Mispronounced City and State names (water, meteorologist, residents)
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Ohhhh dear, haha. You would be surprised at how some of the tourists pronounce names here. This is one should be a given, but I've heard people mispronounce Miami.
It's my-A-me. Not me-A-me.
Florida has 3 syllables. Flo RIH da. Not Flo is in the rapper, it's just a basic O sound. I don't know how to explain it. Basically the Spanish O, that's how everyone says it. I don't think that sound exists in English. It's complicated. Just make an O sound without adding the U to it. I can't explain it. Ri is stressed and sounds like rid or Rick. Da rhymes with the.
It's NOT pronounced FLAH-ri-da, FLOOR-da, Flow RYE da, or flahrahdah.
South Beach. The stress in on BEACH. not south. It's not SOUTH beach. It's South BEACH. This annoys me to no end.
Some of the Native American names are understandably hard to pronounce, so I don't blame people for not being able to say them, I still laugh in their face though.
Hialeah, pronounced "high-ah-LEE-ah". Although locals sometimes say it faster so it sounds more like Ha-ya-LEE-ah. Same thing. I have heard some strange pronunciations, however. Understandable, it's not exactly an easy word haha.
Opa-Locka. Oh-puh-LOCK-uh.
Kendall - NOT the same as Kindle. It's KEN-doll.
Doral - DOES NOT rhyme with coral. It's door-AL. "al" sounding like the name Al.
Another interesting observation, Bahia Honda in the keys is pronounced by the locals as Ba HEE uh HON duh. With the Honda sounding like the car manufacturer. I am inclined to pronounce it with the Spanish pronunciation, since it's in Spanish (means deep bay), but apparently that's wrong. Strange.
Mexia- Pronounced "Muh-HAY-uh".
Italy- Pronounced "IT-lee"; two syllables.
Agua Dulce- Pronounced "OGG-wa DUL-chay"
Lamesa- Pronounced "luh-MEE-suh"
Miami- Pronounced "my-AHM-uh".
Waxahachie- Pronounced "WOKS-uh-hatch-ee", not "WHACKS-uh-hatch-ee".
It actually varies, I've heard them some of these like this:
Mexia = Meh-hee-ah
Italy, like Italy
Agua Dulce is DEFINITELY not "Dul-chay"... It if were, it would be spelled Dolce. It's spanish; it's "Ah-goo-ah Dul-say".
Lamesa is supposed to be Lah-meh-sah, not mee-sah... It ends up sounding that way cause of the drawl people have.
Miami is pronounced like Miami
I've always heard Wacahachie pronounced "WHACKS-uh-hatch-ee"...
It actually varies, I've heard them some of these like this:
I've always heard Wacahachie pronounced "WHACKS-uh-hatch-ee"...
Possibly so, but I've never seen it spelled "Wacahachie"
If it is pronounced "A-goo-ah", then does one also have a "chi-hoo-a-hoo-a" for a pet? If one wants to split hairs, the proper Spanish pronunciation would be "AH'wa DUL-zə", but we Texans tend to butcher the Spanish language, and our place-names end up being Americanizations (more to the point, Texanizations); "Bexar" is derived from "Béjar", which phonetically speaking should be "BƏ-har" but out of the mouths of Texans it rhymes with "bear". Same with Refugio (native speakers of the language would pronounce it "rə-FYOO-hyo", but the town and county are pronounced "rə-FYOO-ree-o"), Laredo ("luh-RƏ-do" vs. "lar-RAY-do"), and Amarillo ("ah-ma-REE-yo" vs. "AM-uh-RILL-oh").
This article is an excellent guide to the unusual pronunciations of many Texas cities and towns, including almost all of the ones I mentioned.
By the way, Miami residents will quite forcefully remind you of the unique pronunciation of their city's name, as will the residents of Italy. To them it is a part of their local identity and heritage and to not recognize it can be considered an insult.
Last edited by lothartheterrible; 05-31-2011 at 08:22 PM..
In my home state of Ohio, we have have to change the pronunciation of all of the historic European city and country names. Why? We may never know.
Milan = MY-lin
Berlin Heights = BUR-lun heights
Greenwich = green-WITCH
Vienna = VY-anna
Mantua = man-uh-WAY
Russia = ROO-shee (must have had too much vodka LOL)
Leipsic = LIP-sik
Toledo = tuh-LEE-doh
East Palestine = east PAL-uh-steen
Then there's the home-grown names:
Bucyrus = byoo-SY-russ
Galion = GAL-yun
Mount Gilead = mount GIL-ee-id
Chauncey = CHAN-see
My uncle in Kansas(Wichita, specifically) told me over the phone that El Dorado(a town just east of Wichita) is pronounced 'El Do-RAY-doh', and not 'Do-RAH-doh'. I laughed a lot, when I first heard that years ago! But then again, I guess it was a common thing for city/town and river names in some parts of the country to become greatly mispronounced, especially when the Arkansas River(that runs through Wichita) is pronounced 'Ar-KAN-zis'.
Recently learned from watching a TV newscast in the Atlanta area when visiting relatives in Georgia earlier this year, that DeKalb County(the county just to the east of Fulton(which includes Atlanta), which includes Decatur) is pronounced 'De-CAB'(yep, as if you're saying the word cab), and not the normal 'De-calb' with a sudden b at the end.
Wouldn't be surprised if someone already mentioned 'De Moine' for Des Moines, IA, and 'Des Plainz'(different than the traditional French pronunciation) for Des Plaines, IL. Just don't have the time at this sec to look through every page of this thread. Did see earlier that someone mentioned the different pronunciation for Cairo, IL.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dxiweodwo
Fayetteville, GA lots of people pronounce it, FAH-YET-ville, when it's really FEYET-ville.
Nearly forgot to respond to this, and found this very interesting, considering my late grandmother lived in nearby Jonesboro over the last few decades of her life, and while being a college professor at a nearby college. Anyway, I recall very well she always pronounced it 'Fah-ett-ville', and she NEVER once pronounced it as 'Fah-YET-ville.' Now I'm confused, how do locals in south suburban Atlanta tend to pronounce Fayetteville, GA?
Last edited by SonySegaTendo617; 06-05-2011 at 12:38 AM..
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