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Both of you would be incorrect. The Texas city and the New York street have two different namesakes. The former is named for Sam Houston. His last name is a Scottish patronym derived from the name "Hugh", so the correct pronunciation is "Hugh-sten".
The thing that stands out about this thread is how many locals are proud of the fact that they mispronounce names.
They're not mis-pronounced ... they're differently pronounced. No one gets to declare that one pronunciation of any name (personal or of a place) is right.
They're not mis-pronounced ... they're differently pronounced. No one gets to declare that one pronunciation of any name (personal or of a place) is right.
Not even the culture that created the name?
I'm sorry, but names like "Palestine" and "Ponce de Leon" do have correct pronunciations, whether people want to abide by them or not.
Location: Baghdad by the Bay (San Francisco, California)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fillmont
A quick way to generally get an idea of where a person is from in Texas is to listen to what they call the side roads on highways.
Dallas/Fort Worth calls them access roads or service roads.
San Antonio uses just access road.
Austin uses frontage road.
Houston has feeders.
El Paso is apparently gateways.
In Missouri, they're called outer roads.
Michigan, I'm told, uses service drives.
San Francisco doesn't have them at all, so I'm not sure what people would call them here. I always said feeder or access road when I lived in Texas. I do remember all the signs in Houston saying "frontage road," though.
On another note: I once returned a rental car with a flat tire in St. Louis. The agent came out to ask what had happened and I said, "I think I ran over something entering the freeway."
He said, "Freeway? what part of California are you from?"
In addition to the Houston pronounciation thing, I can always tell when someone isn't from NYC when they ask about the subways by color, as in "Where's the green line?" or "Where's the red line?" Nobody in the city ever does that. We refer to the subways by their letter, number, street they run under, and sometimes by destination. But NEVER by color.
San Francisco doesn't have them at all, so I'm not sure what people would call them here. I always said feeder or access road when I lived in Texas. I do remember all the signs in Houston saying "frontage road," though.
On another note: I once returned a rental car with a flat tire in St. Louis. The agent came out to ask what had happened and I said, "I think I ran over something entering the freeway."
He said, "Freeway? what part of California are you from?"
I was from Texas at the time.
Yea, Texas officially calls them "frontage roads," which may explain why Austin uses that terminology while the other major cities don't. I'm not sure when and why the split happened.
As for St. Louis - what would a Missourian call them, highways? I'm a native Texan and I would call them highways, but if I heard someone say freeway, I wouldn't think twice about it. Maybe there's enough Californians here to make it an acceptable second term.
I'm sorry, but names like "Palestine" and "Ponce de Leon" do have correct pronunciations, whether people want to abide by them or not.
It is very common for speakers of a language to change the pronunciation of loan words. Further, isolated regions will often take one common pronunciation and, over time, end up with different ones. In both cases, there is nothing wrong or incorrect. Pronunciation, as with all things related to language, change with time.
Palestine has a correct pronunciation when referring to the middle eastern region, but there is no reason why that word can't have a new pronunciation when referring to a new thing. Same with Ponce de Leon.
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