Prounounciations: Colorado Places (Colorado Springs, Arvada, Pueblo: living in, homeowner, park)

[zenkonami]

I was just curious about how some Colorado locations names are pronounced. Are most of them as simple as they look? Is "Cheesman Park" prounounced, "Cheese-Man Park"? What about "Ouray?" I'm told non-natives can be identified fairly quickly by whether or not they can prounounce "Ouray" correctly. In Arvada, is every "a" short?

Those are just the first few I can think of off the top of my head. When I lived in Arizona we could always tell an outsider by whether they prounounced "Gila Bend", "Casa Grande" and "Prescott" correctly. Just got me thinking about similar things in Colorado.

[2bindenver]

Chees-man park is correct and Oray is just wray, crested butte is crest debutte...

[Sockeye]

Originally Posted by 2bindenver

Chees-man park is correct and Oray is just wray, crested butte is crest debutte...

Wrong on both counts. Ouray is pronounced Ooray, and Crested Butte is pronounced Crested Beewt (as in flute).
Arvada is pronounced with a short A, like at.
Cracks me up how trustafarian newbs, in the 4 Corners area in particular, bastardize place's names.

[DgoNative]

Ouray's correct pronunciation may be Ooray, but if anyone ever heard the town's name pronounced like that, it would be a sure-fire sign of a tourist. An educated tourist, but a tourist non the less. Everyone says it like yur-ay.

[Neditate]

Originally Posted by 2bindenver

Chees-man park is correct and Oray is just wray, crested butte is crest debutte...

Seriously? I've been living in CO nearly 27 years and have never ever heard Ouray or Crested Butte pronounced like that. Ouray is either OOray or YURay.
I don't know how someone could or would mess up Crested Butte. Nothing difficult about that one. Why would someone say "crest debutte" unless you are joking

[BlueWillowPlate]

We always said Yur-ay, and Butte rhymed with flute, and Cheesman sounded like Cheesemun.
I remember the ONE time I pronounced Buena Vista the Spanish way.
I never made that mistake again.
For the record: Buena is pronounced sort of like View-na.

[DgoNative]

My favorite mispronounced ones, though, have to be Sneffels, Uncompahgre, and Vallecito. Listening to people try to muddle through those is always fun!

[Sockeye]

Originally Posted by Neditate

Seriously? I've been living in CO nearly 27 years and have never ever heard Ouray or Crested Butte pronounced like that. Ouray is either OOray or YURay.
I don't know how someone could or would mess up Crested Butte. Nothing difficult about that one. Why would someone say "crest debutte" unless you are joking

Ooray is the correct pronunciation. My DW's aunt taught 3rd grade there from the early '50's up to the early 70's, and that's how the locals would say it. Since the late '70's when the TexaCalifornication began, it has morphed to Youray for the 2nd homeowners/non-natives.

[COflower]

Originally Posted by DgoNative

Ouray's correct pronunciation may be Ooray, but if anyone ever heard the town's name pronounced like that, it would be a sure-fire sign of a tourist. An educated tourist, but a tourist non the less. Everyone says it like yur-ay.

I'm a native of Colorado and it's always been pronounced ooray or yew-ray.

As for others:

Crested Butte is Crested beeyout

Montrose = mon trose not mont rose

Buena Vista (and as one that appreciates the spanish language it drives me batty and I call it by it's proper pronunciation anyway) = beeyouna vista

Pueblo - poo-eblo although some old timers say pee-eblo

If you happen to Colorado Springs, street names are as such:

Tejon is not teh-john but teh-hon (long O)
Cache la Poudre is cash la pooder
Uintah is you-in-ta

Over all, most of the spanish words around here are properly spoken as spanish even if American in accent.

[David Aguilar]

What about Saguache? I recently read it is pronounced Sag-watch.


Hearing Arvada pronounced incorrectly drives me insane, the same way hearing Nevada said wrong does.


I've heard Ouray as you-ray, and not wray, because there is another town called Wray.


Hearing Boo-ena Vista drives me bonkers, it is a injustice to the Spanish language.