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Old 08-04-2017, 12:59 AM
 
6,749 posts, read 5,426,958 times
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This was born out of the "mispronounced city names" thread.

What are place, City, county town names that don't sound the way they look.

For example, in New York, we have Taughannock State Park at Taughannock falls.
How do you pronounce that? Tawgahnuck? Toffanock?
Well it's pronounced like a nearby Pennsylvania area town, Tunkhannock....both pronounced " tongue can knock".

The NY City of Skaneateles....looks like "scan e at tell less" but is pronounced more like "Skinny atlas". This one could go under mispronounced cities, but is also another example of it not sounding like it looks.

Many of New York's place names are derived from native American names, and the English pronounciation may not match how it looks. Influenced by the Iroquois (ear oh coy) tribe place names. There are many strange looking place names of native American origin across the country, as here in New York.

We also have the Tioughnioga river here. Tie of nioga? That would be close ( it's " Tea off knee oh gah"). That one, I guess, could look like it's pronounced though...

Other areas of the country have the same issue.

I'm NOT talking about certain local pronounciation idiosyncrasies, like "Naw lens" instead of "New Ore leans".

I'm thinking about place names that you wouldn't think were supposed to sound the way they do when you look at them. Like Taughannock...

Let's see what we've got.

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Old 08-04-2017, 02:59 AM
 
Location: Springfield, Ohio
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Worcester (Woo-ster) MA always comes to mind.
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Old 08-04-2017, 03:16 AM
 
Location: The Heart of Dixie
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Kanawha County, the Kanawha River, and Kanawha City in West Virginia. The H is silent.

Hurricane, West Virginia is NOT pronounced like the storm! How someone pronounces these two place names is usually the first indication that are definitely are visiting or have only recently moved there.

In Louisiana, places are still pronounced the French way vs a more Americanized pronunciation (ex: LaPlace, Breaux Bridge, Grosse Tete, Bayou Teche). In contrast the city of Versailles, Kentucky is pronounced "Versales" vs the French way like the palace in Paris.

Rio Grande, Ohio (where Bob Evans first started) is pronounced "Rye-o Grand" vs the Spanish pronunciation in Texas. I think Ohio and Kentucky have an especially large number of places that have foreign counterparts but are pronounced in a very American way.
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Old 08-04-2017, 05:31 AM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Natural510 View Post
Worcester (Woo-ster) MA always comes to mind.
Yeah I lived in Mass. Once upon a time.

We have one in NY, I think called "worster", but I call it Wooster, after the Mass. Town.

Reminds me of
"Worcestershire sauce", which many stumble their way through. I have little problem, but many do. Lol

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Old 08-04-2017, 05:57 AM
 
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The city of Rocky Mount, North Carolina, is actually in a rather flat part of the state. Nothing to do with mountains or rocky terrain. Supposedly it was named for a rock in the Halifax River.

As for pronounciations, I can think of BER-lin, New Hampshire, La-PLAYta, Maryland, but La_PLAHTA River, Argentina. BEW-fert, (Beaufort), South Carolina, but BOE-fert, North Carolina. STAN-ton (Staunton), Virginia. And try pronouncing Natchitoches (Louisiana) and Nagodoches (Texas)
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Old 08-04-2017, 06:03 AM
 
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Duquesne (do-kane) PA, Valatie (va-lashe) NY and Skaneateles(scan-knee-atlas) NY are a few that come to mind.
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Old 08-04-2017, 06:07 AM
 
4,370 posts, read 7,017,228 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by galaxyhi View Post
Yeah I lived in Mass. Once upon a time.

We have one in NY, I think called "worster", but I call it Wooster, after the Mass. Town.

Reminds me of
"Worcestershire sauce", which many stumble their way through. I have little problem, but many do. Lol

WORCESTER, Massachusetts. People outside the region are always saying WAR-chester, when natives pronounce it "WUHS-tuh". And wrongly spelling it "Worchester." At one time it used to be the 50th-biggest city in the United States, and very well-known.

Many towns in England have a silent letter "H"

Norwich -rhymes with "porridge".
Harwich - pron. "Harrich"
Woolwich - pron. "Woolich"
Dulwich - pron. "Dullich"
Berwick - pron. "Berrick"

Gloucester, England, Massachusetts, Virginia - pron. "GLAHS-tuh", not "GLOW-chester"

Leicester - pron. "LES-TUH", not "Lee-chester"

Ponce - the #2 city of Puerto Rico - "POAN-say", not "Pahns"

Cairo, Illinois (or what's left of this almost abandoned city) is pronounced "KAY-roh", not "KIE-roh" as Egypt

Last edited by slowlane3; 08-04-2017 at 06:19 AM..
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Old 08-04-2017, 07:09 AM
 
Location: St Simons Island, GA
23,302 posts, read 43,751,651 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by galaxyhi View Post
This was born out of the "mispronounced city names" thread.

What are place, City, county town names that don't sound the way they look.

For example, in New York, we have Taughannock State Park at Taughannock falls.
How do you pronounce that? Tawgahnuck? Toffanock?
Well it's pronounced like a nearby Pennsylvania area town, Tunkhannock....both pronounced " tongue can knock".

The NY City of Skaneateles....looks like "scan e at tell less" but is pronounced more like "Skinny atlas". This one could go under mispronounced cities, but is also another example of it not sounding like it looks.

Many of New York's place names are derived from native American names, and the English pronounciation may not match how it looks. Influenced by the Iroquois (ear oh coy) tribe place names. There are many strange looking place names of native American origin across the country, as here in New York.

We also have the Tioughnioga river here. Tie of nioga? That would be close ( it's " Tea off knee oh gah"). That one, I guess, could look like it's pronounced though...

Other areas of the country have the same issue.

I'm NOT talking about certain local pronounciation idiosyncrasies, like "Naw lens" instead of "New Ore leans".

I'm thinking about place names that you wouldn't think were supposed to sound the way they do when you look at them. Like Taughannock...

Let's see what we've got.

One of the things I love about upstate NY is the long list of unpronounceable city names.
I'd say it has that in common with Washington State, which brings us such names as:

Puyallup (pew AWL ep)
Enumclaw (EE nem klaw)
Tulalip (too LAY lip)
Sequim (skwim)
Humptulips (HUMP tuh lups)
Skamokawa (skuh MA kuh way)
Ilwaco (ill WAY koh)
Kahlotus (CAL uh tus)

When we lived there, my husband was constantly correcting me.
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Old 08-04-2017, 08:05 AM
 
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Houston County in GA. You'd think it'd be pronounced like Houston TX but it's pronounced "House-ton".
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Old 08-04-2017, 10:09 AM
 
91,994 posts, read 122,078,964 times
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Tchula (chew-la) MS

Lowville (lau-ville) NY

Dolgeville (dollj-ville) NY
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