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Was corrected by a friend from South Dakota regarding its state capitol, Pierre. Apparently it's pronounced PEER, as opposed to the more intuitive French pronunciation.
ATLANTA = Alana (locals drop the T's) or aT-lan-Ta (outsiders over emphasize the T's)
CHICARGO ILLINOIZ
LOS ANGH-UH-LEEZ (common on old movies and 1950s TV)
HOUSTON = HOUSE-TUN in most every place except the Texas city, especially Houston County, GA
NEVADA = Ne-vah-duh
TALIAFERRO = The county in Georgia is pronounced TOLIVER
FAYETTE = The county in Georgia is pronounced FET (one syllable) but the city in NW Georgia is La-FAY-YET
DEKALB = The county in Georgia is DUH-CAB (no L)
CAIRO = The town in Georgia is KAY-ROW
ALBANY = The town in SW Georgia is prounounced ALL-BENNIE
hilton HEAD = The island in SC is pronounced with the emphasis on HEAD
DEFAUSKIE = The island in SC is pronounced DA FIRST KEY
BEAUFORT= The town in SC is BEYOU-FORT never BOW-FORT
Both of those are alternate pronunciations. They may be less common, but the words are "actually pronounced" both ways.
Names and places are another thing, because there's a certain degree of ownership of the name. If the Carnegies say "car-NAY-gee", it's "car-NAY-gee". Their family. Their name. Their pronunciation.
Same with places. New Yorkers say Houston St is pronounced "Howston"? So be it.
One of my favorite examples is Appalachian. Most folks in the southern part of the range say "App-uh-latch-in," while folks from farther north say "App-uh-lay-shun." So which is correct? They both are!
Just FYI--the street is named after William Houstoun, a delegate to the Continental Congress. The spelling was changed for some reason.
Houston, TX, is named after Sam Houston, who was still a kid when Houston Street in NYC got its name.
I never knew Carnegie was pronounced Car-NAY-gee. That's not how they say "Carnegie Hall", and I bet no one is going to start pronouncing it differently NOW!
It probably happened because people saw it written and didn't hear it pronounced by anyone who would know.
Newark, NJ, is "New-erk" but Newark, DE, is "New ARK".
I also like the examples of cities with the same name as major foreign cities, but pronounce them in crazy, Americanized ways. Versailles, OH (Ver-SAILS), Lima, OH (LYE-muh), and Cairo, IL (KAY-roh) come to mind.
MAD rid is another. Forget what state it's in, but they had an earthquake there once and I remember the funny way they pronounced their city's name.
There are the largest Concords in the US: Concord NC (conn-KORD, with the 2nd syllable pronounced slowly), Concord NH (con-KERD, with the 2nd syllable pronounced fast), and Concord CA, which (I believe - correct me if I'm wrong) is pronounced like the one in NH.
I've always wondered about Nacogdoches TX and Nachitoches LA. Isn't the Louisiana one something like nak-a-tish, in pronunciation?
ATLANTA = Alana (locals drop the T's) or aT-lan-Ta (outsiders over emphasize the T's)
CHICARGO ILLINOIZ
LOS ANGH-UH-LEEZ (common on old movies and 1950s TV)
HOUSTON = HOUSE-TUN in most every place except the Texas city, especially Houston County, GA
NEVADA = Ne-vah-duh
TALIAFERRO = The county in Georgia is pronounced TOLIVER
FAYETTE = The county in Georgia is pronounced FET (one syllable) but the city in NW Georgia is La-FAY-YET
DEKALB = The county in Georgia is DUH-CAB (no L)
CAIRO = The town in Georgia is KAY-ROW
ALBANY = The town in SW Georgia is prounounced ALL-BENNIE
hilton HEAD = The island in SC is pronounced with the emphasis on HEAD
DEFAUSKIE = The island in SC is pronounced DA FIRST KEY BEAUFORT= The town in SC is BEYOU-FORT never BOW-FORT
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