Support NeoGAF

[samus i am]

People from Baltimore can't pronounce their own city.

 

[polyh3dron]

Teegeeack?

no silly that's what our planet used to be called back in the day.

 

[smokeandmirrors]

Versailles, MO.

They pronounce it phonetically. Not like the palace in France.

Ver-sail-les vs Vair-sai? (ver-sai?)

 

[-griffy-]

In Minnesota, the town of Ely. I feel like no one knows how to pronounce it aside from those who live there. Hell I don't even remember, I had to look it up for this post. Working at a news station, any time it comes up there's always a question of how to pronounce it (usually after an anchor/reporter already mispronounces it on the air).

It's pronounced EE-LEE, not EE-LIE or EL-LIE.

 

[jossueinacoma]

Isn't it

Wa - Ha - Ka

?

Wa-Ha-Ka

Honeoye, NY. I know how it's pronounced and I can say it when not looking at the word but I always get tripped up when I try to read it.

Zzyzx, CA


wa-ha-ka

yup

 

[UraMallas]

Des Moines, IA

 

[caesar]

Leicester.

 

[NEOPARADIGM]

Cohoctah, MI.

 

[Evening Musuko]

lol yea for us its easy....for others theyre like "how the fuck do you..."

Yeah, some things down in Mexico can seem pretty hard to pronounce. Popocatepetl, Nezahualcoyotl, among others. Which is why people just use shorted forms (El Popo, Neza)

 

[CitizenCope]

I'll start:

Worcester, MA

First one I thought of. Haha

 

[timcsavage]

Salisbury, UK.

Fine cathedral and you have a Magna Carta there don't you?


I live in Leicester, which seems to be troublesome to some.

 

[Gawge]

Wawne.

It's a small village near Hull (UK). People frequently say "wow-neh".

 

[caesar]

Fine cathedral and you have a Magna Carta there don't you?


I live in Leicester, which seems to be troublesome to some.

Hi5

 

[poppabk]

When people who live there pronounce it weird relative to how it is spelled, you can be forgiven for getting it wrong/right.
Staunton, VA - pronounced stanton. I feel like the people who live there are the ones pronouncing it wrong.

 

[Powdered Toastman]

//Hui !Gaeb (Khoisan name for Cape Town)

 

[ShroudOfFate]

Belle Fourche, SD.

Pronounced "Bell Foosh" but I've heard "Bell Four-ch" and some other interesting ones before.

 

[Natetan]

Marylebone in London, everyone seems to have a different way of saying it.

Also leicester square

Edit: beaten twice

 

[Nevasleep]

Shrewsbury, Leominster, as the locals pronounce them differently.
Plus nearly anything from this train line:

 

[zer0blivion]

Versailles is a city in France, not a palace.

Ya, okay buddy.

It's both! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Versailles_(city)

 

[Wthermans]

I grew up in Maryville, TN. It's pronounced as Mur-ville if you have a drawl and Mare-ville by the naturalized visitors. The out of towner's pronounce it as its spelt and call it Mary-ville though.

 

[NihonTiger90]

A few from here in Ohio:

Bellefontaine - "Bell-fon-tin" not "Bell-foun-tane"
Lima - like the beans, not the Peruvian capital city.
Wapakoneta - trips people up but really, it's just phonetic ("Wa-pa-ko-ne-ta")
Lancaster - depends on how people pronouce it, but I hear "Langster" most often.
Wooster - Same as Worcester. the "oo" is more like a "u". "Wu-ster"
Mentor - the T is silent to some folks. "Menor" is the way I've heard it pronounced sometimes when I was living in Cleveland.
Newark - "Nurk". Yes, that's how they say it.

 

[Natetan]

Montevideo, MN

Pronounced monna-VIDeo

 

[Kurtofan]

Ya, okay buddy.

Yeah that's the Palace of Versailles, not Versailles itself.

Since the palace is in the city, people just say the name of the city to talk about the palace, but it's like calling the creature of Frankenstein Frankenstein.

 

[AlanzTalon]

Wisconsin. Including where I live: Mukwonago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGcQCtFlENA

 

[timcsavage]

Hi5

represent!

 

[MikeDip]

I know somebody from Toronto who says some locals don't really pronounce the second T.

Like: "Toronno".

I have never heard someone from here say it like that. Weird. Maybe I have a mental block or something.

 

[genjiZERO]

Minot, North Dakota: MY-knot, not minow

Cairo (various U.S. states): KAY-row, not KY-row like the city in Egypt.

La Jolla, California: La Hoya

I know that people do this (I used to live in Tallahassee, FL which is near Cairo, GA), but it's ignorant and dialectical to do so. In standard English, Cairo is pronounced "kai roh".

I think it's funny the way Americans pronounce Thames.

 

[twofold]

The full Thai name for Bangkok is probably impossible for most non-Thais to pronounce.

Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f6JaI8zJVU

 

[GungHo]

The full Thai name for Bangkok is probably impossible for most non-Thais to pronounce.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0f6JaI8zJVU

I can see where they got Bangkok from that.

 

[wilsog2]

Couple of Scottish ones

Milngavie

Kircudbright


Pronounced Mill-guy and Kir-koob-ray respectively

 

[Ricker]

Saskatchewan....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saskatchewan_Roughriders

Well maybe more of a problem spelling hehe...

 

[SRG01]

Butte, Montana.

Spoiler

It's not pronounced how you think it's pronounced LOL

 

[Fritz]

Whakatane, NZ


"Whak" is pronounced like a hearty "Fuck"

 

[leadbelly]

I'll start:

Worcester, MA

lol

It becomes even more fun when you add 'shire' on the end of it.

Worcestershire
Leicestershire

I'm not sure there are many British people that have a problem pronouncing them. Mainly Americans.

 

[leadbelly]

Shrewsbury, Leominster, as the locals pronounce them differently.
Plus nearly anything from this train line:

That's a point. Welsh place names really are tongue twisters. lol

 

[dripdripsplash]

Llanfairpwllgwyngyll

 

[Ace Harding]

Here in Philadelphia we have the Schuylkill River, and there's a Schuylkill County.

We say skookle (or something close to that).

 

[Piggus]

How is Oregon supposed to be pronounced? I've heard "Ori-ghin" and "Ory-gone" as the two most common pronunciations.

First one is more or less correct. Second one is the annoying east coast pronunciation and will get you a lot of dirty looks. It's a big pet peeve for a lot of people lol.

 

[leadbelly]

Llanfairpwllgwyngyll

lol

Looks like someone has just randomly pressed keys on a keyboard. You should have put the name in full really.

Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch

 

[bucknuticus]

True. If they want to pronounce it that way then they're incorrect. You don't pronounce a tropical storm hurricane that way.

Lancaster, OH they like to refer to it as "Lankester" and not "Lan-caster" like normal people do.

Atlanta is not known by locals as "Atlanta," it's "Allanna."

Lankester pronunciation 4 lyfe!

 

[Piggus]

This is the one thing I never fail to correct, in any setting, regardless of how douche-y I look.


STOP THE ORYGONE

What's weird is it's usually pronounced correctly on the news and other media (Lou Holtz not included lol) but it still doesn't stop people on the east coast from saying "Oh you're from Orreee-gooone??!

Fuuuuuuuuuuu

 

[forgeforsaken]

Shrewsbury,

That's one town over from Worcester too. It's a county of names no one can say right.

 

[Atenhaus]

I grew up and still live in Washington, and there are a number of towns that borrowed their names from the various Coast Salish tribes in the area. They are literally impossible for people outside of Washington, BC, and Oregon to pronounce.

Go ahead, try to pronounce Puyallup, Sequim, and Coquitlam for me.

 

[Something Wicked]

Wuss-ter

Wustaaaah, kid!

I'll see that and raise you...Woburn, MA.

Leominster, Haverill

Though I'll admit when going to school in the Albany area, I butchered Watervliet, NY at first.

Haha, who was the dick that decided on that one?

 

[jstripes]

I know somebody from Toronto who says some locals don't really pronounce the second T.

Like: "Toronno".

Some locals? More like 99% of the population. It's also spread across the country, since the rest of Canada has an odd obsession with hating Toronto.

So basically, the quickest way to expose yourself as an American is to pronounce the second "T".

 

[jstripes]

Shrewsbury, Leominster, as the locals pronounce them differently.
Plus nearly anything from this train line:

It's like a slow descent into madness.