OT: - Not a quiz, but for fun - Name a place not pronounced the way it looks | Page 2 | The Boneyard

OT: Not a quiz, but for fun - Name a place not pronounced the way it looks

From my neck-o-the-woods:
Tooele, UT (too-Ella)
Oquirrh, UT (Oh-ker)
Nephi, UT (Nee-fie)
Scipio, UT (Sippy-oh)
Sevier, UT (seVeer)
Hurricane, UT (Hurrikin)
Duchesne, UT (doo-Shain)
Ouray, CO (you-Ray)
Olathe, CO (oh-Laytha)
Berthoud, CO (Ber-thud)
Saguache, CO (sa-Watch)
 
Tulalip, WA is another interesting one. Too-lay-lup is about how it's pronounced.
 
The one that drives me nuts is right in CT. The river Thames named after the English river Thames but both pronounced completely differently. In England “Thames” is pronounced as “temz” to rhyme with “shemz”, unless you mean the one in Connecticut, which is pronounced “Thames”
 
The place names here in CA could drive one crazy. Many are pronounced like in Spanish (it once was all Mexico here) but many are not. My favorites include the town next door to me - Port Hueneme. I wanted to say it like Spanish, HWEN-na-may. It is really pronounced wye-NEE-mee. My other favorite is north of here. Paso Robles ignores Spanish pronunciation and is pronounce PASS-o Ro-bulls. The other thing is many place names here came from DEVELOPERS and may mean nothing. I always thought La Crescenta was Spanish for The Crescent but it turns out it was named by an Anglo developer and is meaningless.
 
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2 more from Arizona -

Prescott - the saying goes Prescott like Biscuit

the Mogollon Rim (its a geographic feature, a major escarpment) - pronounced - as they say - muggy on rim.
 
Hmm, no one mentioned California. Only Arnold pronounced it the way it's spelled. Foreigners...
 
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Zanzman said:
Where is Versailles?
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It is in the department of Yvelines, in the province of Ile de France. 20 klicks southwest of Paris city center. Nice place , but I would not want to pay the utilities there.
 
meyers7 said:
Yea, that's the first one came to my mind. My brother lives out there.

I'll add Norfolk and Suffolk. Pronounced norfuk and suffuk.
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In the same geographic area, Portsmouth, Va.
 
Bigboote said:
I visited Rolla a few years ago. When the rental car clerk at the Saint Louis airport asked me where I was headed, I said, "Roll-a." She'd never heard of it. When I said it was down 64, where the University is, she said, "Oh, you mean Rahl-a." There were a lot of country boys at the company I was visiting
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I was so used to saying Rah-la I failed to see the Roll-a possibility. I worked with a few country "boys" while in St. Louis (San Louie?). They used a few colloquialisms. I gave a responsibilities choice to a fellow. He responded dontmakemenonevermind. For a moment I wondered if he was of German heritage. After parsing the "word" and cancelling the double negative, I asked; you don't care which choice? He response: "That IS what I said!" One fellow expressed to me he was "flustrated." Presumably a combination of being flustered and frustrated. Now flustrated is in the Merriam Webster dictionary.
 
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With so many hoops fans I'm surprised no one mentioned Loo-a-vul.
 
Valatie NY in the mid hudson valley. It’s Dutch and the pronunciation is VA-lay-sha. The Albany NY area has many old dutch names that are unique; Watervliet, Schenectady, etc.

Down in Philly is one my favorites; the Schuylkill River…once corrected someone on it only to be flat out wrong.

List of New Netherland placename etymologies - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org en.m.wikipedia.org
 
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La Canada an LA suburb.
Pronounced Lah Can yah dah
Not Canada, home of Kia Nurse
 
I was often told Melbourne Australia is pronounced Mel bin, by the locals.
I don't think it is the same for Melbourne Florida.

Also, Houston Texas and Houston Street in NYC.
 
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Someone mentioned Louisville.

N'Awlins has the same "local" pronunciation.
 
Teheran, IL
(Tea-Heron)
San Jose, IL
(Hard J, one-syllable Jose)
 
Calais, Maine It's not in France, so skip the French!
It's like the university "CAL TECH" but CAL - lis . The
ship is listing to the port side!!!
 
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