Those of you who have known me for more than 15 seconds have probably found that I absolutely detest when people pronounce the ’s’ on the end of Illinois. This is because, of course, that that is the incorrect pronunciation. It’s especially common in the south, though I’ve never heard a southerner with a hard time pronouncing Arkansas. Anyway, this is not something that is unique to me. In fact, I think it’s pretty much the Official State Pet Peeve. There are only 50 states, learn how to freaking pronounce them.
What makes this entertaining, though, is that we have an eerie knack for officially mispronouncing the name of foreign cities. Specifically, we’ll name cities after other famous cities, but pronounce them differently. Take, for example, the following…
- Versailles (Ver-sales)
- Cairo (Kay-ro)
- Des Plaines (Des Planes)
- New Madrid (New Mad-rid)
- Vienna (Vy-enna)
The list goes on. This annoys me. I think it ought to stop.
Georgia has some awesome ones as well - like Martinez - (Martin-ez) and Lafayette - (La-Fay-it).
There’s a small town near Austin that they named “Buda”. They pronounce it “Byooduh”. I hate Texans.
Cairo has not one, but two common mispronunciations. The other common one I’ve heard is: (Care-O). Keep trying, and eventually maybe they’ll get it right!
Slow night?
There’s a Cairo, New York. I’ve never actually met someone from there, but it’s listed on the Thruway Exit Toll Ticket, and whenever I’ve heard someone pronounce it, it has always been the Egyptian way. (comes up alot, how many exits to go?). That doesn’t necessarily mean people from there pronounce it like that, but it seems there would be a descent chance someone I’ve been in a car with would know someone from there and say ‘thats not how they say it’. Who knws though.
Biggest thin gI notice is Newark, NJ [Nu-erk] and Newarl, DE [New-ark]
Upstate NY around Rochester has a bunch of strange ones…Chile pronounced Chi-lie is just one that comes to mind immediately…
“Ver-sales” is the “proper” way to say Versailles, KY.
As far as Texas goes, you wouldn’t begin to understand just how wrong so many of the Texas cities are. (ex: Humble, TX = “umble”)
It does have a way of helping to weed out the Yankees, though.
My favorite in Michigan is Milan, pronounced “my-lane”
There’s a casino in Arizona called the Gila River Casino. Most people say “Gila” as in ‘gee-la’, but it is suppose to be pronounce like ‘hee-la’!