Mispronounced City and State names (private schools, places, coastal)

[Ben Around]

Originally Posted by pittnurse70

Louisville, Colorado: LEWIS ville, not Louie ville

Norfolk, Nebraska: Pronounced NOR fork by Nebraskans. I had to show my DH on a map, that the spelling was Nor FOLK, not nor FORK.

.

Down in VA, they pronounce it NAWFK.

[Ben Around]

Originally Posted by katie45

Here's some good ones from SoCal:

Ojai is: O-HI

Port Hueneme is: Port Y-NEE-ME

It's interesting how city names are pronounced; and I never felt offended if someone got it wrong. Guess I view it differently than those who get irritated if someone isn't born knowing how to pronounce something correctly.

Don't forget LaJolla (la HOY-uh)

Also, I heard that Paso Robles is actually pronounced Paso Robuls (not Robe-less), is that correct? If yes, I will stop trying to second guess the pronounciation of Spanish-named towns in CA

[bigdave01]

Nevada is often mispronounced.

It is Nevada
not Nevahda.

[Billiam]

edit, never mind

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by Ben Around

Don't forget LaJolla (la HOY-uh)

Also, I heard that Paso Robles is actually pronounced Paso Robuls (not Robe-less), is that correct? If yes, I will stop trying to second guess the pronounciation of Spanish-named towns in CA

I believe it would be pronounced "robe-lace", not "robe-less". Am I correct in that?

[lammius]

Originally Posted by Verseau

I always get a kick out of tourists who can't correctly pronounce the names of towns in New England, even though they are overwhelmingly ENGLISH names.

A few examples:

Worcester, MA - pronounced "WUSS-tuh" (the vowel in "wuss" is the same vowel in "book" - although some people Bostonians say WISS-tah, I think)
Gloucester, MA - GLAWSS-tuh
Leominster, MA - LEM-in-stuh
Concord (MA and NH) - KAWNK-id
Pawtucket, RI - Puh-TUCK-it
Quincy, MA - KWIN-zee
Woburn, MA - WOO-bin
Peabody, MA - PEE-b'dee
Reading, MA - RED-ing
Dracut, MA - DRAY-kit
Leicester, MA - LESS-tuh
Haverhill, MA - HAYV-rill
Scituate, MA - SITCH-oo-it
Natick, MA - NAYD-ik
Nashua, NH - NASH-oo-uh
Plaistow, NH - PLASS-tau (rhymes with "cow")
Lowell, MA - LOW-ull
Methuen, MA - Meh-THOO-in
Pembroke (MA or NH) - PEM-brook
Stoughton, MA - STOAT-in
Billerica, MA - Bill-RICK-ah
Damariscotta, ME - Dam-riss-SCAW-duh
Bangor, ME - BANG-gore or BANG-gaw
Bar Harbor, ME - appropriately pronounced "Bah HAH-bah"

There's also a little town near where I live in NH called Sanbornton, which is correctly pronounced "SAN-buh-tin"

Of course, some times it's a little trickier. For example the suffix -ham, which takes on a different pronunciation depending on what town you're talking about (in Massachusetts alone!). For example:

Needham, MA - NEED-um
Framingham, MA - FRAY-ming-ham

In fact, when the ending is 'tham', this suffix can be pronounced in four different ways:

Eastham, MA - EAST-ham
Chatham, MA - CHAD-um
Waltham, MA - WALL-tham
Wrentham, MA - REN-thum

Excellent guide to New England pronunciations! I quizzed myself and did pretty well though a few I messed up! haha. I have extended family in Bill-RICK-ah and Chelms-fid, and also in parts of New Hampsha.

Originally Posted by pittnurse70

Norfolk, Nebraska: Pronounced NOR fork by Nebraskans. I had to show my DH on a map, that the spelling was Nor FOLK, not nor FORK.

That's odd because I hear the Virginia Norfolk pronounced so differently. NAW-F*ck. Drives me nuts when I'm on the Newark City Subway here in NJ and the automated announcement comes, "Next stop, Nor-Follllllk Street." It makes this Virginia native shudder! haha. I hear people in New England say Nor-Fork and fam in the Philadelphia area say Nor-Foke (rhymes with coke). Complete with the unique Philadelphian way of pronouncing long "O" sounds, it comes off pretty strange/funny to me.

Edit: Oh, I see Ben Around's reply mentioning the VA pronunciation already. Oops!

[willdufauve]

Hoping to expand on the phonetics above...we usually say Woos-tuh not Wuss-tuh.

The main thing is that Worcester is not pronounced Wore-chester. Every time I hear that I crack up.

[spark240]

Originally Posted by Drouzin

Just PLEASE what ever ya'll do, don't say, "Naw'lins!" The only person who should be allowed to use that pronunciation is Frank Davis.

Hmm. The Cajun fella I used to work with (nickname, "Cajun") always said N'awlins. (The apostrophe stands for the dropped letters, which is also why it's "y'all," y'all.)

[spark240]

Originally Posted by lammius

That's odd because I hear the Virginia Norfolk pronounced so differently. NAW-F*ck. Drives me nuts when I'm on the Newark City Subway here in NJ and the automated announcement comes, "Next stop, Nor-Follllllk Street." It makes this Virginia native shudder! haha. I hear people in New England say Nor-Fork and fam in the Philadelphia area say Nor-Foke (rhymes with coke). Complete with the unique Philadelphian way of pronouncing long "O" sounds, it comes off pretty strange/funny to me.

But that's all okay, because these people are all referring to different places.

I'd describe the most common Virginia pronounciation a little differently. Naw-fulk, but with the "L" sound partially swallowed. It's muddled though, because there are so many military people there from other parts of the country, where they say their Norfolks differently.

[spark240]

Taneytown, Maryland.

It's not Tain-ee town as Yankees would expect, nor does it conform with the Southern phoneme which would make it Tinny town.

In Maryland it's Taw-nee town.

I trust that Balmer, Murlin, home of the Orr-yoles, has already been covered.