Pronunciation of New Braunfels (San Antonio, Anton: area, company, history)

[elnina]

^^^ lol. Most people don't know how to pronounce it either...

[TexasRedneck]

Originally Posted by elnina

I
And none to pronounce. Yes, I noticed it - a common misconception on the web.
A German speaker wouldn't say it that way.
It's -fels like in "fellow".
Here is the correct pronunciation:

https://www.howtopronounce.com/new-braunfels/

Not the perfect phonetic, but closer than in post above:
nyoo BRAHN f’ls

Yeah - we're at explaining how to pronounce "potato".....lol Trying to spell out something you grew up saying isn't as easy as it would appear - even harder when you try to do it where everyone agrees with the way you explain it....lol

Me, I always just say "noch ein Bier bitte!", and sit back and enjoy the tourists!

[supfromthesite]

I say it like that lol. I might have even had an ancestor that lived in that town. Oh well.

[Azure110]

I don't know anyone that can pronounce "Quihi" properly outside of the area and I grew up in that area. No one made a big fuss though if it was mispronounced.

Very very few people actually speak Texas German these days (any dialect of it). My paternal great grandparents spoke it at home all the time and it was passed on to my paternal grandparents but it pretty much died off right there as they didn't pass it off to my father.

[malcorub16]

How do you pronounce Buda, Texas North of New Braunfels?

Is it BOOODA or BEEEEUUUDA?

[fritos56]

I say Buddah(boodah), and there is a book at the San Antonio Public library about Hungarian Americans. In it they list the town of Buda, along with some other towns in America. The capital of Hungary BudaPest is actually two cities on the Danube.One is Buda and the other is Pest.
As far as New Braunfels goes, we pronounced it Neu Brauhnfels. My dad was the son of a baltic german mother and a bavarian father. He learned his german from grandma and spoke with a Berliner accent.Grandpa would never speak german to my dad or his brother Uncle Tom. Said the family was in America now and we speak english.
My sister took german in highschool, and one day the teacher got on her about how she was pronouncing something. So Jessica shot back with W'Well I pronounce my german like I hear my dad say it at home, and he speaks with a Berliner accent. " Well that shut her up. Came home and told daddy about it. So he asked, well where is your teacher from? And the reply was "My teacher was born and raised here, never has been out of the area."To which daddy replied, "Oh she's one of these Platz deutche speaking Rhinelanders. Well if you want to learn german, I'll teach you at home." That comment he made was not a compliment to the teacher by the way.

[Arkay66]

Well, this Texas German Dialect and Modern formal German (Hoch Deutsch) speaker pronounces it Neu Braunfels (Noy Brown Fells), because that's how it was originally named and pronounced. So do the Germans who've immigrated here in the last 25 years.

My sister, who never learned either form of German, sticks that "s" in where it doesn't go, calling it New Browns Fells. No idea where that extra "s" came from.

I do get a kick out of how San Antonio folk pronounce Huebner (Hübner) Road. They call it Heebner, which is actually very close to the original pronunciation. They did try to get that umlaut in there. Even my Ford GPS comes really, really close to the correct pronunciation.

As for Buda, according to the town's oral tradition, "Buda" is a corruption of the Spanish word viuda, or "widow", referencing the widows who supposedly worked as cooks at the Carrington Hotel. When founded in 1881, the town was originally called Du Pre, but changed it when they learned there was already a Du Pre in Texas. So Beeyooda is the correct pronunciation.

[rynetwo]

The righteousness in this thread.

OP I grew up in the area and have many friends and family and is pronounced both ways with regularity.

[OzzyRules]

I've lived in San Antonio all my life and I have only heard it pronounced the regular way. But I've heard visiting people talk about this, as if the outside visitor assumed that it should be pronounced liked "bronze".

I've also lived with someone from New Braunfels. And I've worked with several people from there, from varying ethnic backgrounds. They've all pronounced it correctly so far.

[rynetwo]

Originally Posted by OzzyRules

I've lived in San Antonio all my life and I have only heard it pronounced the regular way. But I've heard visiting people talk about this, as if the outside visitor assumed that it should be pronounced liked "bronze".

I've also lived with someone from New Braunfels. And I've worked with several people from there, from varying ethnic backgrounds. They've all pronounced it correctly so far.

I guess that is the problem with anecdotes, they can be completely different. My experience has been very different.