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I noticed during primaries that many newscasters (most from the east) were pronouncing the state of Nevada as Ne-Vah-da with the Vah sounding like the a in "saw" or law". I don't think our neighbors pronounce their state name that way. Are you dissing them? It's Ne Va-da the Va sounding like the "a" in "cat".
What about Oregon? They call it Or-e-gun but some say Or-e-Gone! Shouldn't places be pronounced as the natives pronounce it?
My father grew up in St.Louis and he said it's pronounced Missour-EE, not Missour-AH, but wait, some people from that state pronounce it that way. Could it be possible that it's pronounced 2 different ways WITHIN the same state? Illinois, the S is silent, or is it Illi-NOISE?
Hawaii? Ha-Vai-ee?
New OrLINS, New OrLEENS, New Orlee-ans? 3 ways!
Is it DEE-Troit or De-TROIT? What Say You?
As an easterner, I contently mispronounce Oregon as "ore-uh-gawn" and Nevada as "neh-vah-duh."
I believe that the "Missourah" pronunciation is primarily limited to southern areas of that state, although someone from MO could correct me. "Illinoise" is just blatanly wrong as far as I know. Actually, the original French pronunciation would be "ee-lee-NWAH," but in either case the 's' is silent (most word-final consonants in French are silent).
I think the local pronunciation of New Orleans is "noo ORE-linz". And I've never heard anyone put the stress on the first syllable of Detroit... (the final-syllable stress also comes from French)
Tourists mispronounce town names in New England all the time, although few people get "New Hampshire" wrong. The true local pronunciation is "New Hampshah," but never "New Hamp-Shire," although some people of French-Canadian descent have the tendency to say "New Hampsheer."
not all of us talk like that... I personally hate it when people stereotype us to speaking like a stupid hick. I say Teh-x-ah-ss.
I don't think there is a particular way to pronounce, some say car-ah-mel some say care-ah-mel... at the end of the day nothing changes, nothing has been solved. Sure it inconvenient to have your state be mispronounced but its not going away anytime soon.
You can argue over how it is going to be pronounced and the argument won't ever end, anyways half of these names are of Spanish and French origin anyways and we mispronounce them... why should we care if we pronounce them right now if we never did in the first place?
IF you want to say it correctly say it how it supposed to be said, us english speaks tend to butcher people's languages... I mean it crazy how off we can be with translations... like
Lisbon-Lisboa
Peking-Beijing
Taipei-Taibei
Munich-Munchen (idk I don't know this one)
Guangzhou-canton (how the heck did we get this one???)
Anyways you get the point, I will try my hardest to correct my horrible(according to the above ) Texas pronunciation but that doesn't mean everyone else will...much less try and and care... It one of those things you can try to change but would be better off getting used to.
ugghhh!....i can't stand it when people say oregone!! it makes me smile tho especially when the person saying it has an accent...no big deal tho, it just shows how diverse our country is. "hey r u from ore-gone?"...lol
as previously stated, not all Texans talk like that. You won't hear that in the the major cities or metro areas. But you hear it in towns with less than 20,000 people. I know most Texans pronounce Texas as Tex-sis. Saying it very fast.
Here's another one that my mom hates. She's born and raised in Miami but some call it My-Am-Muh. Same thing as the Missouri thing. She absolutely hates that.
well Nevada means "snowfall" in Spanish so if you use it the way it is pronounced in Spanish it would be Neh-vah-da. Of course the residents can choose however they want to pronounce it.
Same with Florida which was named "flowery Easter" in Spanish. When we say Florida in Spanish it's "la Flor-ee-da" but most say "Flor-eh-duh" in English.
I've never heard anyone say My-ah-muh.... That would sound terrible. I have heard Mee-ah-mee a lot. I say My-ah-mee, Flo-rih-duh (and am a native).
Never thought about it, but I do say Miz-ER-ree. Is that the wrong way to say it? How do the natives say it?
I also say Nee-u ORE-linz, Tex-sis, and Ih-llih-noy.
Never heard Ha-vai-ee either.
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