"Carnegie"

[LIRefugee]

I wonder if Dale Carnegie has anything to do with it, as I assume his name is pronounced "CAR-neh-gie".

I've never heard the "CAR-neh-gie" pronunciation for anything other than things that are well-known outside of Pittsburgh, like Carnegie Mellon or Carnegie Hall.

It is interesting, though, that "CAR-neh-gie" predominates in New York, where Andrew Carnegie spent much of his time and is now buried. As for me, I'm re-training myself to pronounce it the way Andrew would have.

[SammyKhalifa]

interesting.

Pronounce Names - Pronounce Carnegie, How to pronounce Carnegie, How to pronounce the name Carnegie, Pronunciation of Carnegie, how to say Carnegie, how to say the name Carnegie

East Coast bias has changed his name over time to what THEY think is right instead of what he thought was right. Assuming random website I've never heard of before is correct on the matter.

[LIRefugee]

It's all Dale's fault!

[SammyKhalifa]

Originally Posted by LIRefugee

It's all Dale's fault!

Haha, just don't use Pittsburghers as a reference on how to pronounce "Versailles."

[LIRefugee]

Originally Posted by SammyKhalifa

Haha, just don't use Pittsburghers as a reference on how to pronounce "Versailles."

The US is rife with places sharing the names of European places but with vastly (and sometimes comically) different pronunciations. There's a "DELL-HIGH", NY, and a "MY-lun", IN, plus bizarrely pronounced places like Des Moines, which isn't really French and isn't really English either.

I know Versailles, KY, is pronounced "ver-SAILS". Is it the same in PA?

[SammyKhalifa]

Originally Posted by LIRefugee

The US is rife with places sharing the names of European places but with vastly (and sometimes comically) different pronunciations. There's a "DELL-HIGH", NY, and a "MY-lun", IN, plus bizarrely pronounced places like Des Moines, which isn't really French and isn't really English either.

I know Versailles, KY, is pronounced "ver-SAILS". Is it the same in PA?

Yeah. ver SALES.

Of course, that doesn't beat Russia, OH, which had its pronunciation deliberately (and ridiculously) changed during the Cold War. ROO-she.

[AnneWest]

Well, here I am to mix everyone up even more.

I'm from Ker-NEG-gie.

[LIRefugee]

Originally Posted by SammyKhalifa

Yeah. ver SALES.

Of course, that doesn't beat Russia, OH, which had its pronunciation deliberately (and ridiculously) changed during the Cold War. ROO-she.

That reminds me of how the cities of Berlin and New Berlin in Wisconsin changed the pronunciation of their name to BER-lin around the time of WWI. I suppose anything more drastic would have been even more ridiculous.

Originally Posted by AnneWest

Well, here I am to mix everyone up even more.

I'm from Ker-NEG-gie.

I find myself saying "Carneggie" more often than "CarNAYgie" when evoking Andrew's name.

[Herodotus]

Originally Posted by WILWRadio

I suspect that Andrew Carnegie changed the pronunciation to Carnegie to make it easier for Americans to speak it. Growing up in Connecticut we always pronounced it with the short "e" and not with the NAY in the name.

Andrew didn't change it. He would correct people who mispronounced it.

[ctoocheck]

Originally Posted by LIRefugee

That reminds me of how the cities of Berlin and New Berlin in Wisconsin changed the pronunciation of their name to BER-lin around the time of WWI. I suppose anything more drastic would have been even more ridiculous.

Interestly enough, a lot of Germans I know pronounced it BERlin when speaking English, even though its BerLIN in both English and German.

My favorite (or least favorite) European-American terrible mispronunciation is The town "Mantua", in Ohio - pronounced MAN'-a-way. <cringe>