Care to share an American mispronunciation or perversion of a foreign city name?
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ibstubro (
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January 14th, 2015
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Here in Atlanta, there are a couple:
A town named Dacula. People tend to say Dack-yu-lah (sort of like Dracula without the R). The proper pronunciation is more like “duh-KEW-la”, withe the accent on the middle syllable.
The town of Dahlonega (north of Atlanta) – you can pan for gold there – is properly pronounced “Duh-lahn-i (short i)-ga”. However, many newcomers call it “dah-low-nay-ga”
THere are other, too.
Cairo, GA is not pronounced like the capital of Egypt. Here it is pronounce “kay-ro”, like the corn syrup.
I had no idea until I visited them, but Rome is actually called Roma, and Spain is called Espana.
Hahaha Mel born and Carns and Pit Carn. What @Earthbound_Misfit said, and we say cans and peetcan. ( for Cairns and Pitcairn)
My English teacher who is American said “DaNEN” instead of Danang.
Basically every foreign city.
Burr-ming-ham
Scat-land
In-gurr-land
Lie-ses-tur
In Massachusetts, the town Worcester is pronounced “wuhster” and the town Leominster is “Lemster:”
Kentucky has some pretty awful ones.
Versailles—Ver-SAILS.
Athens—(letter)A-thens
Massachusetts is full of them. I was talking about this with someone in chat not too long ago. (@elbanditoroso‘s are two good ones)
Here are some with potential:
1. Gloucester: GLOSS-ter
2. Lowell: loll (rhymes with roll)
3. Reading: RED-ding
4. Peabody: PEE-buh-dee
5. Leicester: LESS-ter
6. Barnstable: BARN-stuh- BULL (same syllable pattern as “consonant”)
7. Billerica: bill-RICK-uh
8. Teaticket: TEE-tuh-kit
9. Barre: BAH-ree (pretty much like Barry)
10. Haverhill: HAIV-rull
11. Quincy: QUINN-zee
And there’s also a vanishing w in RI names:
12. Warwick- WAR-rick
13. (East/West) Greenwich: GRENN-ich
Illinois:
Des Plaines, pronounced DESS Plaines
Cairo pronounced Kay-Row
Even with Illinois many Americans pronounce the S.
New York has a street called Houston, pronounced How-stun, as opposed to Hew-stun as in Texas.
Karo Cairo has always made me nuts.
I get rebuked if I do not pronounce the s in ‘Caprice”.
I refuse to call the name of the city known as Ver-sales.
Come on, [vɛʀˈsɑːj] is really easy to pronounce.
I think it is not only non-US cities that get mispronounced. I’ve visited so many that I’ve come to the conclusion that the correct pronunciation for any city (or other place) is the way it is pronounced by the natives. Examples:
New Orleans (usually pronounced “Ny-Ahw-lins” by natives) is often mispronounced “Noo Or LEENS”
Chicago—Is it pronounced “Chi-CA – go”, or is it “Shi-CAW-ga”
Illinois—Folks from there do not pronounce the “s” (as stated above by @filmfann)
Missouri—“Miz-ur- ee” or “Miz- ur -uh?
Elgin—If it is in Texas, it’s ”EL – gin”, but in Illinois it’s ”EL – jin”
Fort Worth—You look at and think “Fort Worth”, pretty straight forward. But in that town they pronounce it ”FUT – Wooth”
Louisville—In Kentucky, it’s ”LOO-uh-vil”, but the town in Colorado by the same name is ”LOO-is-vil”.
Pierre, SD = Peer.
Greenwich, CT = GRE nitch
Greenwich. NY = GREEN witch.
—@ibstubro you might be right. It might also depend on where you live in that state”.
Rodeo. In Texas, it is Ro-de-o.
In California, it is Ro-day-yo.
Chicago—Is it pronounced “Chi-CA – go”, or is it “Shi-CAW-ga”
Both are acceptable.
American here. I’ve always heard Brisbane pronounced Briz-bin, or however you would write it out. The same as Australians pronounce it sans some of the accent. I’ve never heard someone say Briz-bain. I agree we say Melbourne incorrectly though.
In America we have the city Milan, but it is pronounce my-lan and the city Toledo, but it is pronounced Toe-lee-doe. That’s correct for the cities here, but not for Italy and Spain. I don’t know if some Americans pronounce the European cities wrong because of it? I have a really hard time saying My-lan.
Houston in Texas is hue-ston. The street in NYC is how-stin.
I live in Brisbane and I’ve heard people (particularly Americans) refer to it as BrisBANE.
@Earthbound_Misfit I believe you. I’m just saying in my circles I haven’t. In the US people pronounce things differently from one state to the next. I assume that’s true in your country also to some extent.
One of our states is Missouri, and people who live there are split on how to pronounce it.
Actually, with some small differences, the Australian dialect/accent is stable across the country. So people in Melbourne would pronounce Brisbane in the same way as those in Brisbane. Noted differences are that some people might have a broader accent while others may speak with a more refined accent. The pronunciation of words really doesn’t vary much at all. There certainly aren’t the regional differences you get in the UK or US.
Interesting.
My bet is my husband in a first attempt would say Bris-bain, but he wasn’t born and raised in America, so he probably doesn’t count. Probably where he is from they say Bris-ban-eh. That might be wrong though, I’m just guessing. I don’t know how Latin America spells or pronounced Brisbane. Maybe the city is renamed entirely in Spanish?
My SIL pronounces Cartier car-tee-air. What can I tell you. I don’t know any “American” who says that, but I think if she was traveling in Australia you would assume she is American. She does live here for 20+ years and is a citizen. Maybe not. If you asked her she would probably reply she’s Mexican. I don’t know.
Some of it depends on how the media says it I guess.
When I moved to Michigan I discovered some people pronounce Italian eye-tal-ian. Eye like the eyes in your head. Very odd to me.
How do you say Iran? Most of my country says eye-ran. I say ee-ron.
I’d say ee-ran. I’d also say ee-rack rather than eye-rack. I’d say Mosco rather than Mos-cow.
We get a lot of American television/films here so I’ve noticed a number of Australians saying eye-ran and eye-rack. I would say that’s more of a US pronunciation.
I think I use Moscow, but Mos-co sounds right to me too. I must hear both.
I say Quebec ke-beck. Most of America says kwe-beck.
I guess the big question is, is the right way to pronounce a city how the local people say it who live there? Or, is it ok to change it to your language or dialect?
Are they names from the aborigines? We have some difficult to pronounce cities from our native Americans. Latin America is full of strange spellings to an English speaker that are indigenous names.
Yes but I’m not sure if the Aboriginal, and what has come to be accepted as the pronunciation, would be the same.
Uvalde (it is pronounced U-Val-dee, not U-va-Dill)
Buda (Beu-dah not Booda)
I wonder if most of the world knows how to pronounce Arkansas when they see it?
My grandfather was raisded in Kansas, and he called the Arkansas River the AR KANSAS. But he pronounced the state as AR KAN SAW.
In my region of the US, I never remember anyone mispronouncing Melbourne, Canberra or Brisbane. (Not that they come up a lot in casual conversations.) Nor have I heard Quebec (Kay beck) ever called Qway (qwe) beck.
Schoharie (county in NY) is pronounced SKO hairy.
The Schuylkill (river in Phila.) is pronounced Skool kill.
Stuyvesant is pronounced Sty ve sant.
I recently heard a reporter on NPR say “lie-berry”. Distinctly and repeatedly.
That’s a good one, @jaytkay. I always say ‘Are Can Saw’ but the eye/brain often leads in the ‘Are Kansas” direction.
@ibstubro When I was over in Arkansas, I saw a saw that can outsaw any saw I ever saw. If you’re ever in Arkansas, and you see a saw that can outsaw the saw I saw, I’d like to see the saw you saw saw saw.
This reminds me of when I used to work at a hotel. There was a couple of French Canadian people who had a reservation under the name Roy. When they came to check-in, I asked for their name and they said “wwwooiii” (it sounded like a mix between why and way). I was so confused, so I asked them again, and they gave the same response. I thought they maybe were saying “ouais” or “oui” (yes in French), so perhaps they misunderstood me. After a few more awkward seconds of misunderstanding, it finally clicked and I apologized. R is such a confusing consonant.
@dxs I remember having a similar reaction when I first moved to Colorado, and Patrick Roy was goalie for the Colorado Avalanche. On one particular morning, after one of Roy’s spectacular performance, someone called in to a local radio station and exclaimed, “Patrick Wa-a-a-a-a-a-a-ah!”
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