City names with totally different pronounciations - 03/28/1811:35 AM
I learned something new today. Apparently the city of "Worchester" in Massachusetts is pronounced as "Wooster" and if you pronounce it as written you will get funny looks from the locals. This reminds me of a city in England which is written as "Leicester" but I believe it is pronounced as "Lester" by the locals? Anyway, I find it both interesting and a bit funny how some city names have that discrepancy.
Re: City names with totally different pronounciations - 03/28/1812:01 PM
Originally Posted by PanzerMeyer
I learned something new today. Apparently the city of "Worchester" in Massachusetts is pronounced as "Wooster" and if you pronounce it as written you will get funny looks from the locals. This reminds me of a city in England which is written as "Leicester" but I believe it is pronounced as "Lester" by the locals? Anyway, I find it both interesting and a bit funny how some city names have that discrepancy.
It's not just England's Leicester. Just up the road from me is Leicester, NC and it's pronounced "Lester" as well. Leicester, NC You can tell people are not from around here if they don't pronounce it "Lester"
Then you get into the Beaufort, NC and Beaufort, SC thing. Beaufort, NC is pronounced "Boh-fart" and Beaufort, SC is pronounced "Bew-fart".
Re: City names with totally different pronounciations - 03/28/1812:57 PM
Huger, South Carolina is pronounced "Hue-Gee."
Norfolk is pronounced "Nor fuk" (I believe from my remembrance...Skate...?)
Des Plaines, IL is pronounced "Dez Planes" and Matteson, IL is pronounced "Matt-Uh-Son."
And my favorite is a town we visited in Austria...which I have to censor even though it technically isn't a swear word since it is a proper noun in Austria: "F*king" is pronounce "Fooking" as in "looking" or "booking."
Re: City names with totally different pronounciations - 03/28/1802:27 PM
Well, I honestly have no dog in the Beaufort fight. I've lived in both states long enough to enjoy the differences. I believe the difference comes from a sprinkling of french influence in SC. The Gullah dialect in coastal SC was influenced partial by it too. I worked at a hospital in Charleston where an old black guy spoke it. I didn't understand anything he said for a long time until one day it started making some sense to me what he was saying to me. Was married in Georgetown, SC. That area and North of it are so different and built up now. It's just awful. I remember Pawleys Island when all it was was a 7-11, a Red and White grocery, the Hammock Shops and a caution light at the causeway.
Parris Island is like Mexico...don't drink the water!
Re: City names with totally different pronounciations - 03/28/1802:37 PM
Arab in Alabama is A-Rab*
Since the South is peppered with places named after Lafayette, it isn't uncommon to have them pronounced either as in the French or as Lah-Fay-ette to keep them straight.
* They wanted to call the town Ahab, but the poor penmanship on the application was misread by the postal service, and they approved it as Arab. Rather than fight the bureaucracy, they simply kept the name and pronounced it that way. Times ain't much different than back then in so many ways.
Re: City names with totally different pronounciations - 03/28/1802:51 PM
Worcester, my nearest city is pronounced "Wusser", in the local dialect, and the nearest market town Evesham is pronounced "Aysum". My village Naunton Beauchamp; "Norton Beecham"
Re: City names with totally different pronounciations - 03/28/1802:52 PM
How about the incorrect way those Yankees in New York pronounce HOUSTON? They say "House" ton, as in what most people live, not H "you" ston as in the city where the coolest Americans live. (well, coolest as long as the AC is working.)
Re: City names with totally different pronounciations - 03/28/1803:22 PM
I live in a town in central Florida that is spelled OVIEDO. Now, this town was named after a small city in Spain. So it's supposed to be pronounced , OH-VEE-AH-DO. But, much to the consternation of my wife, who speaks Spanish, everyone calls it, OH-VEEE-DO. Drives her crazy. In New York City there is a Houston Street. But New Yorkers don't pronounce it, YOU-STON, like the city in Texas. They say, HOUSE-TON.
Re: City names with totally different pronounciations - 03/28/1804:09 PM
I remember once I was going to Loughborough university in the UK for a convention.
I think the BritRail attendant at the ticket kiosk at Standsted was laughing his ass off as I tried to pronounce it as it was spelt I ended up taking the train to London, then visit a News Agent stall, finding a map of the UK, and writing down the name and showing the note to the next ticket stall I went to.
Re: City names with totally different pronounciations - 03/28/1805:43 PM
Contoocook NH is pronounced con-too’-cook’, but locals often pronounce it con-took’-it’. A nearby town named Boscawen sounds more like Bos’-c’w’n, with the “a” & “e” pronounced very quickly, but you’ll often hear locals say it as Bos’-c’-wine.
Re: City names with totally different pronounciations - 03/28/1805:53 PM
Originally Posted by PanzerMeyer
I learned something new today. Apparently the city of "Worchester" in Massachusetts is pronounced as "Wooster" and if you pronounce it as written you will get funny looks from the locals. This reminds me of a city in England which is written as "Leicester" but I believe it is pronounced as "Lester" by the locals? Anyway, I find it both interesting and a bit funny how some city names have that discrepancy.
Re: City names with totally different pronounciations - 03/28/1805:55 PM
That's kind of an odd video title since um...people who live in MA are also Americans! It should have been something like "Southerners try to pronounce MA towns" or something like that.
Not a place, but people here say the letter H not as eytch but as hetch, like hatch but with an e. I wonder if that's the same in other places in the UK?
Re: City names with totally different pronounciations - 03/28/1807:01 PM
Originally Posted by PanzerMeyer
I'm stunned that any Scots at all actually bought and consumed Miller beer!!! I'd like to apologize for my country exporting that crap to you guys.
The only Millers I have drank was supplied, free of charge, by the US Navy, but they made up for it by also supplying a bottle of Bacardi Gold 151 to wash it down with
Seriously tho, the USN at NAVCOMMSTA Forss supplied 3 cases of various beers* for our American Football team when we went off to our first away match which we won by the way
We had a great relationship with the base and the commander encouraged us to come and use the base's facilities, admittedly I had a good friend in the retired commander from the base who had put in a good word for us.
Re: City names with totally different pronounciations - 03/28/1807:18 PM
Originally Posted by - Ice
Not a place, but people here say the letter H not as eytch but as hetch, like hatch but with an e. I wonder if that's the same in other places in the UK?
I grew up in East Sussex and moved just across the border to Kent later and both sides of the border pronounce H with definate and hard A as in "Aytch". Occasionally you hear people prefix it with a very soft "h" that becomes "h-Aytch", but most people around here consider that incorrect. I worked in an office in London until recently and sat next to a Kiwi that always pronounced it as "h-aytch". You would hear a chorus of Brits, (good naturedly), trying to re-educate him.
Re: City names with totally different pronounciations - 03/28/1809:06 PM
Originally Posted by BeeDeeBee
I grew up in East Sussex and moved just across the border to Kent later and both sides of the border pronounce H with definate and hard A as in "Aytch". Occasionally you hear people prefix it with a very soft "h" that becomes "h-Aytch", but most people around here consider that incorrect. I worked in an office in London until recently and sat next to a Kiwi that always pronounced it as "h-aytch". You would hear a chorus of Brits, (good naturedly), trying to re-educate him.
I work with a guy from NZ with a really strong accent. So much fun
Re: City names with totally different pronounciations - 03/29/1805:05 AM
LaFayette has been mentioned already, but there’s a little town where I live named that and the natives get really bent out of shape when someone pronounces it correctly, a la Marquis de Lafayette. To them, it’s “Luh Fett.” So if you’re ever in North Georgia and find yourself there, you’ll be in the know .
Re: City names with totally different pronounciations - 03/29/1806:16 AM
I think you are assigning too much credibility into something that is more a matter of regional accents combined with a poor command of American English. I can find huge numbers of people that pronounce 'ask' as 'ax' but that doesn't make it correct in any way, shape or form.
Re: City names with totally different pronounciations - 03/29/1810:28 AM
Originally Posted by KraziKanuK
There was a Canadian beer (Molson) on an American military base?
There sure was, there was a case of 24 of each of the beers which I packed into two ice chests for the 117 mile trip to Inverness at the Ness Monster's football pitch to meet the team from Fort william who were driving up. We did share the beers with the team from Ft William and went for a meal with them too, The quarterback of the Ness Monsters (an American) owned a hotel in Inverness and the Ness Monsters had laid on the catering.
Re: City names with totally different pronounciations - 03/29/1804:34 PM
We have a Louiseville, pronounced Lewis*ville, not Louie*ville like in KY. Also Bogue Chitto, "Bogga Chitta". Most don't know what one when they see it on a sign. Mostly we just have weird names like Whynot, Possumneck, Ethel, Walnut Grove, Sanatorium (note the O not and A), Hot Coffee...
Re: City names with totally different pronounciations - 03/30/1812:17 AM
We had some doozies in my home state of Iowa - only one that I'm able to recall at the moment though was "Madrid", which was pronounced "mad-RID". Also home to one of the strangest town names I have ever seen: "What Cheer" (which the locals kind of blur into something sounding a little like "watchur" - just barely 2 syllables).
In Colorado, we have a fashionable suburb of Denver by the name of "Louisville" - pronounced "lew-IS-vill".
Re: City names with totally different pronounciations - 03/30/1802:16 AM
Originally Posted by PanzerMeyer
I learned something new today. Apparently the city of "Worchester" in Massachusetts is pronounced as "Wooster" and if you pronounce it as written you will get funny looks from the locals. This reminds me of a city in England which is written as "Leicester" but I believe it is pronounced as "Lester" by the locals? Anyway, I find it both interesting and a bit funny how some city names have that discrepancy.
Thank you for typing "Wooster" and not "Wissta" as literally nobody I ever met in Massachusetts- west, central or eastern Mass- says "Wissta"...and I was born in MA and have lived here for 46 years.
But, there's no "h" in "Worcester" .
Here's one- the Brit racetrack Silverstone is pronounced "Silvastun" . So, I expect, is the town nearby.
Re: City names with totally different pronounciations - 03/30/1811:01 PM
Originally Posted by Raw Kryptonite
We have a Louiseville, pronounced Lewis*ville, not Louie*ville like in KY.
From spending a little time in Louisville KY, a lot of folks pronounce it Luhvll...lol. Kind of like the butchered version of N'awlins.
In Tennessee there's a Louisville and they pronounced it Lewis ville too.
PA people...how do you pronounce Wilkes Barre? Wilksberry is what I've heard. And why is Reading like Redding instead of Ree ding? And why is Lancaster "Lin kester"?
Not a town, but my wife (from PA) and everyone I know from PA says radiator is Rad iator instead of Raid iator.
Re: City names with totally different pronounciations - 03/31/1812:04 PM
Not a city; but most non-natives can't seem to pronounce the name of my homeland : "Newfoundland". We try to teach CFA's ( come from aways ) to say it like this Understand Newfoundland
The emphasis on the syllables is exactly the same as in the word understand and NOT on the new or the found which are common mistakes. The found is slightly truncated and pronounced somewhere between fund and found so as to fit in with the emphasis on the syllables. ... Understand - Newfoundland
A person from here is a Newfoundlander. Only locals or good friends get to call us "Newfs" or worse "Newfies" ......... its our very own N-word .