Timeline for pronunciation: Pawtucket
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
7 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Sep 26, 2013 at 22:27 | comment | added | WendiKidd | @J.R. Sorry, I think I went a little too far with the joke there. Amarillo is Spanish for 'yellow', and in Spanish is pronounced ahh-mahh-ree-yoh. But of course no one here pronounces the name like the original Spanish.... It's aah-muh-rih-loh. And since the two pronunciations vary so widely, people who don't know the original Spanish roots would be quite confused to hear your say it the original way! (I don't know that many people actually refer to it as "Yellow", Texas, which is where the joke went a bit too far ;)). | |
| Sep 26, 2013 at 13:23 | comment | added | BobRodes | I'm reminded of my grammar school geography teacher in England correcting my pronunciation of "Michigan" to "Mitchigan", basically explaining that we nekulturny Americans couldn't even pronounce our own state names correctly. Apparently the British are generally unaware that the word is a French transliteration of the Native American (Ojibwa) "Mishi-gami", or big water. After all, no self-respecting Crown subject would dream of pronouncing Chopin's name "Tcho-pan". :) | |
| Sep 26, 2013 at 9:47 | comment | added | J.R.♦ | Right up the street from Pawtucket is Worcester, Mass. The locals pronounce that town as "Whistah" (just about rhymes with "twister" – or does rhyme with that word, if you say that word like the locals would say it). There's a town in Pennsylvania named Wilkes-Barre, but, if you didn't know how to spell it, and listened to the local radio stations, you'd probably guess it was spelled either Wilksbury or Wilksberry. @WendiKidd - so, how DO you pronounce Yellow when referring to the town in Texas? | |
| Sep 26, 2013 at 1:04 | comment | added | StoneyB on hiatus | @WendiKidd When I first came to St. Louis I gave all the French names French(ish) pronunciations and was soundly sniggered at. I still don't know where Demonbreun [dᵻ 'mʌn bri 'jʌn] came from. | |
| Sep 26, 2013 at 1:03 | vote | accept | Listenever | ||
| Sep 26, 2013 at 0:52 | comment | added | WendiKidd | It always amuses me when people get upset about others pronouncing place names as they're spelled, when they have no particular reason to know it ought to be done otherwise. New Orleans is probably the most famous example (and so arguably most people do know the local way to pronounce it, I suppose.) Then there's always Yellow, Texas. Absolutely no one pronounces that as it originally should have been, and you'll probably get some very odd looks if you try... (+1 :)) | |
| Sep 26, 2013 at 0:40 | history | answered | StoneyB on hiatus | CC BY-SA 3.0 |