Pronouncing local place names! (Kyle, Alvarado: live in, car, driving)

[ChrisSA_wxatUIW]

OH!!! wait, people say it like that? like "peeeeeeee dro"?

[EmergencyOps]

Originally Posted by SanAntoQT

Alvarado is a short "A" (al-va-rah-doh) and Blanco is also a short "A"...Spanish word with English accent is the only way I can describe it.

What are you talking about? Yes, they are spelled the Spanish way, but having lived near Alvarado and gone to football games there, it is not pronounced in spanish. Blanco is the same way. Yes, it is a spanish word, but it is not pronounced in spanish.

Al-vuh-ray-do
Blank-o

You can scroll through the earlier posts and you'll see that San Antonio people get irked that people give Blanco a spanish pronuniciation.

-Mark

[SanAntoQT]

Originally Posted by EmergencyOps

What are you talking about? Yes, they are spelled the Spanish way, but having lived near Alvarado and gone to football games there, it is not pronounced in spanish. Blanco is the same way. Yes, it is a spanish word, but it is not pronounced in spanish.

Al-vuh-ray-do
Blank-o

You can scroll through the earlier posts and you'll see that San Antonio people get irked that people give Blanco a spanish pronuniciation.

-Mark

I guess my thinking is, if it's a SPANISH word, then it should be pronounced as such, but maybe I should tell my friends with the Alvarado surname that they've been pronouncing it wrong for generations.

Also, if you go back and re-read what I said about Blanco, you'll note that I said the "A" is pronounced with a SHORT "A"...even I say "blank-o"! Sheesh!

[SanAntoQT]

Originally Posted by ChrisSA_wxatUIW

OH!!! wait, people say it like that? like "peeeeeeee dro"?

That's what I'm saying.

[cygnet]

Originally Posted by sapphire

This one drives me nuts for some reason. Iraan. Looks like it would sound sort of like the Middle Eastern country located near Iraq. It's actually pronounced Ira-Ann.

There's a place in Louisiana called Earth. You would think it's pretty straightforward. I mean, it should sound like the planet we all live on, no? No. They call it e-wrath.

Just found this great thread. Actually the Louisiana town is spelled Erath -- just like it's pronounced. There's also an Erath County, Texas, just southwest of Dallas. Stephenville is county seat.

Nacogdoches in Texas has a French twin in Louisiana -- Natchitoches. Both variants on the same name, a Caddo Indian tribe. You'll find many phonetic spellings for Natchitoches, but as a native, take it from me that locals say "Nack -a - tish."

[TexHwyMan]

Originally Posted by AFWife1029

guess it depends on who you ask on that one my husband is German and says its pronounced Hebner.

Coming in late on this one, but in German, it would be pronounced HEWP-ner. A "ue" is the same as a u-umlaut (ü), which in German is a deep "ew" sound.

In any case, it's moot because what we're discussing here are local pronounciations for names. Just as many of the Spanish names are "anglicized", so are many German names. (Boerne is also a good example-- nobody calls it "BERR-na", which is how it would be pronounced in German.)

[fiVe]

Kyle Seale Parkway.

Is it "Kile Seal" or "Kile Seal-ee"?

[Hyun-Soo]

I got a good one!

'La Vernia' is pronounced 'Luh-Vur-Nee-Uh'

Not like the Spanish pronouncation for La.

[fiVe]

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[knippa]

At one point in its history San Antonio had a majority population of Germans hence all of the German names of streets etc. Nothing needs to be said of the Mexican influence as that is generally understood. The easiest way to handle the various names here in " The Big Taco " is to learn the Spanish and German alphabets.