Raleigh is spelled ei, not ie (Charlotte, Durham: transplants, school, suburb)

[MrsSteel]

Hillsborough is often misspelled, too. It's one of those few towns in NC that has kept the silent "ugh" ending on its name.

I always feel a little sorry for people who are confused about the spelling of these towns. I imagine they have a terrible time finding the correct information on these areas while searching the internet.

[rnc2mbfl]

Originally Posted by SunnyKayak

Sometimes the lack of spelling a town, address by you or a buisness that owes you money can create situation where you do not receive those funds.
You may be a winner of such funds and not know it this site will let you know I have receive 45 bucks from a company I did not know owed me money.
Search - North Carolina Department of the State Treasurer

Other towns in this state often misspell or mispronounce

Asheville mispelled Ashville
Horneytown misspelled Horny Town
Cary misspelled Carey
Murphy misspelled Murphey

Cherryville is prounced Chur vul most NC towns ending in ville is pronounced vul
Salisbury is prounced Salz bury
Pfafftown the P is silent in pronunciation.
Beaufort NC is pronounced Bow Fort
Beaufort SC is pronounced Bew Furt
Durham is pronounced Durhm

My favorite NC town name is Conetoe. Go ahead and try to pronounce that one if you aren't familiar. Conventional wisdom says it's like pronouncing cone and toe together but it isn't. I think I am correct when I say that it's pronounced Kuh-nee-tuh. That said, nearby Pinetops is NOT pronounced Puh-ni-tups.

[ljd1010]

Just wait until my husband and I move there from RI in a couple of months....speaking of slaughtering correct pronunciations. RI has the worst of both Boston and NY.....
I PAHK my CAH
I drink CAWFEE

[mommiewrites]

Originally Posted by rnc2mbfl

It could be...I pronounce them the same.
I was just sitting here trying to figure out if I pronounce the words raw and rah differently! I don't think I do. If someone walked in on me, they'd probably think I was crazy.

NO, you just sound like my 20 month old making dinosaur noises

rawww rawwww (stomp stomp stomp across the floor! )

[leighbhe]

and not just pronunciation, but raleigh is raleigh and durham is durham, it is not "the raleigh durham" as I have heard many people say. Same as Dallas Fort worth, just because the airports are raleigh durham and dallas fort worth, doesn't mean the towns are connected!

drives me batty..........and remember how to pronounce fuquay varina:

few-quay vah reen na

it is easy!

Leigh

[nickandy]

wow, didnt realize people are so passionate about their spelling and pronounciation down south. But I am with you guys. Being from Boston we are used to things like baastan, caaah, paahk and it is good to learn good southern english . We have our load here too, names like Worcester, Gloucester (comes from british origin) but people from other parts of the country call it wor-cest-er as it is spelled, and we call it...gasp...."wooosta" .

[nickandy]

Originally Posted by leighbhe

and not just pronunciation, but raleigh is raleigh
and remember how to pronounce fuquay varina:

few-quay vah reen na

it is easy!

Leigh

I avoided pronouncing that as it sounded so dirty. Now that I know how to say it, I can consider houses from there too. (Imaging telling a friend, from out of state, where you are living , exactly!.

[annesg]

OK, how to folks pronounce Boogertown, NC? Ha ha.

I'm from VA originally, and the folks who settled VA came from the same part of England that settled MA. So we have a lot of shared place names but different pronunciation: ie: "Norfolk" is "Nor-Fork" in MA and "nah-fahk" in VA. Weird.

For the record, folks should know that in German, where many of the ei/ie names come from, IE = long e (as in GEESE) and EI= long I (as in Wise). Then you have Raleigh, which confuses things, since Raleigh wasn't German.

I ALWAYS screwed up the ie/ei thing as a child, and didn't learn to spell friend until high school. Pathetic...esp. since I am an English professor.

BTW in rural VA the down "buena vista" is pronounced Byoona-vista, not at all like one would in spanish. I bet that would bug the native spanish speakers to death.

I always say, when in Rome....

[annesg]

Wait..it's var-EE-na? In VA, it's rhymes with, well, let's just say it's a long i (Eye), not long e sound.

[VaNC]

BTW in rural VA the down "buena vista" is pronounced Byoona-vista, not at all like one would in spanish.

Being from Virginia, we just always called it "BV". My favorite was the neighboring Virginia mountain town of Dante, pronounced "Dant".