Place names mispronounced - why.
 

Why do people have to mispronounce placenames so much.

Where I live in Wellington; everyone calls it Wellingtin. Auckland is Orklynd. Gisborne said a Gizbin.

I'm always correcting people with Los Angeles. Here in NZ and Britain everyone calls it Los Angelees and I explain it's pronounced Los Angeliss.

Also Newark (airport) gets said a Nu-wick.

Try living on Long Island, Patchogue, Hauppauge, Syossset, Nissequogue, Shinecock, Mattituck etc...

Lots of towns named after local tribes.

Lots of variables... where people are from, language dialects, and maybe the level of education achieved.. I live in Louisville... pronounced Looahvul by those who live here, and Lewisville by most everyone else... who knows...

What do you call Napier?

Napier :D

Worchester = Wooster always puzzled me.

Me too! Gloucester = Glustah as well :)

One that always drove me nuts was Latrobe, PA.

Apparently, if you're from western Pennsylvania, you say lay-trobe. Not lah-trobe.

And Ephrata and Lititz are fun as well.

Baltimore? Bawl-mer.

There's no R in Washington! Aka Warshington.

Wilkes-Barre.
Heard it pronounced..
Wilkes-Berry
Wilkes-Berra
Wilkes-Bar
Wilkes-Barra

I can understand how it is difficult for you. I mean look where you're from. How do you pronounce these places?

Dunedin
Rotarua (Roto-Rooter?)
Whangarei
Invercargill
Pukekohe (Puke Kohay?)
Whanganui

In Boston, "what do you mean there is an "R" in "Market".

In Los "Angeliss" or I should say in SoCal, we have La Canada "(La Canyada)" and La Jolla (La hoya)", and others. I won't even try to do a phonetic on Sepulveda.

Portland has a few..

Couch St. pronounced Kooch st.
Terwilliger - Ter willy ger

Suh Pull Va Da

"Sep Ul veda" is what I get from tourists.

Where on Earth does "Austin Martin" come from?

NYC.
Houston Ave/street
Pronounced Houseton.

Lemme axe you about Brisbane......it's Bris-bin! :)

People from just about everywhere pronounce Syracuse as See-ra-cuse. People from Syracuse pronounce it Sara-cuse.

I'm still not sure what's the proper pronunciation of Caheunga (for those in LA). Is it Cowinga? Or Cahunga?

Vallejo

ALWAYS mispronounced. Even by me. Otherwise no one understands.

Ca-Wenga

Armada, MI: "Ar-MAY-duh."

Versailles, KY: "Ver-sails"

Pfff

I was supposed to meet my son, who lives Massachusetts, in "Lemister" for a little league game. Try looking at a map and figuring that one out.

Mait Sa Chausette as we say in Québec :D

Schedule = Shed-you-el.
Not Skehd-dual.

At least the Brits got one thing right.

My place of birth - (Mare Island).

Va-lay..............yo! :)

Sa - mere - na......not smeerna!

Borris Va-la-geeo.

I am not a great pronouncer. My wife likes to rib me for it. I just do my best - or slaughter it to get her goat.

I think the reason that some cities/places are commonly mispronounced is that the locals to the area have simply always pronounced the name that way.

Case in point. Here in northern California we have a community named Palo Cedro. Anyone with basic Spanish ability knows how that is pronounced appropriately in Spanish "tsedro". Around here we all call it 'Palo SEAdro'

Of course the smartphones and GPS units all try there best at the names. Mangled left and right.

Beat me to it!
How about Plymouth? Had a trucker ask me directions to Pliemouth. :D

Greenwich = Grenitch

With many name places in the world, you have to be a local to know the correct pronunciation.

Where I grew up in the North East of England, the strangest pronunciation was for a town called Prudhoe.

Prudhoe pronounced Prud-a, Prud rhymes with mud, and the "a" rhymes with comma!

Not sure how they pronounce Prudhoe Bay in Alaska.

LOL.

We have a nearby town called Petone said "pea-tony" Actually it was an American guy who asked me how to get to Pet One. I had to think for a moment then said "Oh, Pet One, yes catch the train on the number 3 platform."

Napier, that's just nape ya.

Some of the foreign (joking - Maori) place names even have me a bit puzzeled.

I know what you mean - not easy.

OK, from top to bottom.
Dunedin is Done Eden,
next one (don't say rooter in this country as it means something different) Roter-rue-a.
Wong-ga-ray
Invercargill, well that's just invercargill
Pukekohe that's Puke-ko-e
Whanganui that's Wong-ga nu-e

probably means the same thing..

Roto-Rooter Plumbing and Drain Cleaning Services | Roto-Rooter Plumber

San Pedro, CA

The correct way to say it in Spanish is San PAY-dro. However, everyone calls it as it is spelled, San PEEdro.

When I worked in IT we had a student working for us and he said to a client that "We came to fix your rooter". I had to explain to him in this country we call it a router - rhymes with shouter.

The locals know how to pronounce it correctly. They mis-pronounce it on purpose, so they can act provincial and uppity with the city-folk.

Beer = Fosters

__

A little place by Venture call Port Hueneme. Anyone want to try? All you So Cal locals, give the boys a chance first. I had trouble with it just looking at it the first time. I was it in my teens on a deep sea fishing outing up there.

I wouldn't even try to pronounce some of those names in the Scottish Highlands.

I had to deal with a young draftsman, Mexican descent, who pronounced a lot of the street names in Spanish purposely. He was so proud of his heritage that he refuse to say it like the rest of us regular socal folks. Drove everyone nuts.

Bonus points for Camarillo and Oxnard.