Couch Street in Portland is pronounced "cooch"
And Will-AM-et Valley instead of Willa-MET (Willamette)
like how in New York City, Houston Street is pronounced "Houseton," rather than like the city
Couch Street in Portland is pronounced "cooch"
And Will-AM-et Valley instead of Willa-MET (Willamette)
Granola. Used to describe a hippy. It was common term in my high school back in the early 80’s. About 10 years ago I started a new job and my manager - a few years older than me - one day said you’re a granola aren’t you? And that was how I knew we went to the same high school.
This is still very common in my area
Blount Street is Blunt Street Conetoe is Co-NEH-toe Wendell is wen-DELL
The town Sequim i WA is Skwim. But the closest to what you are asking is Prescott AZ pronounced PresCut
I used to live near Seattle, and worked with women who were mostly aged 18-25. We all agreed, we knew how to pronounce Sequim properly, but it still sounded like a euphemism for something. Like hoohah or coochie. "I've got an infection, my squim's really itchy, I need to go to the doctor"
Puyallup = Pyoo-wallup
It gets spelled Preskitt here sometimes to emphasize the pronunciation, but the real pronunciation is like you indicated.
North Versailles is Ver-SAILS
Moved to McKeesport 5 years ago and this threw me for a loop.
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We pronounced the road as Sure-Kill.
I'm from eastern PA and plenty of native say Lan Cast er
Campbell near me is not pronounced like the soup but rather CAMP-bell.
New Tripoli in PA. It's not like the city, it's pronounced trip-o-lee
While we’re in PA let’s talk Lancaster. Lan-CA-ster most other places. More like lankister in PA.
is it common that I don't know what "shibboleth" means without googling it
nah. the word is an extremely specific Biblical reference. it's just easier to use it and let people google it than explain the concept from scratch
In Melbourne (Australia) the suburb Reservoir, where there is a giant water reservoir, is pronounced "REZ-uhv-ORE" If you're from out of town &/or can't bring yourself to say it like that, "Rezza" splits the difference
Here in Texas, “REZ-uh-VORE” is just how we pronounce the word every day 😂
Unless I'm misreading, this is exactly how I would pronounce it in my Midwest US dialect.
Belvoir in Leicestershire. Pronounced “beaver”.
Oh, and you think we by nature just happen to know how to pronounce Leicestershire?
Also Beaulieu, Hampshire, home of the National Motor Museum. Bew-lee.
Concord (whether in MA or NH) is pronounced like “conquered”, not like the supersonic aircraft. Many other place names around here can be used as shibboleths. For a certain type of old Bostonian male, wearing brown shoes (rather than black) was how you knew someone was the real deal. I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing black dress shoes.
For a certain type of old Bostonian male, wearing brown shoes (rather than black) was how you knew someone was the real deal. I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing black dress shoes.
I'm really curious about this. why? would that rule still apply even if you were wearing like, a black tuxedo?
Waltham
Sauciehall Street.
In Mobile, AL, Joachim St. is pronounced “Joe wack’em Street”
Wait shut up I love this
We have Cowles Mountain. No, it should not be pronounced to rhyme with part of a monk's robe. It should be pronounced like the surname of Mr. Cowles after whom the mountain was named. He pronounced it to sound like "coals". And is that street named "Garnet" pronounced GARnit or GarNETTE? It's GARnit, darnit!
You’re right about Cowles mountain being named after George Cowles and about how it’s supposed to be pronounced but I’ve never once heard anyone, native to San Diego or not, pronounce it “correctly”. I pronounced Garnet Avenue “correctly”, like the gemstone, when I first moved to the area and had occasion to pronounce it out loud at all, but every San Diegan I said it out loud around corrected me and now I say it the wrong way like everyone else.
If you put ‘the’ in front of our freeways or transit systems.
Lutz in the Tampa Bay area is "loots" not "luhts" like the skating jump.
Then there is Kissamee. kis-A-me
I live in Wisconsin. The native place names and the French place names throw newcomers regularly.
Your pronunciation of Hawaii will give away if you're not from Hawaii.
Buena Vista in Colorado is Byoona not Bwayna.
And there is a Buena Vista St in Baltimore the locals call “Boona Vista.”
Charlotte MI is pronounced Char-lot
Same for the Charlotte area of Rochester, NY. They have a jingle for a furniture store there: CHAR-LOT, YOU'LL SAVE A LOT. Also Chili, pronounced CHI-Lie. Or Avon, pronounced AVE-on. Or LeRoy, which even the locals argue over whether its pronounced LEE-roy or Leh-ROY.
I live in Houston, TX USA and I think we are the only people who use the word “feeder” for a street that runs parallel to the freeway with on and off ramps to that freeway.
The only lay people. That’s so cool! I’ve heard it from city planners and city engineers not ever from a regular person. It fits perfectly
Bexar is pronounced "bear"
Fairmount Dr is pronounced Fairmont, at least by the folks I know.
In Massachusetts Worcester is pronounced Wooster.
Or.. Woostah. No " R's"
We have tons of towns named after famous cities elsewhere which we pronounce differently.
Bear-lin would never be my assumption
In Edinburgh, Restalrig Road South is universally known as Smoky Brae - I actually just had to look up what the street's real name is. In Leith, Admiralty Street is always pronounced "Admirality".
Every city has a street name that is pronounced wrong for no reason and they will get absolutely LIVID with you if you pronounce it correctly. Lol. My local example is "Monaghan" which everyone here insists on calling "monnigun"
“I-5”, “I-10”, “101” north of the Kern County line (California); “the 5”, “the 10”, “the 101” south of it. https://preview.redd.it/ltn6qqtrqtgh1.jpeg?width=1114&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c367fd71beee770e195d6b96ba91344c07d2123a
La Sangeles...
I feel like “the 5” sneaks a little farther north, but that’s right about where 101 picks up its “the.”
So many 'SoCal' transplants moved to the Bay Area within the last 2 or 3 decades, that this 'rule' is more flexible.
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New Orleans has a bunch, most famously Calliope pronounced CAL-EE-OPE
Worcester, Gloucester, and Cochituate
Two rivers Wisconsin is pronounced Trivers.
New Zealand pronounces Achilles "ar-kill-ees", inserting a prosthetic R.
Hometown: Chili, NY (Chai-lie). Skaneatles (Skinny-at-las). College: Tonawanda (Tah-nah-waahn-da). Rochester (Ra-cha-cha 😂)
Very, *very* parochial. North Bedfordshire, England. The village of Moggerhanger. Most locals will pronounce it Moorhanger. You can spot an incomer or someone not local by how they pronounce it.
Arab, Alabama is pronounced like AY-rab not air-ub.The town was named after the founders son, Arad, but whoever was responsible for the documentation mispelled it.
Lots in England. A couple in Norfolk. Stiffkey - *Stooky*, Happisburgh - *Haysbruh*. A series of them in Yorkshire, Atwick - *Attick*, Catwick - *Cattick*, Adwick - *Addick* Bigger places Worcester -*Wuster*, Leicester - *Lester*. Shire as in Yorkshire and lots of other counties is pronounced *Sher*.
There are several villages / towns near me that have strange pronunciations. Faugh. Is pronounced faff. Haughton is howton. Yet Haughton Green is Horton green And Raughton Head is rafton ed.
San Rafael is pronounced San Ruh-FELL
Madrid, NM is pronounced MAD-rid instead of muh-DRID (or muh-DREED). This regularly drives Spanish speakers crazy.
Gough Street in SF is Goff
My cousin lives in North Chili, pronounced Chi Lie.
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Maryland has tons of these. Towson is “tau-sin,” not “toe-son.” Berlin is “BER-lin” not “ber-LIN.” Ellicott City is “ellicut” not “elly - cot.” Ijamsville is “Iyamsville,” not “I-jams-ville.” And of course, Baltimore is Bawlmer
In Colorado Louisville is pronounced Loo-is-ville, like it looks , not like the city in Kentucky
I tell people it's like St Louis.
Thames St in Baltimore. Not pronounced like the famous river.
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We distinguish between Newark DE and Newark NJ by a very subtle pronunciation difference. NJ is New-irk and DE is New-ark (like Noah is at it again)
Launceston is pronounced ‘Lan-stun’ Praa Sands is ‘Pray Sands’ Mousehole is ‘Mao-zull’ Frome is ‘Froom’ Teignmouth is ‘Tin-muth’
Where I live Medina is pronounced Muh-die-nuh not Muh-Dee-nuh
Minnesota Wayzata = Why-zett-uh New Prague = New Prayg Mahtomedi = Mah-duh-me-die Edina = effing cake eaters 😂
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Demonbreun street Cities of Shelbyville, Maryville, LaFayette, Sante Fe, Lebanon Maury County
Some of these are so crazy, I wonder why nobody ever changed the spellings to match all the 'local' pronunciations.
Rio road is pronounced rye-oh.
If you know which one is the murder Kroger
I can tell if you're from Rhode Island or not by how you say Pawtucket.
In Delaware we have a town called Houston and we pronounce it like New Yorkers
I lived in Oxford, (UK) for a while ...although I wasn't smart enough to go to the university. However, I remember there was "Magdalen College" where they actually pronounced it "Maudlin". But then there was ALSO Magdalen Street and St Mary Magdalen Church and those were pronounced normally. What a mess.