SeeYou190Or... Just be like Florida, and name your cities things like Apalachicola, Kissimmee, Okahumpka, Steinhatchee, Immokallee, Weewahitchka, etc., and laugh at the tourists trying to pronounce them.
Same with Wisconsin (or as everyone *outside* of Wisconsin seems to pronounce it: WES-consin. Grrrr): we also specialize in those Indian place names. Milwaukee alone has several suburbs: Mukwonago, Oconomowoc, Mequon, Waukesha, Pewaukee, Wauwatosa, Kenosha lol...
Then you have Shawano, Kaukauna, Weyauwega, Ashwaubenon.... Totally ridiculous.
Andy
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Milwaukee native modeling the Milwaukee Road in 1950's Milwaukee.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/196857529@N03/
The original post almost reminds me of the Yanny v. Laurel thing a couple years back lol.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X_WvGAhMlQ
(It's Laurel by the way...)
LIE-mah is in Ohio. LEE-mah is in Peru.
Speaking of South America...The Montevideo in South America is Mon-tah-vah-DAY-oh. The one in Minnesota is Mon-tah-VID-ee-oh (the last part pronounced like "video" as in TV).
I live in Ohio and everybody here pronounces it LIE-ma.
hardcoalcaseNot the Prof. Higgins I know.
Just because someone has dialect as an academic specialty doesn't mean they'll approve of "diversity" in all cases. And some dialects (Cockney, Ocker, and those certain Joisey accents, Tom Kean's among them) are sharp sticks in my ear. (One of the prettiest women I ever knew had that one problem -- dead ringer for Fran Drescher in the dark, pro and con.
Backshop Joisey ain't bad. It's just that the insecure people in New Yawk need somebody to feel superior to, so they make fun of them.
Joisey ain't bad. It's just that the insecure people in New Yawk need somebody to feel superior to, so they make fun of them.
Could be! Since the Boston Bluebloods look down on the New Yawk'ers for not properly dropping their "ah's".
Don't tell anyone but I was born on Staten Island! The family moved to PA when I was 4, so I never got the NY accent.
Jim
Overmod With fascination -- regional dialect was his specialty!
With fascination -- regional dialect was his specialty!
Not the Prof. Higgins I know. Fascination means having a strong positive attraction to something. Per the lyrics in his song "Why Can't the English?", Higgins has nothing but distain for those Englishmen who butcher the language, describing them in terms of "I'd rather hear a choir singing flat", and "chickens cackling in a barn". He reserves his praise for those in other nations/cultures what adhere to proper speech, as in "The French never care what they do, actually, as long as they pronounce it properly."
He would probably need to be hospitalized if subjected to "Joisey english"!
hardcoalcaseProfessor Higgins (a'la "My Fair Lady") is rolling in his grave!
Some years back, in "Joisey", I heard a local call out "Hea, yoose guys, da-bodias, com-heah!"
I got the first three words, and the last two, but "da-bodias" had me stumped for a bit. Then it finally hit me - "the both of you"!
Professor Higgins (a'la "My Fair Lady") is rolling in his grave!
Reminds of when my sister and her friend visited Boston and went to a restaurant. She asked the waitress for a glass of water, and the waitress couldn't understand what "a glass of water" meant. Finally after a couple of tries the light went on and my sister asked for "a cuppa wadda" - then the waitress finally knew what she meant.
Many years ago, my dear departed mither went to her ancestral home of Scotland for a visit. Mither is how it is said in some parts of Scotland...not mother.
She got off the bus and was perplexed by the layout of the village. She spotted an old woman walking nearby and hailed her, "Would you know where the church is?" Puzzled look. "I'm looking for the Church!", louder because the old gal might be a bit hard of hearing. The woman made a face, shrugged, and moved off. My mother shouted after her, "D'ye ken whayre the kirk is?"
"Och, aye, lass!", and proceeded to offer unintelligible instructions.
We do have towns along the Trans-Canada highway with weird names. Spuzzum, Moose Jaw, Wawa (Ojibway for Canada goose, if I recall), Sicamous, Kamloops (not pronounced as it is spelled. More like 'camps'), and others.
rrinkerThe whole St John thing is rather interesting. Common use of St is an abbreviation for Saint, and no you aren't going to confuse this Yank - Saint John, New Brunswick is not abbreviated, but St John's Newfoundland is. When used as a person's name, in Commonwealth countries it is usually pronounced "sin-jin" such as the alias Bond use in "A View to a Kill" - James St John Smythe. But American names like that - actress Jill St John, is "saint john"
I used to listen to the BBC World Service a lot years back, I remember they came here and broadcast for a couple of days from the Twin Cities. I thought it odd they kept referring to Saint Paul MN as "Sint Powl".
They're also big on pronouncing names the way they were in the original native tongue, even if the person who's name it was didn't. When they'd play Weird Al Yankovic they'd always pronounce it "Yank-oh-vitch" (last syllable ryhme with "witch" or "stitch") instead of "Yank-oh-vick". With Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf they always pronounced the w as a v..."SCHVARTZ-koff".
And of course Houston Texas was "Who-stun".
doctorwaynezugmanngmpullmanNow, is it LAN-Caster or LANK-ister? (I prefer the former) You may prefer the former, but it's wrong.
zugmanngmpullmanNow, is it LAN-Caster or LANK-ister? (I prefer the former) You may prefer the former, but it's wrong.
gmpullmanNow, is it LAN-Caster or LANK-ister? (I prefer the former)
SeeYou190Thanks to a Progressive Insurance advertisement, I just found out I have been mispronouncing Quinoa for years.
(The rot runs deep; I still say AY)
I was just watching the Wayne's World commercial for Uber Eats.
I always pronounced "Eat Local" as eet low koll.
But, Cardi B pronounces it E low koh.
Rich
Alton Junction
Thanks to a Progressive Insurance advertisement, I just found out I have been mispronouncing Quinoa for years.
I was saying it exactly like one of the examples how not to say it.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
zugmann gmpullman Now, is it LAN-Caster or LANK-ister? (I prefer the former)
gmpullman
We have a few interesting pronunciations here in Virginia. I moved here from Indiana in 1970.
The town I live in is Staunton, which is STAN-ton. Vesuvius is Veh-SOO-vee-us; Norfolk is Nor-***. In Charlottesville there is a Rio Road, which is RIGH-oh. Far SW is the town of Dante (Dant). Some others: Luray (LOO-ray), Crozet (Crow-zay), the county of Henrico (Hen-RYE-co).
One bit too is the various ethnicities and dialects that can change how things get said depending on who in the local area is saying them. The isolated Tangier Island on the Chesapeake Bay has one of the strangest dialects as they are directly related to the UK settlers and don't move around much.
All interesting.
Nope.
Have you ever been to a train station in Spokane, Washington?
MAY-an, what a reSPONSE! Entertaining too. Lye-muh. Got it.
A couple notes to add for when you come west;
We have an ALL bu nee in Oregon too.
(We had a Detroit too, sadly, it went up in flames recently.)
I live in Deschutes County now. Thats duh SHOOTS.
I grew up in Coos Bay, Oregon, (Not Cooz) Those are both Tribal names.
Oh. And it IS prounounced ORYgun. Almost ORYgn. Not Oruh-gone, as my cousins from Shicahgo say it. Dan
Overmod There is only one way, because the tradename is derived from 'box spoke'. 'Twould make no sense to say 'pock' except if you did not know the derivation... There are plenty of people who cannot spell 'Walschaerts' either -- some of whom attempted to game the system by proposing that we simply term it 'Walschaert' for simplicity. Like the Post Office arbitrarily simplifying 'Pittsburgh' for a few years, or later requiring weird address syntax to suit their early OCR systems.
There is only one way, because the tradename is derived from 'box spoke'. 'Twould make no sense to say 'pock' except if you did not know the derivation...
There are plenty of people who cannot spell 'Walschaerts' either -- some of whom attempted to game the system by proposing that we simply term it 'Walschaert' for simplicity. Like the Post Office arbitrarily simplifying 'Pittsburgh' for a few years, or later requiring weird address syntax to suit their early OCR systems.
Thanks for that. I knew, from a read in one of Kalmbach's pubs in the past three years or so, that it was properly 'box spoke'. But, I kept hearing what I had been saying, so I shrugged and carried on. Now it makes more sense.
Add some ditch lights, she'll be good.
Is that short address 4 or long address 4?
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Speaking of prototype railroading (uh, were we?), the Dubois County Railroad is affiliated with the Indiana Railroad Museum in French Lick IN (interestingly, not in Doobwah County but Orange County). Its nice to see that they have their old RS-1 up and running. Been sitting on the property for probably 20 years. Apparently, slightly modernized for freight service.
- Douglas
Overmod And then there's Jersey Shore.
And then there's Jersey Shore.
Easy to avoid being confused though, if you say you are going to jersey shore, it's abvious you mean the town in PA. If you were going to the beaches in New Jersey, you'd say "down the shore"
There's a Dubois PA, too. And no one says it the French way around there, either. Usually leave off the 's' though, so just "du-boy". Lot of French names out in north west PA - at the time of the French and Indian War, the French had many outpsts in the area.
One of the original inspirations for my layout theme was from this little shortline in SW Indiana.
http://www.duboiscountyrr.com/
And if you don't pronounce Dubois....Doo boys....you obviously ain't from there.