Street Name Pronunciation (Philadelphia, York, Ridley Park: neighborhood, buying, shop)

[ElijahAstin]

Originally Posted by Avalon08

Um, no, it's BAW-tee-more. LOL! But that's only if you also say "Attee-tood" and Iggles.

To be fair, there is no one uniform "Philadelphia" accent. As a traditionally ethnically segmented city, different groups of people in different parts of Town once tended to talk in a number of subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) ways. For example, much of South Philly was once non-rhotic (not pronouncing R's, which is classically associated with New York through Boston, but NOT Philadelphia). Parts of the South Philly Italian-American dialect bordered on Brooklynese, evidenced by the famous, pheoneticically-scrawled graffiti "Frankie is a bastid."

My maternal grandmother exclusively grew up in what was then upper-crust Wynnefield (1920s-30s). She says some words "funny," but doesn't sound terribly different from your typical Jewish, Boomer-generation Main Liner/Havertowner. My paternal grandmother bounced around West, North, and Sourh Philly as a child in the 1940s/50s and ended up with a very strong, sort of mishmosh accent I haven't quite heard in anyone else (except me when I have a bit too much to drink ). My paternal grandfather grew up exclusively in Souf Filly, and it showed linguistically, all the way down to his addy-tude and arthur-itis.

[egolise]

I'll go with baw-tee-more, but I've never heard anyone remotely say ballmore avenue?

Just in case this comes up, it's f-ing Sansom Street, stop calling it sampson !!

[Road_Warrior]

The one that kills me is Samson street. SANSOM. OMG.

I can understand Bow-veer because Bouvier is a French name. But, come on.

I'm from Wilmington and I just figured out I say Sow Philly. The PH in Philly for some reason lets my brain skip the remainder of the word south. Hmm.

I kind of laughed at people who say 2 street, although I noticed I say Fourssreet and Fistreet.

Passhunk is Passhunk.

PA people say McKean a little wrong. The guy's name was pronounced Mc-Cane, as in sugar cane, but say it how ya want.

I'll hear Girod for Girard from the older folks.

Even if they've never been there, Wilmington is Woomington. That makes me feel cozy whenever I hear it.

There's a few others which slip my mind for now.

[DarkWolf]

Originally Posted by sp2007

Favorite street name in the world:

"Street Road"

Awesome!

That seems to found in most PA towns ....strange...

[sp2007]

Originally Posted by mcguirk

The best is that there is a Street Road in every county.

Are you sure? Possibly in the SE PA area, but certainly not every where. Where else does it exist except between Chalfont and Bensalem? I just tried typing in Street Road for places like H-burg, Erie and Pittsburgh and got nothing.

[Jeanie Beanie]

When I was 16 I met a kid who lived "just off 'Street Road'"... What?? Street Road!! I thought that was a hilarious name!

Forty years later and I've only ever heard of one Street Road, (and I'm pretty well travelled).

[mcguirk]

Originally Posted by sp2007

Are you sure? Possibly in the SE PA area, but certainly not every where. Where else does it exist except between Chalfont and Bensalem? I just tried typing in Street Road for places like H-burg, Erie and Pittsburgh and got nothing.

I meant in the Philly metro counties, and it was just a joke. PA 926 is labelled Street Road in Delaware County and stretches from West Chester Pike in Edgemont to PA 100 in Brandywine Valley.

[RightonWalnut]

I hate to break it to you guys that seem dead set on pronouncing it Pass-shunk for some reason but it is "Pass-yunk".... just like "Mana-yunk"

Also Bouvier is French and pronounced "Boovyae" or however you would spell that.

Another one that always trips people up is Mantua... which is pronounced "Manchua"

[mcguirk]

No one says Passyunk like Manayunk, except for transplants from the suburbs.

[RightonWalnut]

Originally Posted by mcguirk

No one says Passyunk like Manayunk, except for transplants from the suburbs.

Sorry I like to pronounce things the way they are actually pronounced... I don't like sounding illiterate. It's very clearly Pass-yunk. Passhunk?! WTH?