my favorites from Texas:
Buda -> “byou-duh” (byou as in beautiful) but NEVER “BooDah”. Occasionally you’ll hear “buttah”, but I’m sure those people are trolling
Bourne: Bernie
Bexar: Bear (Should be beHar, as in Harm, just like Texas is actually TeJas like the Ha in Hans.
D’Hanis: DaHennies, like “da pennies”
Weirdly most of the German places names are pronounced correctly, probably because they were founded by Germans who produced their names correctly for long enough that it stuck.
KingJalopy@lemm.ee 4 weeks ago
There’s a city (town) in Oklahoma called Miami. If you pronounce it as you would you’d be quickly and redneckedly corrected. It is pronounced “my am uh” as anyone with a shred of sophistication would already know.
(It’s actually a native word, but still, I like jokes. They hide the pain)
j4k3@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Lafayette Georgia is “luh-FAY-et” and Madrid Alabama is “MAD-rid” because stupidity is standard practice where I’m from.
Obi@sopuli.xyz 4 weeks ago
Not sure I understand the Madrid one, the way you spelled out the phonetics would lead me to pronounce it the correct way (to my European ears, talking about the OG Madrid).
j4k3@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4H4Lv1x2Qk
Random news broadcast has it pronounced in the first 30 seconds
ouRKaoS@lemmy.today 4 weeks ago
The fact that Kansas and Arkansas aren’t pronounced anywhere close to each other still bothers me.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
Eh, frequently the second to last syllable has emphasis in English, and those are local names, so they probably should be pronounced as a local would. Madrid, Alabama is a different place than Madrid, Spain, so it’s reasonable for it to have a different pronunciation. Likewise for Lafayette.
Silic0n_Alph4@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
These are all perfectly pronounceable when I speak like Arthur Morgan.
Tap for spoiler
If you don’t get the reference, he’s the main character in Red Dead Redemption 2, the best video game ever.
Kolanaki@pawb.social 4 weeks ago
There’s a city in California called Van Nuys (pronounced like van eyes) and I very often hear it pronounced as it looks spelled (Van Newies).
KingJalopy@lemm.ee 4 weeks ago
Yeah I live in California and there’s a million cities that are not pronounced the way they are spelled. It’s like California has to be unique and everything. I live near a city called Lodi. (Low die) And another called ione (I own uh) then there’s my favorite, Los Banos which is ABSOLUTELY NOT SPANISH FOR TOILET! IT IS LOS BANE OHS!! Lol, it’s actually cool how different regions will mutilate similar words based on who the fuck knows what
Kolanaki@pawb.social 4 weeks ago
Oh shit for real?! I’m from around there!