I hate when people call Austin ATX (Houston: area code, moving)

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by JayBrown80

Not really. You said Koenig is a last name, so the family determines how it's pronounced. I disagreed b/c I think its a regional difference, the family's opinion doesn't matter.

I gave the example of Houston, because it is also a last name, that regardless of the Families interpretation, is pronounced differently based on what region you come from.

There are several "correct" ways to pronounce it.

Not here, using your example. Here, the way the families of that name after whom the streets/towns were named get to say how it's pronounced HERE, NOT the families in New York City. In New York City, the correct pronunciation is how the families after whom the streets there were named pronounced their own names.

You don't get to come here from NYC, for example, and tell them that they have to change the way they pronounce their own name (and the way the streets that are named after them are pronounced) to the way folks in NYC pronounce it.

[JayBrown80]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

Not here, using your example. Here, the way the families of that name after whom the streets/towns were named get to say how it's pronounced HERE, NOT the families in New York City. In New York City, the correct pronunciation is how the families after whom the streets there were named pronounced their own names.

You don't get to come here from NYC, for example, and tell them that they have to change the way they pronounce their own name (and the way the streets that are named after them are pronounced) to the way folks in NYC pronounce it.

No one said you did. A lot of your posts state the point of "don't come here from out of town and tell me how to do things", so I would never dream of doing it.

I am a native texas and have always said HEW-ston for HOW-ston. The whole conversation was "what is the correct way to pronounce this word". You said that in the case of last names, the family gets to decide. I said, "Not really, it's all based on where you live."

In the case of Koenig Lane, you said "The Koenig family decides how we pronounce it" and I say that is not a good idea. Are you a member of the Koenig family? Did we round all of that family up and conduct a poll to ask them how they pronounce their name? My Mother's maiden name is Spivey, and when you get all the Spivey's together, boy, do they have arguments on how to pronounce their names. Sounds to me like you are just assuming that YOUR way of pronouncing it MUST be the way the family pronounces it too. All in all, it sounds rather haphazard to me.

Many other posters have stated that they have heard several different pronunciations for Manchaca and Mueller. Who is the authority to tell them that they are wrong or they are right? The answer is NO ONE. Does someone have the right to tell me I can't use a certain word just b/c they have lived in Austin for 30 years? Some of the posts on here seem to indicate that.

You can pronounce it however you want too, as long as people understand what you are saying. When I visit my friends in NYC, and I accidentally call the street HEW-ston, no one calls for a lynching.

I guess I am just suspicious of people who say "oh, he pronounces words funny, he must be dumb." Don't we as southerners get that way to often?

[love roses]

My Uncle lived in Kerrville and he used to give me hell for pronouncing hill country towns wrong. Pronounce something however you want, but some people may call you on it (or laugh to themselves) and say to themselves "They must not be from around here". I'm not quite that confrontational myself, so the most I'd do is maybe put the word back into my reply and say it how I'd pronounce it (mainly because that's the way I've heard it said my whole life).

I heard an argument on a talk radio show about Seguin. The person who called in (or who was being interviewed) INSISTED the correct pronunciation was Seg-win because that's how the name is said in Mexico. The show host told him it is pronounced Seg-een, as in Juan Seguin ala Alamo fame. They went round and round with noone winning but lots of people called in afterwards saying never in their whole lives had they EVER heard it pronounced Segwin. I agreed as I've also never heard it pronounced other than segeen, even by my mom, who went to College there.

Just because someone says it wrong doesn't mean they're dumb...they just don't know better and are being as phonetically correct as they can. People slaughter my last name all the time and also my maiden name. A gentle correction is all that is necessary, but I don't think that someone should keep slaughtering my last name just because they don't like the way I pronounce it.

[JayBrown80]

Originally Posted by love roses

but I don't think that someone should keep slaughtering my last name just because they don't like the way I pronounce it.

I would agree with that. Your last name is YOUR last name. It belongs to you. So of course your way of pronouncing it is the most correct. You are the authority on your own name. Street names and city names don't belong to anybody. No one is the authority on that, although some on this board think they are. I have a hispanic friend who pronounces the gas station Texaco "Teh-aco". It's just his accent. Obviously there is nothing wrong with speaking that way. Slang is the same way. According to the OP though, if you say ATX for austin it is "dumb" and sounds "ghetto". I think that is sort of harsh.

If a slang term seems silly to you, then just don't use it. Instead, to make ourselves feel superior, we say that people are stupid or silly if they use it? This makes sense to some I guess? Then we sort of devolve and insist that we can only pronounce things the way certain families might have pronounced them over 80 years ago. As if anyone knows what that might be. Sounds to me like an excuse to just use whatever pronunciation you have always used.

Then the straw man arguments creep in. "I was born and bred in Austin." "Stop moving here and trying to tell us what to do" "in case you hadn't noticed, and apparently all to many haven't, this isn't new york city". It doesn't matter where you were born, no one was telling anyone what to do, and no one said that this was New York City. If anything, the people making these arguments were telling US how we are allowed to talk.

I don't personally use the term "ATX", but then again, I don't feel the need to call people stupid over it.

But next time my hispanic friend asks me to drop him off at "Teh-aco" I'll be sure to kick him out of my car and say "We don't a cotton to that kind of funny talk round these parts buddy" Then I'll hitch up my pants and spit on the sidewalk. Because that's the way Texans do it, YEE HAW!

[orionid]

Obviously it stands for Austin TeXas, therefore I have no problem with it.
I agree it's unnecessary, but Lance Armstrong uses it as does his Livestrong Foundation .. therefore it is cool.

[JayBrown80]

Originally Posted by orionid

Obviously it stands for Austin TeXas, therefore I have no problem with it.
I agree it's unnecessary, but Lance Armstrong uses it as does his Livestrong Foundation .. therefore it is cool.

Lance Armstrong? Sounds like one of 'em crazy furreigners that what moved here from California or something like that there. What? He was born in Plano? Might as well have been born on the moon!! If you ain't been in Austin for 30 years you don't get to have an opinion. STOP TRYING TO TELL US HOW TO LIVE!!!

[passionatearts]

Originally Posted by OneJackson

So is Koeing lane, pronounced "Kay-nig". shouldn't it be "Co-nig"?

point is, all of Austins' streets and areas have funny sounding names. I think "SoCo" is a cool hippie way of saying "South Congress".

less syllables, no harm.

Koenig is the German word for king, and the pronunciation in German is Kay-nig, therefore the most correct pronunciation would be Kay-nig (also, that's the way the Koenig family pronounced their last name, so Kay-nig is the correct way to pronounce the street name).

Also, this article from Wikipedia explains the reason for why Houston St in Manhattan is pronounced How-stun.

I still wouldn't be caught dead saying "SoCo" even if several people here think it sound alright. The nickname just sounds pretentious to me.

[love roses]

"But" next time my hispanic friend asks me to drop him off at "Teh-aco" I'll be sure to kick him out of my car and say "We don't a cotton to that kind of funny talk round these parts buddy" Then I'll hitch up my pants and spit on the sidewalk. Because that's the way Texans do it, YEE HAW!


I got a good laugh out of the visual I got from that

My GGrandfather has a street named after him somewhere in South or South Central Texas, although I don't remember which town (My grandpa went and took a picture of the streetsign). It's one of those names that could easily be mispronounced but the kind of man he was, I'm sure he'd forgive people for pronouncing it wrong.

[mimimomx3]

I don't mind ATX so much, but I really hate San Antone for some reason.

[mimimomx3]

Kaynig, Manchak, Gwadalewp, Burnit. You can call them whatever you like, just be prepared for a blank stare!