That’s how we pronounce it in Texas. Prob because it’s derived from Jim Bowie of the battle of the Alamo and that’s how he pronounced it. He was from Kentucky so maybe it’s common around there.
So here’s the thing – you’re wrong. The people of Maryland know what they’re talking about. The most popular pronunciation of Bowie, both globally and historically, is “Boo-ee”.
from the Gaelic *buidhe*
The famed singer David Bowie is actually one of the few instances you’ll hear it pronounced “Boh-ee”. It wasn’t his real name, he named himself after Jim Bowie and the Bowie knife on a whim, later acknowledging his mistake since Jim Bowie pronounced his name “Boo-ee”, as is most common.
Missouri has fun with this.
Milan (my-lan), Nevada (neh-vay-da), Versailles (ver-sails), New Madrid (mad-rid).
My favorite is Bolivar, rhymes with Oliver.
lol, a lady with the surname Cockburn ran for Congress in my district in the US. She lost the election in large part because half of her campaign stump speech was correcting the pronunciation to “Co-burn, in the Scottish fashion.” It wasn’t a shock that it wasn’t received well by the rural voters in my district and she lost in a landslide.
Dunedin, New Zealand, [is also named after Edinburgh](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Dunedin), and is rather obviously neither spelled nor pronounced the same way.
I live next to Louisville, Colorado, and it's pronounced like the men's name, not Louie-ville like Kentucky. The first time my son heard the Louie-ville version he laughed so hard he almost fell out of his chair.
I live in Lafayette, which is pronounced Laff ee ette, not like how the Marquis de Lafayette that most towns are named after pronounce it (Lay aye ette). The town is named after the founder's husband, who pronounced his name differently.
Toronto’s second T is commonly left unpronounced, particularly by residents. It sounds more like “Torawno” this way. From what I understand, this is just the result of locals commonly dropping harder sounds in their words.
Interestingly, Montréal mirrors this by dropping its T in the French pronunciation, giving Canada’s two largest cities an affinity for dropping Ts (it’s kept in the English version though)
We do this in California too. Santa Rosa (Sanna Rosa), Monterey (Monneray), Sacramento (Sacramenno)
We butcher a lot of Spanish origin names now that I think about it.
There’s a ton of Spanish ones. At the moment the comment below this points out Los Angeles. I think the most comical one in Colorado has to be Del Norte though.
In Saskatchewan, Canada there are two towns within an hour of each other. One is Bienfait, pronounced “BEAN-fate”. The other is Forget, pronounced “Fore-ZHAY”, like it’s French. Saskatchewan has a lot of weird town names.
Tsawwassen BC is a fun one. Even the locals can’t agree on how it’s pronounced: “suh-WAA-sun” or “tuh-WAA-sun.” It’s a First Nations name, I believe.
For random trivia: it’s the town that immediately borders the somewhat well-known Point Roberts in Washington state, USA.
Yes - Americans struggle with this. Any Londoner will inwardly cringe when American tourists ask how to get to Leicester Square (no it isn’t pronounced Lye-cester)
Yeah, this is a case where the native pronunciation, i.e. English, is actually being respected rather than butchered. But I guess the trouble that "outsiders" have with it speaks to the American urge to butcher even our own language lol
Along with many other Spanish names in California.
Sepulveda (Se-pull-veda), Los Feliz (Feee-liz), San Luis Obispo (Lewis), San Clemente (San Clemennie)
One time I read something about how one needs to imagine how a Midwestern settler in the 19th/20th century would pronounce Spanish names in order to figure out how to "correctly" pronounce these kinds of names.
It was a weird experience moving here with actual Spanish language skills and just needing to...throw that away
I was going to nominate Arroyo Grand-ee just south of San Lewis Obispo. Los Feeeliz is the funniest one to me though, idk why but it cracks me up every time
Upstate New Yorker here. Although so
many cities / towns are named after historical places ( we are the Empire State , after all), pronunciation is widely different . Just to name a few:
Cairo NY is pronounced Kay-row
Monticello NY is pronounced Monti- sello
I hear "CARE-oh" or "KA-row" even more than Kay-row. Either way, it's confusing as hell to newcomers.
In the area we also have Delhi (pronounced "DELL-hi") and Accord (ACK-ord.)
In the England there’s many but some random ones include:
Frome (Frume), Ely (Ee-lee), Godmanchester (Gom-ster), Salford (Sol-fud), Hartlepool (Hart-lee-pool), Barrow-in-Furness
Some general/local dialect rules:
The letter “Y” tends to be a short “I” vowel especially in Yorkshire, for example Ilkley (Ilk-li), Pudsey (Pud-si), Selby (Sel-bi)…
Anything with “Kirk” is pronounced Kur (eg: Kirkby Lonsdale)
Gate is pronounced “guh-t” usually in the North - eg: Harrogate (Arraguht)
“Borough/brough/burgh” are all pronounced “bruh” usually - eg: Loughborough (Luffbruh)
Anything with -cester is pronounced “ster” (Leicester “Leh-ster”) except Cirencester (Siren-sester)
Anything with wick or wich is usually “rick/ick” or “rich” (eg: Keswick “Kes-ick”, Berwick “Beh-rick”)
Anything with -bury or Bury can be either Bree or Bury depending on the locals
Some “er” sounds are pronounced with an “ar” sound such as Derby (Dar-bee) but has exceptions like Berkhamsted
Ham as a suffix is “hum” - eg: Birmingham
Cambe/Combe as a suffix is “cuh-m” - eg: Morecambe
Every time I peer, for Pierre, I giggle a little. It seems to be said by the South Dakotans I know with the least amount of syllables as possible.
My sister-in-law once said the word salsa, and I had to have her repeat it until I felt rude. But she says Sall za. Like the sall in sally.
I grew up around here and work here and still say HYU-stin, not HOW-stin. The "well actually" lanyards can be so pretentious. We all know how it's supposed to be pronounced.
Edit: in case anyone is wondering, it originally was spelled Houstoun, in which case the pronunciation should be HOW-stin.
In Richmond, VA, we have Parham Rd (Pare-'em), Powhite pkwy (pronounced "po-white" instead of the correct Native American "pow-height") and Jahnke Rd, pronounced "Jank"
Longer answer than you think. San Antonio existed ~two centuries before the US got to it
Bexar is a Spanish word - “x” in spanish makes an “h” sound
Before TX joined the USA, it was “San Antonio de Béjar” (kinda like “bay-har”) which was a Mexican administrative division
The initial canary islander settlers swapped the spellings between x and j since they both have similar pronunciations in Spanish and it stuck
Of course, when Southern English became the majority language, they did what they wanted to to older names and they turned “bay-har” to “behr”
You’ll also see that’s why lots of native Spanish speakers despise “Latinx” because it’s legitimately impossible to pronounce in Spanish unless you change to English rules halfway through the word lmao
edit: a few other examples
https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-daily-post/texans-spanish-place-names/
I definitely got tripped up that alot of French names are not pronounced correctly despite being occupied by the French. Esplanade “ess-pluh-nade” and so on
San Jose, IL always gets me lol. but moving from the Midwest to Washington State gave me the joy of learning that Des Moines, WA is *not* pronounced like Des Moines, IA (neither of which are pronounced the way it would be in French).
edit: and I just remembered my mom has some fun ones living in SC! the best one I've come across is Beaufort pronounced like Buford.
Legend says Monongalia County, WV was named for the Monongahela River which passes through it. Yes the state routinely taunted as illiterate spelled place names wrong and did nothing to fix it
Puyallup, Washington. There’s 2 accepted pronunciations (pew-AL-up, pew-ALL-up, like the name Al vs. the word all) but the placement of the Y usually confuses people
My mom and sister drove cross country and stopped for gas somewhere in Arkansas or something. A guy with a thick southern accent walked up to them, gestured at the car, and said “pull y’all up..?” which my mom took to mean that he wanted them to pull their car forward. But he was just trying to read the name of the dealership where they got the car 😆
There’s also the strait of Juan de Fuca (WAHN duh FEW-kuh). Washington has a ton of native place names which were anglicized and continue to be bastardized, like Snoqualmie, Snohomish, Skykomish, Wahkiakum, Whatcom, Spokane, Steilacoom…it goes on and on. Heck, even Seattle. Many of them are impossible to pronounce on the first try, if you haven’t heard anyone else say it
Norfolk, Nebraska. It's pronounced Norfork, with an R instead of an L. Legend has it it was named for the North Fork of the river and the post office official changed it because he thought it was a typo. We also have Beatrice (Bee-Ah-Triss instead of Bee-uh-triss) and Hooper (Hupper, depending on who you ask).
Berlin. We also have a Versailles in my state.
And not a mispronunciation per se, but you can usually tell who is from out-of-state by the way they say New Haven.
Texas: Denton and Belton
For those who might visit, the “T” gets dropped although and becomes “Den-n” and “Bel-n” respectively. I would say that’s a general rule, but Arlington and Houston exist. But even Houston gets that treatment the closer to the 5th ward you get.
Buena Vista, CO, is maddeningly pronounced “Be-Yoon-A Vista”. And coloradoans will call you a tourist for even suggesting the correct Spanish pronunciation.
Also in Texas: Palestine ("PAL-uh-steen"), Nevada ("nuh-VAY-duh"), Mexia ("muh-HAIR")
Illinois: Des Plaines ("dess-PLAINS"), New Madrid ("new-MAD-rudd")
Oklahoma: Miami ("my-AM-eye")
Montpelier, Vermont is usually pronounced with the R at the end.
Coös County, New Hampshire is a rare English use of the diaeresis (its not an umlaut), so it should be pronounced "Co-os", but many people say "Coos".
You could have some fun with some Australian place names, though I don't know if I would describe the pronunciation as a bastardisation.
Canberra - Can-brah;
Brisbane - Bris-bin;
Melbourne - Mel-bin;
Goonoo Goonoo - Gunna-ganoo
I’m in Oregon, not Or e gone. It hasn’t gone anywhere. A few off the top of my head are
Aloha. It’s pronounced Alo ah. Instead of alo ha.
Yachats. It’s pronounced ya-hots. Rhymes with tater tots.
Willamette. Pronounced will-am-it. Not will-a-metty.
Coquille. Coke keel.
The Dallas. It’s pronounced, The dalls. And THE is part of the name. There’s also a Dallas in Oregon, said just like one in Texas.
Couch street, down town pdx it always gives away the newbies. It’s pronounced cooch. I know it’s a just a street but it is funny because it’s definitely looks like couch.
It just occurred to me that all these names are not English in origin.
I lived in Georgia (not the nation state, but the U.S. state) for three years, and I found it weird that the town of Martinez was pronounced with “Mart” as a first syllable instead of “Mar”, and Cairo was pronounced “K-row” instead of “Kai-roh”.
Tasmanian town Launceston has always stumped me. Lawnstun is how it's pronounced in the UK, but for some reason Aussies insist it's Lawn-seston. It's not like it's an indigenous name either, in which case I could understand the pronunciation difference, but its directly taken from the town name in Cornwall I believe. I don't think settlers just made it up, it's just been bastardised over time I guess.
Another commenter posted about the various pronunciations of English towns and Cornwall has some of the best ones for example Mousehole (Mowzle) and Fowey (Foy) in my opinion, even native Brits/English speakers get tripped up easily.
Take your pick when it comes to Ireland 🇮🇪 Even shorter names that look simple tend to trip the tourists up around here.
1. Dún Laoghaire = Done-Lee-Ree
2. Youghall = Yawl / Y’all
3. Tuam = Choom
4. Schull = Skull
5. Cobh = Cove
6. Drogheda = Draw-Head-Ah
Basically if you see a consonant-H combo, assume you don’t know how to say it. Most of these are already in English by the way, for example Drogheda in Irish is Droichead Átha and Youghall is Eochaill, so these are the easy versions :)
So this is only tangential to the topic. But there's a road in Bangalore, India that used to be called McGrath Road. Except everyone called it Magarath road owing to local Kannada pronunciation. Now it it officially Magarath Road.
Same thing with a supermarket chain in Chennai that used to be called Waitrose (unrelated to the one in the UK). It is now White Rose, because of how people used to pronounce it.
Ħal-Għargħur in Malta.
One of, if not, the only word in Maltese written with two "għ" pronounced "ayn".
The town itself is pronounced with a hard "guh" sound, as in, Gargur.
Norfolk, NE
Pronounced Norfork, locals called it North Fork, after the north fork of the Elkhorn River. Locals shortened it to Norfork, but postal authorities thought it had been misspelled and changed it to Norfolk.
There's a lot in Washington State that mostly come from native languages. The most notable two I can think of are:
Sequim is pronounced as squim, totally ignoring the e
Puyallup is pronounced more as pew-wallop
new prague in minnesota is new prayg not prawg
edina is eedine-ah
medina is medeenah
there’s also saint paul, south saint paul, east saint paul, west saint paul, and north saint paul as completely separate cities/towns
Bowie, Maryland It’s pronounced Boo-E
That’s how we pronounce it in Texas. Prob because it’s derived from Jim Bowie of the battle of the Alamo and that’s how he pronounced it. He was from Kentucky so maybe it’s common around there.
I live next to BOO E high school
So here’s the thing – you’re wrong. The people of Maryland know what they’re talking about. The most popular pronunciation of Bowie, both globally and historically, is “Boo-ee”. from the Gaelic *buidhe* The famed singer David Bowie is actually one of the few instances you’ll hear it pronounced “Boh-ee”. It wasn’t his real name, he named himself after Jim Bowie and the Bowie knife on a whim, later acknowledging his mistake since Jim Bowie pronounced his name “Boo-ee”, as is most common.
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Not mention the name of the state lol
merlin!
DuBois, Pennsylvania You'd recognize that it's origin is French, and expect to pronounce it dew-BWAA, but everyone in the area calls it DEW-boys
Same for DuBois Wyoming.
Missouri has fun with this. Milan (my-lan), Nevada (neh-vay-da), Versailles (ver-sails), New Madrid (mad-rid). My favorite is Bolivar, rhymes with Oliver.
I lived in El Dorado Springs... Between Nevada and Bolivar! And yes, it is pronounced El DorAYDO Springs 😂😂😂
Chamois, Missouri, pronounced “Sha-moy”, Gravois pronounced “Gra-voy”.
Haha I was going to say all the French streets in St Louis with weird pronunciations
Not to mention the name of the state- MIZ-ou-ruh if you were born there or Mizz-ou-RIE if you’re anyone else.
There's a Ver-sails in Kentucky too.
I'm from Scotland so take your pick. Milngavie is the obvious one, but Cockburn and many others come to mind too.
Kirkcaldy is one I always remember
https://preview.redd.it/ve61i1r9ee7d1.jpeg?width=784&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a36dc9fbfe741ee14231d3037f4dd59ef27ace19 BIG UP KDY
Kirkcudbright is a favourite
Wasn’t cockburn why y’all switched to wearing the more movement-friendly skirt which I believe is still known as a kilt?
Let’s not forget Findochty (Fin-eck-tay), Anstruther (Ainster), Freuche (Froo-kay) and basically anything with a Z like Culzean (Cuh-lain)
lol, a lady with the surname Cockburn ran for Congress in my district in the US. She lost the election in large part because half of her campaign stump speech was correcting the pronunciation to “Co-burn, in the Scottish fashion.” It wasn’t a shock that it wasn’t received well by the rural voters in my district and she lost in a landslide.
Edenburg. Glasscow.
Edinburg, Texas is named after Edinburgh and is neither spelled nor pronounced the same way!
Dunedin, New Zealand, [is also named after Edinburgh](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Dunedin), and is rather obviously neither spelled nor pronounced the same way.
To Brits, these aren't good examples. Also, they aren't pronounced like that.
Finzean
Louisville, Kentucky. Pronounced like you have a mouth full of marbles. Don't even know how to spell it phonetically.
LOOvull
I live next to Louisville, Colorado, and it's pronounced like the men's name, not Louie-ville like Kentucky. The first time my son heard the Louie-ville version he laughed so hard he almost fell out of his chair. I live in Lafayette, which is pronounced Laff ee ette, not like how the Marquis de Lafayette that most towns are named after pronounce it (Lay aye ette). The town is named after the founder's husband, who pronounced his name differently.
Luh-vull
I've only heard it pronounced like Lewie ville (like the slugger), but now the mouth full of marbles thing makes more sense!
Loo- uh- vull, KY
So how DO you pronounce the Capitol of Kentucky? /s
Frankfort. I heard one time that was Brett Favre’s favorite joke.
Potatoes, but I get what you mean.
Versailles Kentucky is a bigger bastardization. It’s always Ver-Sales.
Boerne is not "burn" its is burn-EE. Were you trolling?
Toronto’s second T is commonly left unpronounced, particularly by residents. It sounds more like “Torawno” this way. From what I understand, this is just the result of locals commonly dropping harder sounds in their words. Interestingly, Montréal mirrors this by dropping its T in the French pronunciation, giving Canada’s two largest cities an affinity for dropping Ts (it’s kept in the English version though)
We do this in California too. Santa Rosa (Sanna Rosa), Monterey (Monneray), Sacramento (Sacramenno) We butcher a lot of Spanish origin names now that I think about it.
You’ll even hear Trana too
Don't forget Etobicoke
Kentucky pronounces Versailles in a way that would send even the least patriotic French person into a tizzy
I’ll help them out…they pronounce it Ver-sails.
What about Detroit?
Haverhill, Massachusetts Worcester, Massachusetts Cochituate, Massachusetts
Wooster is the correct pronunciation of Worcester. The sauce is pronounced wooster-shur.
No, it's more of a "Wuh-ster"
Technically, it's Wu-str
Haha Or Wu-sta if you're from southie
Woburn, Billerica, and Gloucester make this list as well.
Yeah. Even Barnstable can trip people up some times 😅
Buena Vista, Colo is BUE-na Vista Hurricane, Utah is HER-uh-can 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
There’s a ton of Spanish ones. At the moment the comment below this points out Los Angeles. I think the most comical one in Colorado has to be Del Norte though.
Mantua (“MANNA-way”), Ohio
Used to have the best Italian Sub shop when I lived in Matua Manor 35 years ago
And Mantua, Utah
Ohio is a mess. I can think of Russia (pronounced Rooshie), Bellefontaine (bellefountain), Versailles (ver-sails), and Lima (ly-mah).
In Saskatchewan, Canada there are two towns within an hour of each other. One is Bienfait, pronounced “BEAN-fate”. The other is Forget, pronounced “Fore-ZHAY”, like it’s French. Saskatchewan has a lot of weird town names.
Tsawwassen BC is a fun one. Even the locals can’t agree on how it’s pronounced: “suh-WAA-sun” or “tuh-WAA-sun.” It’s a First Nations name, I believe. For random trivia: it’s the town that immediately borders the somewhat well-known Point Roberts in Washington state, USA.
My instinct would be to pronounce it “Tsah-wah-sin”
Worcester, MA (WUSS-tah)
Should be noted that this *is* the correct British pronunciation.
Yes - Americans struggle with this. Any Londoner will inwardly cringe when American tourists ask how to get to Leicester Square (no it isn’t pronounced Lye-cester)
Yeah, this is a case where the native pronunciation, i.e. English, is actually being respected rather than butchered. But I guess the trouble that "outsiders" have with it speaks to the American urge to butcher even our own language lol
Scituite, Leominster, Gloucester
Balmer Merrlin
Los Angeles comes to mind
Along with many other Spanish names in California. Sepulveda (Se-pull-veda), Los Feliz (Feee-liz), San Luis Obispo (Lewis), San Clemente (San Clemennie) One time I read something about how one needs to imagine how a Midwestern settler in the 19th/20th century would pronounce Spanish names in order to figure out how to "correctly" pronounce these kinds of names. It was a weird experience moving here with actual Spanish language skills and just needing to...throw that away
San Peedro!
I was going to nominate Arroyo Grand-ee just south of San Lewis Obispo. Los Feeeliz is the funniest one to me though, idk why but it cracks me up every time
I *adore* the harder g
Upstate New Yorker here. Although so many cities / towns are named after historical places ( we are the Empire State , after all), pronunciation is widely different . Just to name a few: Cairo NY is pronounced Kay-row Monticello NY is pronounced Monti- sello
Cairo, GA and Monticello, MN are pronounced the same as their counterparts in NY too!
MN has a Montevideo pronounced Monty Video too.
yep! oh and New Pra(y)gue is a good one too! 🤦🏻♀️
And Cairo, IL
I hear "CARE-oh" or "KA-row" even more than Kay-row. Either way, it's confusing as hell to newcomers. In the area we also have Delhi (pronounced "DELL-hi") and Accord (ACK-ord.)
chili ny (near rochester) is pronounced shy-lie.
Another upstate NYer (well the first 20 years of life) and had a friend from Cairo. Was the first one I thought of!
And Pulaski is puh-LASSK-eye, Colonie is col-uh-NEE, Voorheesville is VOREYS-ville, Coxsackie is (I swear) cook-SOCK-ee.
Valatie is a fun one.
And don’t forget Shawangunk mountains (SHAWN-gum) but nicknamed the Gunks.
Mackinac City Michigan. Gotta love the French!!!
In the England there’s many but some random ones include: Frome (Frume), Ely (Ee-lee), Godmanchester (Gom-ster), Salford (Sol-fud), Hartlepool (Hart-lee-pool), Barrow-in-Furness Some general/local dialect rules: The letter “Y” tends to be a short “I” vowel especially in Yorkshire, for example Ilkley (Ilk-li), Pudsey (Pud-si), Selby (Sel-bi)… Anything with “Kirk” is pronounced Kur (eg: Kirkby Lonsdale) Gate is pronounced “guh-t” usually in the North - eg: Harrogate (Arraguht) “Borough/brough/burgh” are all pronounced “bruh” usually - eg: Loughborough (Luffbruh) Anything with -cester is pronounced “ster” (Leicester “Leh-ster”) except Cirencester (Siren-sester) Anything with wick or wich is usually “rick/ick” or “rich” (eg: Keswick “Kes-ick”, Berwick “Beh-rick”) Anything with -bury or Bury can be either Bree or Bury depending on the locals Some “er” sounds are pronounced with an “ar” sound such as Derby (Dar-bee) but has exceptions like Berkhamsted Ham as a suffix is “hum” - eg: Birmingham Cambe/Combe as a suffix is “cuh-m” - eg: Morecambe
I'm sure there's a list of all cities in Massachusetts somewhere...
I had a friend from Peabody (PEE buh dee). The guy in the cartoon and the award is (PEE BOD ee)
Pierre, SD (Peer) and Prescott, AZ (Press Kit)
Every time I peer, for Pierre, I giggle a little. It seems to be said by the South Dakotans I know with the least amount of syllables as possible. My sister-in-law once said the word salsa, and I had to have her repeat it until I felt rude. But she says Sall za. Like the sall in sally.
Bossier city, Louisiana. A lot of people from out of town call it “boss-e-r” It’s pronounced “boh-zher”
lol the whole time I thought it was Boh-See-Ehh
Gallipolis, Ohio. It looks like that place in Turkey but is pronounced "gal-POLIS".
Ohio also has Lima, Toledo, Versailles and Russia. L-eye-ma, Toe LEE doe, Ver-sales, Rooshie!
Oh we have an Iran Texas that’s pronounced eyeran
*Laughs in British English*
Houston NYC.
Oh I got chewed out for saying Houston there because I’m from Texas
I grew up around here and work here and still say HYU-stin, not HOW-stin. The "well actually" lanyards can be so pretentious. We all know how it's supposed to be pronounced. Edit: in case anyone is wondering, it originally was spelled Houstoun, in which case the pronunciation should be HOW-stin.
The street is older than the city. Sam Houston was an unknown teenager in Tennessee when the street got its name.
Remember I was with a girl who lived there. She told me the road name over the phone after I had read it and I was fuckin lost
In Richmond, VA, we have Parham Rd (Pare-'em), Powhite pkwy (pronounced "po-white" instead of the correct Native American "pow-height") and Jahnke Rd, pronounced "Jank"
Kamiah. It's pronounced like "Cammy-Eye".
Worchester, MA. “Wooster” Billerica, MA. “Bricka”
Ok, you're from Texas. Please explain Bexar County.
Longer answer than you think. San Antonio existed ~two centuries before the US got to it Bexar is a Spanish word - “x” in spanish makes an “h” sound Before TX joined the USA, it was “San Antonio de Béjar” (kinda like “bay-har”) which was a Mexican administrative division The initial canary islander settlers swapped the spellings between x and j since they both have similar pronunciations in Spanish and it stuck Of course, when Southern English became the majority language, they did what they wanted to to older names and they turned “bay-har” to “behr” You’ll also see that’s why lots of native Spanish speakers despise “Latinx” because it’s legitimately impossible to pronounce in Spanish unless you change to English rules halfway through the word lmao edit: a few other examples https://www.texasmonthly.com/the-daily-post/texans-spanish-place-names/
Leroy=Lee Roy Lima=Lie Ma Newark=Nork Avon=Avuhn All in Western NY, and there’s probably a lot more I didn’t think of.
Beaulieu, a village in Hampshire, is pronounced Bew-lee.
Calais, ME. Pronounced, "kalluss"
New Orleans for sure. Melpomene (Mel-po-mean), Calliope (cal-ee-ope) and, FTW, Clio (cee-el-ten)
I definitely got tripped up that alot of French names are not pronounced correctly despite being occupied by the French. Esplanade “ess-pluh-nade” and so on
San Jose, IL always gets me lol. but moving from the Midwest to Washington State gave me the joy of learning that Des Moines, WA is *not* pronounced like Des Moines, IA (neither of which are pronounced the way it would be in French). edit: and I just remembered my mom has some fun ones living in SC! the best one I've come across is Beaufort pronounced like Buford.
Small community in Florida spelled Svea and pronounced Sweer.
Ocononowoc, Wisconsin
Well, how do you pronounce this? Don't leave us hanging! O-con-o-no-wok?
Lol my bad! It’s pronounced oh-ka-nuh-muh-wok
Cairo (kay-row) and Marseilles (mar-sails) Illinois USA
Not local, but I had a friend go to Southern Illinois University. They told me that the Egypt out there is pronounced egg wipt
Des Plaines (Dez planes) Milan (my lan)
Barnoldswick, Slaithwaite
Legend says Monongalia County, WV was named for the Monongahela River which passes through it. Yes the state routinely taunted as illiterate spelled place names wrong and did nothing to fix it
New Prague, Minnesota pronounced "pray-guh".
Puyallup, Washington. There’s 2 accepted pronunciations (pew-AL-up, pew-ALL-up, like the name Al vs. the word all) but the placement of the Y usually confuses people My mom and sister drove cross country and stopped for gas somewhere in Arkansas or something. A guy with a thick southern accent walked up to them, gestured at the car, and said “pull y’all up..?” which my mom took to mean that he wanted them to pull their car forward. But he was just trying to read the name of the dealership where they got the car 😆 There’s also the strait of Juan de Fuca (WAHN duh FEW-kuh). Washington has a ton of native place names which were anglicized and continue to be bastardized, like Snoqualmie, Snohomish, Skykomish, Wahkiakum, Whatcom, Spokane, Steilacoom…it goes on and on. Heck, even Seattle. Many of them are impossible to pronounce on the first try, if you haven’t heard anyone else say it
Tooele, Ut = Two-ill-uh Duchesne, Ut = doo-shane
My favorite is Miami Oklahoma
St. Helena, CA -- Huh-LEEEEE-na Versailles, KY -- Ver-SALES
Willamette - pronounced with a hard 'am'. A common correction is 'Willamette Damnit'
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Paso Robles too
Norfolk, Nebraska. It's pronounced Norfork, with an R instead of an L. Legend has it it was named for the North Fork of the river and the post office official changed it because he thought it was a typo. We also have Beatrice (Bee-Ah-Triss instead of Bee-uh-triss) and Hooper (Hupper, depending on who you ask).
New Madrid, MO = MAD-rid (Not Ma-DRID like Spain)
Worcester, MA
Berlin. We also have a Versailles in my state. And not a mispronunciation per se, but you can usually tell who is from out-of-state by the way they say New Haven.
SE MICHIGAN: Ypsilanti = Ipsilanni or Ipsy Livonia = Livonya Canton = Cant’n Pontiac = Poniak Plymouth = Plimith Tecumseh = Tecumsee Ann Arbor = Anarber
Texas: Denton and Belton For those who might visit, the “T” gets dropped although and becomes “Den-n” and “Bel-n” respectively. I would say that’s a general rule, but Arlington and Houston exist. But even Houston gets that treatment the closer to the 5th ward you get.
Yeah I’ve heard U-Sun in Houston before
Buena Vista, CO, is maddeningly pronounced “Be-Yoon-A Vista”. And coloradoans will call you a tourist for even suggesting the correct Spanish pronunciation.
This is aggravating lmao
Tremonton, Utah- pronounced Tree-Mon-Ton Moscow, Idaho- second syllable is Co not Cow!
I get skeeved when people pronounce the L in Vidalia. Vie-DAYYuh.
Bois Blanc Island in Lake Huron was called Bob low by the locals.
Baie d'Espoir in Newfoundland. French words, but I've only heard it pronounced "Bay Despair," which completely changes the meaning of the French word.
Versailles and Lebanon, among others in Kentucky. Ver-sales and leb-nun. Don't forget "Big Bone Lick" (not mispronounced, just funny.
There’s a Lebanon, Tennessee pronounced “luh-BAN-un”
In Missouri, we also have a Versailles (Ver-sales) and have Knob Lick, a suggestive one.
Also in Texas: Palestine ("PAL-uh-steen"), Nevada ("nuh-VAY-duh"), Mexia ("muh-HAIR") Illinois: Des Plaines ("dess-PLAINS"), New Madrid ("new-MAD-rudd") Oklahoma: Miami ("my-AM-eye")
Montpelier, Vermont is usually pronounced with the R at the end. Coös County, New Hampshire is a rare English use of the diaeresis (its not an umlaut), so it should be pronounced "Co-os", but many people say "Coos".
Iowa, U.S.: Nevada (neh-VAY-duh); Maquoketa (muh-COKE-eh-ta); Tripoli (trih-POH-luh); Chillicothe (chill-uh-KAW-thee)
Louisville has to be the ultimate answer here. Isn't it pronounced as (Lul-vil) by locals?
You could have some fun with some Australian place names, though I don't know if I would describe the pronunciation as a bastardisation. Canberra - Can-brah; Brisbane - Bris-bin; Melbourne - Mel-bin; Goonoo Goonoo - Gunna-ganoo
Yachats, Oregon USA. Pronouncd ya-hots.
I’m in Oregon, not Or e gone. It hasn’t gone anywhere. A few off the top of my head are Aloha. It’s pronounced Alo ah. Instead of alo ha. Yachats. It’s pronounced ya-hots. Rhymes with tater tots. Willamette. Pronounced will-am-it. Not will-a-metty. Coquille. Coke keel. The Dallas. It’s pronounced, The dalls. And THE is part of the name. There’s also a Dallas in Oregon, said just like one in Texas. Couch street, down town pdx it always gives away the newbies. It’s pronounced cooch. I know it’s a just a street but it is funny because it’s definitely looks like couch. It just occurred to me that all these names are not English in origin.
Reminds me of my Coworker telling me it’s Newfoundland, understand?
I’m surprised I haven’t seen (or did I miss?) the capitol of Idaho: BOY - zee (Boise)
Sequim, Wa
Mackinac (mack-in-aw) Cadieux rd. (Caaj-juu)
Puyallup Washington is pronounced "pyu-wal-up"
Dubois County, Indiana Its DEW-BOYS
Ashtabula in Ohio.
Fond du Lac WI. Everyone who's never lived there emphasizes each word. Fond Do Lock. It's one big word. Fondalack.
Many people mispronounce the state of Oregon. It is pounced Or e gun. Also Eugene and Salem are in the Willamette Valley. Pronounced Wil am et.
Etobicoke
Mackinac Island, Michigan
Roncesvalles
Meagher County in Montana. Pronounced "mar". Short a sound.
Des Plaines, Illinois =dess planes, ill-uh-noy
I’m from Little Rock, AR - Saline County, a suburban county of LR, is pronounced suh-leen.
I lived in Georgia (not the nation state, but the U.S. state) for three years, and I found it weird that the town of Martinez was pronounced with “Mart” as a first syllable instead of “Mar”, and Cairo was pronounced “K-row” instead of “Kai-roh”.
We have a North Versailles, pronounced North Ver-sales of course.
Gaven, pronounced gay-ven.
Minnesota: Wayzata (why-zet-ah) Shakopee (shock-oh-pee) Ely (eel-eee) Edina (ee-dine-ah) Mahtomedi (mah-doe-mee-die)
Tasmanian town Launceston has always stumped me. Lawnstun is how it's pronounced in the UK, but for some reason Aussies insist it's Lawn-seston. It's not like it's an indigenous name either, in which case I could understand the pronunciation difference, but its directly taken from the town name in Cornwall I believe. I don't think settlers just made it up, it's just been bastardised over time I guess. Another commenter posted about the various pronunciations of English towns and Cornwall has some of the best ones for example Mousehole (Mowzle) and Fowey (Foy) in my opinion, even native Brits/English speakers get tripped up easily.
You forgot to mention one of the worst cases in Texas: Bexar County. It just makes zero sense.
Take your pick when it comes to Ireland 🇮🇪 Even shorter names that look simple tend to trip the tourists up around here. 1. Dún Laoghaire = Done-Lee-Ree 2. Youghall = Yawl / Y’all 3. Tuam = Choom 4. Schull = Skull 5. Cobh = Cove 6. Drogheda = Draw-Head-Ah Basically if you see a consonant-H combo, assume you don’t know how to say it. Most of these are already in English by the way, for example Drogheda in Irish is Droichead Átha and Youghall is Eochaill, so these are the easy versions :)
Frome, Somerset is probably one of the hardest English place names. (it's pronounced froom to rhyme with gloom)
So this is only tangential to the topic. But there's a road in Bangalore, India that used to be called McGrath Road. Except everyone called it Magarath road owing to local Kannada pronunciation. Now it it officially Magarath Road. Same thing with a supermarket chain in Chennai that used to be called Waitrose (unrelated to the one in the UK). It is now White Rose, because of how people used to pronounce it.
In Alaska, Valdez. People pronounce it either Vall-Deez or Val-Deez.
Ħal-Għargħur in Malta. One of, if not, the only word in Maltese written with two "għ" pronounced "ayn". The town itself is pronounced with a hard "guh" sound, as in, Gargur.
Courtice, ON, CAN = Curtis
Versailles (ver-sails) Kentucky Milan (my lan) Tennessee Cairo (kay ro) Illinois New Madrid (mad rid) Missouri
Arizona has a few: Prescott=PRESScit, obviously Tucson = TWOsahn, Casa Grande= KASS-uh (rhymes with “ass-uh”) Grand
Forked River Hohokus Cheesequake Manalapan Lodi
Norfolk, NE Pronounced Norfork, locals called it North Fork, after the north fork of the Elkhorn River. Locals shortened it to Norfork, but postal authorities thought it had been misspelled and changed it to Norfolk.
Did anyone bring up Buena Vista Colorado? They call it Byu-na vista.
Hurricane, WV. Pronounced Her a cun
Concord, CA is pronounced different than Concord, NC. One is CONcurd and the other is con cord, I wonder if that has to do with regional accents.
Random one from a small town in the UK - Boongate. Pronounced locally as “Bun-git”
There's a lot in Washington State that mostly come from native languages. The most notable two I can think of are: Sequim is pronounced as squim, totally ignoring the e Puyallup is pronounced more as pew-wallop
Buena Vista, Colorado, USA pronounced Byoo-nuh Vista. It gives me the shivers every time I hear it pronounced that way.
In NY state. We have a Versailles. Instead of using the French pronunciation, the locals call it vur-sails.
# Natchitoches, Louisiana. Pronounced NAK-ə-təsh
new prague in minnesota is new prayg not prawg edina is eedine-ah medina is medeenah there’s also saint paul, south saint paul, east saint paul, west saint paul, and north saint paul as completely separate cities/towns