Maybe you were giving it an "Angel" spelling, piperdown?

Westley - Hawt farm boy, AKA "The Dread Pirate Roberts."
Wesley - Fair to mediocre watcher, now deceased.

On location names, I used to live in Philadelphia, which had some interesting suburbs - Bala Cynwyd (that's welsh for Bala Kinwid), and Wilkes-Barre, pronounced "wilksberry".

You always know when someone's not a local when they call it "wilks-bar"

I must be in a nasty mood today--I got Count Rugen, and have an overdeveloped sense of vengence.

mye-lan Michigan? is that anywhere near mick-a-doo (spelled Mikado, of course?)

My niece has an interesting name - Kamlyn. It's the Anglicized version of my paternal grandmother's name, Kam Lan.

And my favorite unusual place name has got to be Champoeg State Park. It's pronounced "shampooey." Say it with me - Champoeg, Champoeg, Champoeg!

Sorry, I'm just happy today. Tomorrow I'm heading out for a vacation in California, then I'm off to Orlando (for the American Library Association's annual conference, but still)! Woo hoo! I'll get to see Mickey once on each coast!

It turns out that I'm the Black Knight, which is great because he's my favourite character in the Holy Grail.

There's a place near where I live called Wingham (WING-um), and my friend Ashley can't pronounce it right to save her life. She says WEEN-um, and swears she doesn't hear the difference. It's quite funny, actually.

I'm not quite sure how to feel about that. Perhaps I'll just sit and hold my nose, slightly stupefied.

Anyone else have some strong Italian roots in their family? The good thing about a solid Italian name is that the phonetic spelling is usually correct or at least darn close. In my mother's family we have both Landino and Tacinelli. I can't imagine that you could pronounce them any other way than how they should be, but I'm sure they've been butchered time and time again.

I'm Vizzini as well as being a rabbit. It's definitely time to reread the book or see the movie again or something; it's been far too long.

And I join the "I've never quite gotten Monty Python" camp. Also the "I definitely never got Firesign Theater, even when recreationally enhancing my experience" camp.

And to add to that confusion, we recently had three of them at the school I work at--Jasmine, Jazmin, and Jazmen--yikes!

And as another Anna...I totally relate to the a) lack of doodads with my name on them, and b) people's tendency to never call me Anna, but want to call me Ann, or Annie...GAH!!!!!! Only my father could ever get away with calling me Annie. Oops, I take that back. I did work at a truck rental agency a while back. The shop foreman often called me Annie and for some reason I let that slide--it felt kind of paternal I guess. Anybody else tried it, and sorry, no dice!

Whew...I'm gasping for air here! My office's internet connection was down all day. All DAY!!! I thought I was going to go crazy or even be reduced to actually working! I don't know how I survived.

Anyway, not much to add...my Monty Python thingy is the rabbit, though like some of y'all I've never seen a Monty Python movie, so not too terribly sure what that means. As for strange name pronunciations, the only one I can think of here in Atlanta is Ponce de Leon Avenue. Down here we pronounce it Pahntz de LEE-on instead of the more common French pronunciation Ponsey de LeOHN. We also used to have a HOW-ston (Houston) Street, but it's since been renamed.

A camp cabin (of 8) that I was a counselor for had Kristin, Christine, and Cristina.

A college calculus class of mine had Jess, Jessie, and Jessica.

Another camp group I worked with (of 24) had three Amandas, three Morgans, and two Katies, IIRC.

To add to the strange place names...

This isn't one that gets mispronounced much, but it always made me chuckle...Traveling I-94 between Milwaukee and Chicago, you will see signs for "Bong Recreational Area." Before I moved to the area, my friends and I would make jokes about what went on there...yes, we're perpetually twelve. Now I know it to be a campground and wildlife preserve, Wisconsin's "largest managed prairie," if I'm remembering the sign correctly. Now that I've been living near it for five years, I can actually say it without giggling.

And back in college, my sorority (roughly 40-50 active members at the time) had 7 active members named Rebecca--2 went by Rebecca, and 5 went by Becky. Way confusing so most of the time we just went by last names.

Me too, and I'm equally puzzled. I don't think I've ever used the phrase "to bleve" or worked on people who were "mostly dead" (although that could certainly describe a few ex-boyfriends).

pseudostudent Have fun here in LA; we're in the middle of "June Gloom" so don't expect much sunshine. And if you haven't been to D-land before, be sure to hit the Indiana Jones ride; they don't have it in Florida. Also, Fast Passes are the key to avoiding long lines! There should be an explanation on how to use them somewhere on the park map that you get when you enter the park.

A friend of mine (Texas native) moved to the Boston area just after college. She wrote me about how she got completely lost one day hunting for the Woobin exit. Who knew that was spelled Woburn?

I might be stepping on some toes here, but don't get me started on Bostonian pronunciations. I spent three of the most confusing years of my life there.

Here's a true story: I worked with a woman who had a speech problem and a very thick Boston accent. Her last name was Trubiano. She came in one morning all flustered and annoyed, because she had tried to order a book for her brother from a company in Chicago. Now, in Chicago, if you don't pronounce your words exactly the way they do, they think you're speaking French [/stepping on more toes]. Anyway, my colleague got to the point where she had to give the woman her last name, which, of course, she spelled T-Ah-U-B-I-A-N-O. The order taker asked her what the second letter was.
"Ah."
"Excuse me?"
"Ah."
"I'm sorry, could you repeat that?"
Impatient colleague: "Ah! As in 'woof!'"

At this point, everyone listening to the story tried to stifle laughter as my colleague complained about the "stupid woman" in Chicago. (I don't think she realized she had an accent or a speech problem.) The dialogue continued:
"Ah. The lettah befoah 'S'!"
"Oh. You mean 'arrrrrrrrr'."
"Yeah, that's what I said. Ah."

HaHa, great story, DariaG.

Call centers are a source of great stories. I had a friend who told me a story about someone trying to call in to get tickets for the summer Olympics in Atlanta. The person answering the phone refused to sell them tickets because they had "to call their own country" for tickets. They lived in New Mexico. When the caller insisted that New Mexico was in the United States, the ticketer asked from what City they were calling. The caller replied Albuquerque and was again sent away to call their own country! They had to call in again to get tickets.

The movie “Hoosiers” was based on the “Miracle of Milan”, pronounced MY-lan.

At least Hayti, Missouri, has a Y to point you to hay-TIE.

Detroit’s roads are fairly straight forward to pronounce—save for Gratoit, pronounced GRASH-ut. And that we have a major road named for John R. somebody called John R Road. No period after the R.

After living in other cities, I’m sure Detroit has an accent, but I can’t describe what it is.

I’m shocked that Bart isn’t in the top 1000 names. My name is even rarer because it’s short for something else that isn’t Bartholomew. It’s a family name—but, then again, Orion is a family name for a son, so maybe they grew a little wacky tobaccy up on the farm.

A few years ago, Papa Tiger and I moved to Augusta, Georgia. He'd been living overseas for a number of years, but still held a U.S. driver's license -- from Guam. (A really, really pretty license, too, with palm trees and all on it.) So we go in to get Georgia licenses and the woman asks for his license, and he produces it, and she says, "No, I need a valid U.S. license." I practically had to restrain him from climbing over the counter to throttle her before we were through, but we finally persuaded her to call her headquarters in Atlanta where she was assured that, yes, contrary to her mistaken beliefs, Guam is indeed part of the U.S.

You do realize that that call center story is an example of why New Mexico license plates say "New Mexico USA" on them, don't you?

ETA a big reason Papa Tiger went so ballistic over the license incident was that he'd been trying for three years from Japan to get it renewed but kept running into the island attitude of "whatever," and finally had to fly back to the U.S. separately from me just to have 24 hours in Guam to get the damn thing renewed so he wouldn't have to take a test and all, and then he ran into that idiot woman. Sigh.

It's too bad more non-Python addicts haven't seen Life of Brian, because it's probably the most accessible of their movies. It follows an actual plot all the way through (Holy Grail has a pretty thin plot, and they just stuck to it when they felt like it), parallels a lot of historical and biblical references that most people will know, and even has sort of an ending. Sometimes I think it's my favorite of the three.

At the other end of the scale, you've got Meaning of Life, definitely just for the dedicated Python fan. It's pretty much a series of skits loosely tied together by the theme of the title. It all kind of comes together in the end, but it doesn't make heaps of sense. Some of the skits are absolutely brilliant (Every Sperm Is Sacred, Crimson Permanent Assurance, "It's wafer-thin"), but others don't do much for me. It's definitely worth seeing, but it's not as consistently funny as the other two.

We have a Versailles (pronounced Vir-sails) in Kentucky too. It's about 30 miles west of Paris, KY and about 80 miles north of London KY.

There is also a tiny little town called Yosemite – pronounced Yose-mite.

And we have the non-pronunciation-challenged Big Bone Lick State Park. I don't know anything about how it got its name (feel free to make up your own theory); I’ve just seen the sign for it off of I-75 near Cincinnati.

Oh, DariaG, you've reminded me of a client I talk to all the time. She's also got an Italian name with lots of A's and R's, a slight impediment, and a thick Boston accent. Whenever we have a new agent get her on the line for the first time, she gets put on hold while the newbie tries to regroup and try to figure out how the hell to spell her name so that her profile can be pulled. The rest of us (those within earshot) will all start spelling out the name (consonants changed to protect privacy) for her in a helpful chorus in the background after the call is ended.

"It's just like it sounds," we'll chant.
"Em Eh Ahhh Eye Ah En Eh Tee Eye Ahhh Eh Ahhh Eee Ell Ell Eh.
MarViana TirVarVella."

She's a really nice woman and an experienced traveller, but the first time you talk to her you're really stuck with asking her to repeat herself until you start to hear the difference between Ah (I) and Ahhhh ®. Fortunately, she's really patient, and once you break the code, it's easy.

On the state park name front, Brits would probably get a kick out of a nearby wetlands preserve called Volo Bog State Park.

One of my best friends from college was from Versailles, Ohio; it's northwest of Dayton. I think there are a few others in the midwest as well, but that one I'm sure of.

Thank you! I moved to Philadelphia less than a year ago, and I've been wondering about those two towns. Now, if someone could explain to me why Newark, DE is pronounced differently than Newark, NJ, because it's been driving me up the wall.

I'm Buttercup and a rabbit.
I only saw part of one of the Monty Python movies - IIRC, it was when I was in high school, and I think I fell asleep - nothing against the movie, I was just really tired. One of these days (add it to the list...)

When my mom was in her teens, three of her close friends were named Margaret, although each had a different nickname - Marg, Margie, and Peggy (I think).

I don't know how Newark, DE is pronounced, but Newark, Ohio is pronounced "Nerk." Makes it easy to distinguish from "Newahk," NJ.

Ah, the delights of American mispronunciation!

Mama Tiger, I think Newark, DE is pronounced like two words - New Ark.

My personal assumption has always been that since it's relatively close geographically to NJ (Northeast Corridor), and there are trains that run through both places, it's just a way of distinguishing them so that people don't get confused.

and...
Heh. I think I'm going to need to call someone that tomorrow.

Lots and lots of French names in Illinois ("discovered" by Joliet and Marquette). Versailles, Marquette, Creve Couer, LaSalle, etc... but then we also have Moscow and Nashville. go figure.

Oh, it's even better than that, sparky1, because when the locals say city and state, it comes out as "Nerk, Uh-HI-uh." Not an O in sight.

But then, Arkansas ends in an S and who says that (except me when I'm being deliberately obnoxious)?

Not to mention the Mackinac/Mackinaw confusion in Michigan...They both are said the same way, right?

Hi! I'm new to the Meet Market, although I've lurked here. You folks have some intersting stuff going on in your Real Lives. I guess I should get one of those.

May I share? I'm in howling agony. I want my TAR! I'm jonesing so badly, I'm watching CBS all the time just to catch the commercials. Is there any help for this? Any suggestions are appreciated.

Yep, GRBecca. If you pronounce the "c" at the end of Mackinac, you might get beat up. They're both Mack-in-aw.

Even though I grew up in Michigan, my mother was from Kentucky and she used to get really upset if someone mispronounced Louisville. According to her, it isn't Lou-ee-ville, it's Lou-a-vul. It still grates on me when I hear someone say it "wrong."

Woburn (Woobin) isn't the only problematic pronounciation around the Bawstin area. We also have Worcester (Wooster) and Gloucester (Glawster), as well as some Native American named things that I can't even spell off the top of my head, much less pronounce.
So. Upcoming Hallmark Holiday this weekend. Anybody being particularly kind to their fathers? We're still coasting on the Giant Flamingo Vibes, so I think I'm good. (Oh, to whomever wanted to know upthread how long it stayed up, just for the afternoon. The neck was a little too fragile for a longterm yard infestation.)
Also am renting a convertible for the weekend to please my husband. Question: Would a Mustang or an Sebring be better? I am getting very mixed signals from my current crop of survey respondents. Keep in mind that there will be two small kids in the back seat, so I kind of want the safer, roomier vehicle.

When my grandparents lived in Little Rock, Arkansas in the 1940s, they lived on Baroque street. Like the period of music and art. But apparently no one in 1940's Arkansas had ever heard of such a thing, so they pronounced it "BARE-oh-Q." (like barbeque, in a weird sort of way)

I'm designing a webpage for my dad's business (including paying for the domain name and such). He saw mine and decided he wanted one too, even though he can't figure out how to turn on the VCR (Seriously. he calls me with questions like this regularly). Part of his work involves representing technology companies, and no matter how long this goes on, we can't get over the irony.

It's also probably ironic that he ended up with a computer geek for a daughter...

That's only in southern Ohio. That city, for me, has always been pronounced "Newrk". Heh.

Which is not to say that northeast Ohio can't have Berlin lake (pronounce Ber-lin) or Louisville ("Lewis-ville"). We also have Wooster, pronounced "Wusster" (not Woooo-ster).

I grew up in Gloucester (Glaw-ster), Ontario. I have heard sooo many mangled pronunciations of Gloucester: Gloo-chester, Glooster, Gl-ow-chester, Gloo-ces-ter...

When I was in Boston back in February I stayed in Woburn, we pronounced it like it''s spelled - Whoa-burn. Guess we were wrong! But we still say it that way, it's such a funny word! Of course, we also like to say "waddah" and "connah" just for fun.

Bar-o-que. Hee!

ETA - Gloucester is a suburb of Ottawa - and I say it's pronounced Dal-hoo-sie damnit!

Here in the mighty capital of Ottawa, there is one street that no one can agree how to pronounce - Dalhousie. Some say - Dal - house-y, others Dal-hoos-y, and others - Dal - oos-y. It's kind of entertaining. Ahh, bilinguilism, fun, fun, fun. Of course, friends and I have fun with Baseline - said Base-line, but we call it Bass -a -leen, like vaseline. TeeHee.

Oh yeah, if you want to hear the best CD in the world - Maroon 5's "Songs about Jane" I have had it for about 3 months and I never tire, every song is better than the one before. Although, Jason Mraz's "Waiting for my Rocket" is also Fabulous!

Eta : what kind of librarian can't spell?

As long as we're talking about mispronouncing cities, may I bring up one that is very, very common?

It is not, not, I repeat NEVER, New Or-LEENS, people!**

**(Except in songs sung by locals like Louis -- that's pronounced Lewis, not Loo-ee -- Armstrong and Fats Domino and such, who can say what they want!)

It is one of a variety of other choices:

New OR-luns

New OR-lee-uns

New Aw-lins

However, this only applies to the actual city name. Orleans Parish, which is comprised solely of the city of New Orleans, is, for no discernible reason, Or-LEENS Parish. Go figure.

But you can spot a tourist a million miles off as soon as they open their mouths. And there are a lot of them to spot, alas. We do our part to correct them, one tourist at a time, but it's a big job.

Sebrings are safer, and they're very stylish and classy cars. They're not as teenagerish as a Mustang. Of course, if you want sheer muscle and speed, you can't go wrong with a 'Stang.

For safety, Volvo's convertible is your best bet. It has bars that shoot up from the seats to protect passengers in case of a roll. Also, make sure the kids are seated in the back seat, both for safety and so they don't get too beat up by the wind. And you've gotta do the sunglasses-and-head-scarf Grace Kelly look. Baseball caps aren't nearly as cool.

Oh, man, I juist remembered a great story. This happened to my aunt, who works in a hospital. She had just gotten a patient settled in and was calling somebody up in surgery to verify that the patient was scheduled for sugery in the morning.

Red Bubbles's Aunt: "The patient's last name is Fear. The surgery's supposed to be at 10 AM tomorrow."
Person in surgery: "Fear... how do you spell that?"

Now before I tell you the next part of this story, I must say in defence of my aunt, who really is a very intelligent woman, that this took place at the end of a 36-hour shift.

Red Bubbles's Aunt: (long, drawn-out sigh) "Fear. Fee-E-A-R."
Person in surgery: "I'm sorry, what?"
Red Bubbles's Aunt: (getting slightly ticked) "Fee...E...A...R."

Around this point, she claimed, she was sharing a look with a passing doctor that, she thought, was commisseration on how stupid this particular employee was.

Person in surgery: "I'm sorry, could you repeat that?"
Red Bubbles's Aunt: (reaching the boiling point) "Fee! E! A! R! What part of that don't you understand?"
Person in surgery: (very quietly) "The 'Fee.'"
Red Bubbles's Aunt: (nearly silent) "Oh."

According to my aunt, she wanted to crawl into the phone and die. Can't say I blamed her.

Thank you WedsAddams! I would rent a Volvo, but they are sadly not available. We'll be strapping the kids into all sorts of safety devices in the back seat, so as to easy my worried mind. And now I must go find a scarf. I have the sunglasses already.
ETA: BWAH! Your poor aunt, Red Bubbles!

This is a pet peeve of mine too bubbacat.

Oh and Word! on the New Or-luns thing Mama Tiger.

I'm back in Seattle today and it's just as hot here as it was in Spokane! At least I'm going to a lake this weekend so the heat will be appreciated.

Can I just vent on how tired I am of these stupid elections? The newest thing, is that they are using my library for advanced polls. While I am all for the wheels of democracy turning, I have a ton of shit to do to close up the library, but no, I'm stuck in my office, because they have taken over the library proper. Plus, they locked the one set of doors, so if I have to pee, I have to wade through the voters, and the scrutineers and such keep glaring at me in my office. Like, hello, I'm the librarian, I have to be in the library, the books can't come to me!!!!!!!! Also, they're eating in the library, too. I fear my head may explode.

Eating in the library, Fields? Good lord, what kind of heathens are they? I would be having a heart attack. When I first worked in a public library I couldn't believe how many people -- not just kids -- tried to come in with open bottles of pop, or chips, or whatever. And they would get all offended when we confiscated it. Arrgh. The stupidity.

Oh good grief, you Northwesterners don't know what heat is! I sit here at my desk in New Or-luns listening to KING-FM radio (out of Seattle) on streaming audio, and yesterday they were talking about "highs around 80, with sunshine and a light breeze." While we had highs over 90, with about 1500% humidity, not a speck of breeze in sight, and a heat index of about 110. It is so hot and humid that I actually was stunned just walking out my door at 8:00 this morning -- it was already in the upper 80s with the wilting humidity. And it's only June. Summer is going to be hideous this year; even the lifetime locals are complaining already.

Trust me, it never gets hot like this in Seattle. Or Spokane. Or anyone north of 50 miles north of this. There's something about being below sea level and having so much water around that makes the air here able to super-saturate or something, so that the humidity levels get absolutely mind-boggling.

And yet, strange as it sounds, I absolutely love living here. As long as the air conditioning works!!

I always thought I was so hip saying 'New OR-lins' is that close enough?

I love saying Toronto by clearly pronouncing all the letters. It annoys those born and bread there who say 'tronna'.

I now have two songs in my head 'Song for Whoever' Jennifer, Allison, Phillipa, Sue.... and '88 Lines about 44 Women' I hope you enjoy them too!

Off camping with the mosquitoes everyone have a lovely weekend!

oh, and King Arthur? Inconceivable!

Don't forget Conshohocken, Manayunk, Wissahickon, and Schuylkill. I grew up w/ these names, so it never occurred to me that they were a little weird till I was in my twenties.

Yeah, but except for Schuykill (pronounced "Schoo-kill" for all those not from the area), they all pretty much look like what they sound like. And when I first got to school, I was soundly reprimanded for calling it the "Shoykl" River.

You definitely want the Sebring, Hildy. The Mustang's back seat is too cramped, even for small children, and the Sebring is a much more comfortable riding car. Also, I don't know how important this is to you, but the Mustang's trunk is tiny. The Sebring's is surprisingly roomy, even with the top down.

Oh, and as for the performance? Most places rent V6 Mustangs, and they are no faster than the Sebring.

You certainly are hip enough with that. As long as the accent's on the first syllable, you're pretty much free to say the last part any way you want. I've heard some locals manage to drag it out to about five syllables. The most common pronunciation is New AW-lee-ans, no R sound, saying all the vowels. If you want to sound like a real local, that's your safest bet.

I love regional accents and am usually fairly quick to pick them up well enough for imitation purposes, but the local accents around here are presenting multiple challenges. They vary widely by the part of the city or region people are from. Cross the river, and the accent totally changes; cross Lake Pontchartrain to the north, and it's totally different again. The closest approximation I've come to the strongest local accent is a very unusual mixture of Mississippi and the Bronx -- calling a priest "Faw-thuh so-and-so," for example. The more money you have, the less accent you have, too.

A Texas accent is much easier.