Mispronounced places in California. (Sacramento, Vallejo: home, neighborhood, high school)

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by sacreole

I'll never forget the time when an acquaintance of mine shared a story about his relatives visiting from North Dakota while he was growing up in Vallejo. They actually pronounced the city "VALLEY JO." We both had quite the laugh.

You do realize, that when it was founded, it was called "Vah-YE-ho", right?
Named after the Mexican general, Mariano Va-YE-ho, who let his son-in-law divide that part of his vast holdings in the Bay Area into parcels, and sell them off to the new immigrants, for a tidy profit.

[NORTY FLATZ]

"Port Hueneme"

Port "Why-knee-meee"

[SeaOfGrass]

How about Zzyzx, CA?

[CALGUY]

Originally Posted by CA4Now

I've heard people say, "La CAN-ah-dah" for La Canada. Some have trouble with the tilde over the letter "n."

God rest her soul, my mother would pronounce that like our neighboring country to the north, La Canada.

[sacreole]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

You do realize, that when it was founded, it was called "Vah-YE-ho", right?
Named after the Mexican general, Mariano Va-YE-ho, who let his son-in-law divide that part of his vast holdings in the Bay Area into parcels, and sell them off to the new immigrants, for a tidy profit.

Yes ma'am, I am aware of the origins of Vallejo. There's even a small chain of Mexican restaurants here in Sacramento called Vallejo's.

It's interesting how some of these Spanish place names have become anglicized. Take for example San Pedro in the Los Angeles area. It's pronounced locally as San PEE-dro instead of San PEY-dro.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by sacreole

Yes ma'am, I am aware of the origins of Vallejo. There's even a small chain of Mexican restaurants here in Sacramento called Vallejo's.

It's interesting how some of these Spanish place names have become anglicized. Take for example San Pedro in the Los Angeles area. It's pronounced locally as San PEE-dro instead of San PEY-dro.

I've noticed how some of the Spanish place names have drifted over into an anglicized version. The worst example, which isn't from CA, it's from Florida, is Ponce de Leon. Roads, freeways and whatnot are named after him. I'm not going to spell out the mispronunciation, though. It's too much. I can't take it! lol

That's interesting, that Sac has a Vallejo's restaurant chain. Do you know the history of it? Are the owners Vallejo descendants? Sac might be worth a visit. I saw on the internet a few yrs ago. that it has a Ukrainian restaurant. Yum!

[kettlepot]

As a kid I pronounced Tuolumne as Two-O-LUM-ne instead of "two-ALL-uh-me"

[CalWorth]

Anyone from SoCal knows that San Pedro is pronounced San PEEdro, as dumb & wrong as it sounds.

And when I was growing up, every teacher pronounced Junipero as wan-ah-PEAR-row.

We lived in the Mojave desert. I couldn’t believe how many people though it was Mo-JAH-vee.

[Bayarea4]

My husband has lived in California since 1969, yet I still can't get him to pronounce "Junipero" (Hoo-NIP-er-oh) correctly. He says "Woo-NIP-er-oh."

[TheShadow]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

I've noticed how some of the Spanish place names have drifted over into an anglicized version. The worst example, which isn't from CA, it's from Florida, is Ponce de Leon. Roads, freeways and whatnot are named after him. I'm not going to spell out the mispronunciation, though. It's too much. I can't take it! lol

That's interesting, that Sac has a Vallejo's restaurant chain. Do you know the history of it? Are the owners Vallejo descendants? Sac might be worth a visit. I saw on the internet a few yrs ago. that it has a Ukrainian restaurant. Yum!

It's the owners' last name.