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Avon - AA von (A is like "at" without the t, not like the cosmetic co.)
Leroy - I've heard it pronounced LEE roy and also Lu ROY by Leroy natives. Take your pick.
Southern tier:
Bolivar is BAAH li vur It's pronounced with that southern tier "ahh" twang
In the Adirondacks, or A di roun dacks as we like to say:
I've often been corrected on the pronounciation of my hometown, usually by downstaters from NYC or Long Island - Schroon Lake is pronounced Skrewn Lake, not Shroon Lake. Makes me laugh every time I get corrected.
Tahawas, an old mining town near Newcomb that's long gone, but is familiar to many high peaks climbers: Tu HAWS, not Tu HOW as (my husband's mis-pronounciation)
For some reason, my husband always says CHEST er tun instead of Ches ter town - just like it's spelled.
To the person who posted Schroon (Skrewn) Lake -- please laugh at me, too. First time out I said Ssssshroon, too.
Hauppauge is more akin to Hop ahg (ah as in open up and say "ah")
Wyandanch is more akin to WHY un danch
Years ago I worked for a national courier. A misaddressed parcel came into my office and I had to find the correct location. All I knew was that the sender from PA was sending it to a company in Hop Hog, NY
What about Niskayuna (Nis-key-oon-ah or just plain "Nis-key")and Scotia (Skoh-sha)? I can't count how many times I've heard people pronounce those in weird ways! I guess people don't realize that Scotia is pronounced the same way as Nova Scotia. :/
I've even heard people get confused trying to pronounce Guilderland, but I always thought that was one of the easy ones.
Last edited by Puru; 03-02-2009 at 05:33 PM..
Reason: Fixing a typo
Our local boy scout troop had to teach our town board this one a few years ago, I live in the Town of Shawangunk, Hamlet of Wallkill, Shawangunk is pronounced Shon-gum. We're the range next to the Catskills.
In 2004 Greenwich the Musical was performed and recorded. Bob Warren wrote a song called "Greenwich" about how to pronounce the name. It is pretty funny. I had the pleasure of seeing this live. They did record a CD and DVD though that you can order from the site below.
The people of the Village of Greenwich and Town of Greenwich performed in the musical.
I'm no expert, but upstaters sound like Chicago to me. My brother's name is Robby and they call him "RA-bee" like the "ra" in rabbi or rat. A lot of people don't really have an accent, but those from long time resident families seem to be the one's who pronounce "O" like the "A" in rat.
Sorry to bump this, but there's a county in WNY whose name I can never remember how to pronounce... Cattaraugus County. Any help? I wanna say it's pronounced "Catter - aw - gus." Am I right?
My aunt from WNY used to pronounce Niskayuna like "Nis - KAI - una." And Valatie... I'm from the Capital District and the first time I saw that name, I just stared at it blankly for like 5 minutes, before embarrassing myself with pronouncing it "VAL - uh - tai."
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It's Green Witch not Grenich
