Street Names (New Orleans: college, move, area)

[Orestes]

Wait a minute. I've heard N'awlins plenty. Granted not exactly how it's spelled. Kinda more like the other one. It's kinda more of a lazy version of that - Nuh-walins, or something like that. But yeah, never just a solid Nawlins. You've never heard that around town?

You pegged my favorite though, Nu-WAW-lins. And it always come from someone that is fun to listen to talk.

[WestbankNOLA]

Originally Posted by Orestes

Wait a minute. I've heard N'awlins plenty. Granted not exactly how it's spelled. Kinda more like the other one. It's kinda more of a lazy version of that - Nuh-walins, or something like that. But yeah, never just a solid Nawlins. You've never heard that around town?

You pegged my favorite though, Nu-WAW-lins. And it always come from someone that is fun to listen to talk.

I would tie that with the Nu'Wawlins, it's just more like Nu'Awlins.
In a lifetime I've only heard a solid Nawlins come frome transplants and tourists.

[Pook77]

It's so difficult to get across what I hear in my mind . When I see "N'Awlins" spelled out, I think of the way a tourist would say it (does that make sense?) not someone just lazy drawling out the way it's often heard down here. I probably spelled it wrong - LOL!

"Big Easy" is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. There's no pronouncing that wrong, it's just something people don't really say here. Kind of like a restaurant I worked at in the Midwest who insisted their advertisements should say "Come celebrate Mardi Gras and Fat Tuesday with us!" Um, dude, "Mardi Gras" MEANS "Fat Tuesday!" LOL!

[WestbankNOLA]

Originally Posted by Pook77

It's so difficult to get across what I hear in my mind . When I see "N'Awlins" spelled out, I think of the way a tourist would say it (does that make sense?) not someone just lazy drawling out the way it's often heard down here. I probably spelled it wrong - LOL!

"Big Easy" is like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. There's no pronouncing that wrong, it's just something people don't really say here. Kind of like a restaurant I worked at in the Midwest who insisted their advertisements should say "Come celebrate Mardi Gras and Fat Tuesday with us!" Um, dude, "Mardi Gras" MEANS "Fat Tuesday!" LOL!

Oh I know exactly what you mean. I always think to myself when I hear that, "there's nothing easy about the big easy".

[Orestes]

LOL! "Big Easy" bugs the crap out of me too. I guess you're right about it being closer to the way you showed it than N'awlins. You know, I never really thought about it , but it's almost as though it should have been "N'walins".

Now that I think about it, I always get strange looks when I correct the way people try to say it (especially here on the West Coast). That's probably why. They say it more like it's spelled: Nawlins, then I correct them to "Nuhwallins". But, what I'm saying isn't really even close to the spelling they're trying to pronounce. I never even considered that it's actually a little dyslexic.

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

There used to be a shop in Metairie named L'Fashionnaire. I always cringed when I saw their sign - such bad French!

[Pook77]

Gotta love the bad French. That was my problem when I moved here as I speak French and it was killing me to pronounce it "right."

[Aiten]

Metairie, that's another one. A lot of first-timers pronounce it me-TEHR-ee.

I've heard all different ways of saying New Orleans, even in the same breath. It's most often nu OR-linz with a lot of natives pronouncing the OR as AHR. The soft O becomes AH a lot, as in lah-YOH-lah (Loyola). I've heard nyoo AW-yuhnz in some parts and there's a smart Uptown/Garden District set who often say noo AWWWL-ih-uhnz. Very seldom is it noo or-leenz, unless it's the avenue in which case it's or-LEENZ or the Parish in which case it's more OR-leenz, or to make it rhyme in a song. Anyway, agree it's never naw-linz unless it's to play off the touristiness of the name.

Speaking of bad French, what about "geaux"? The actual French pronunciaton for that is more like JZOH.

[WestbankNOLA]

Originally Posted by Aiten

Metairie, that's another one. A lot of first-timers pronounce it me-TEHR-ee

Good ol' MEH-tree

[mhounit]

Originally Posted by WestbankNOLA

Good ol' MEH-tree

That's funny , cuz my Mother's family is from New Orleans and the surrounding area and none of them pronounce it that way .