yes". Still had to spell it out half the time though.

I finally started saying it that way more often, especially to out of towners. I figured it was my address and I'll say it however I want. Now it's sort of my personal joke to always pronounce it phonetically.

I also like saying "Pah-Flugerville", just for fun.

[Rae']

How bout these: Burnet (burn it, not burnette), Mueller (Miller...now that it's a neighborhood, but when it was the airport I had never heard that), Behren's Ranch (Burns)
And Menchaca Elementary is pronounce how it looks, but the road Manchaca is, as mentioned earlier, not...I have to think about it every time which is which.
My grandma calls San Antonio, San Antone (long o, silent e)