Can someone pronounce"Juniata" for me

June-e-at-a

 

 

Thank you Willygee.  This has been a question of mine for about 50 years.

Anxiously awaiting the answer.

I would pronounce it June--eee--ahhh-ta.

 

Tom 

Thanks all...where does the name originate from?..almost sounds native american.

The Juniata River?

I wish I'd have seen this thread earlier - for obvious reasons.

Jack is correct; Juniata Shops were named after the Juniata River.

Curt

It's not ahhh-ta.  It is pronounced at-a.  I am from the central PA area and everyone I have come in contact with has pronounced it at-a.

 

Joo-nee-at-uh

Definitely June-ee-at-uh.  God knows I spent enough time fishing and swimming in the river while growing up.

Even though I grew up in Lewistown, I still had to cheat and check Google to refresh my memory.

The word supposedly is the anglicized spelling of the Iroquois word for standing stone; Onayutta.  True?  Who knows.  Makes for a good story though.

Curt

You have all done so well on that one, how about Tehachapi? (spelling corrections welcome too)

Ta-hatch-uh-pee.

There's a railfan video out there where the British voiceover guy pronounces Juniata "Juanita" - like Barney Fife's girlfriend down at the diner. Maybe the letters got mixed up on his script.

so how did the river get its name

I found this from the book, Juniata, River of Sorrows:

 

Although the word, Attaock, on Smith’s “Map of Virginia” may be the earliest recorded reference to the Juniata River, the first word that resembles our word, Juniata, is on a 1655 Dutch map that called the Juniata the Onojutta, from the name of the Indians who lived on it: the Onojutta-Haga. Onojutta (pronounced Ooh-nee-ooh-ah-tah) means a vertical or standing stone and Haga (Hah-gah) means people or inhabitants. Onojutta-Haga, therefore, could be said to mean The People of the Standing Stone. The word, Onojutta, is related to the Mohawk word, Oneija (Ooh-nee-eh-ah-ha), meaning stone, and is the root of our word, Oneida, the avenue in many Pennsylvania towns. The town of Huntingdon on the Frankstown Branch was originally called Standing Stone and today has a township named Oneida. A nearby stream is called Stone Creek. The word, Onoya (Ooh-nee-ooh-ah-yah),alsomeaning stone, was the symbol of the Oneida Indians, who marked the entrance to their villages by placing a stone in the fork of a tree (Africa, 1896, p. 3; Guss, 1886, pp. 30-31) .

 

Tom

You might like this too from Norfolk Southern:

 

https://youtu.be/c7f3qnBPujs

 

Tom

Pennsylvania Rivers/Creeks.  Susquehanna, Monongahala, Allegheny, Tionesta, relatively simple Clarion.

Excellent video Thank you

Thanks

With the emphasis on "hatch" as in tuh-HATCH-uh-pee.

Since we're on the subject of pronunciations... Is GP9 pronounced "Gee-Pee 9" or "Jeep 9"? 

 

Tom

 

Model railroaders and rail fans tend to refer to 4-axle EMD models as "jeeps". However the TRUE name in the motive industry is "Gee Pee" then whatever number series, i.e. GP9, or GP38, or GP60, etc.. 

This is a great kind of question.  When I went to the Portland NMRA one of my goals was to learn how to pronounce Dalles, a dam on the Columbia River.  Alas, it was not to be.  Everyone did agree it was French but, 1/3 pronounce it dells, like the computer company, 1/3 dolls and 1/3 dales, as in Chip and Dale.

 

Well, at least it's not Dallas.

I've always used the full Gee Pee nomenclature in my conversations. You could call the 4-axle units "Jeeps" I guess, but then what do you do with the 6-axle units...the SD series. Do we call them "Seeps?"

 

Nah...I'll stick with Ess Dee plus a number.

 

I heartily agree with Tom and Rich.  You won't go wrong with that!

Thank, Guys!

 

I have always refered to 4 axle EMD units as "Jeeps" as a class.  Specific model numbers have always been refered to as Gee Pee___.

 

I have always called the six axle EMDs "Ess Dees"

 

I didn't know if I was using the wrong terminology all of these years.  I often thought I could sense snickers when walked away from a conversation pertaining to this subject.  I am relieved that the snickers were not directed at what I was saying.  Probably at what I was wearing. LOL

 

Tom

 

Also, the GP stands for "General Purpose." EMD (Electro-Motive Diesel Inc., now owned by Caterpillar) engines with six-wheel trucks are designated SD, which stands for "Special Duty."

Ashtabula?

pneumonoultramicropicsilicovolcanconiosis?       

While I, with no connection to the area except to blow through it a few times a year,

have apparently been pronouncing Juniata correctly, have wondered if it was hispanic

in origine and originally pronounced "hoon-ee-ah-tah".  That is not correct as the

native American derivation makes more sense for the area.

Curt and Jack Wins hand down! I have been there a few times, the PRR shop guys called it June-ee-at-uh. Named after some indian tribe like many rivers and areas in Pennsylvania.

The word "juniata" itself is a Seneca word that means either "people of the standing stone" or "blue waters". 

 

If you like Wikipedia.

 

I guess all you Easterners know how to pronounce Ashtabula - I got that from googling it after asking above.

 

There is an intersection in the skies above Philadelphia that used to be called "Juniata" - computers shortened it to "JUNIA" because computers cannot handle big words.  I always wondered if there was a locomotive shop in Philly named Juniata.  I have actually been to Juniata College, and knew it was very far away from Philly.

ash - tah - BUE - la

 

my turn...  for the SP&S,

is it spo-CAN  or spo-CANE ?

 

thanks...gary

Well since we are on a thread of pro-nun-ci-a-tions, how does one pronounce this:

 

Duquesne ?

Du-cane or Do-cain

 Can someone pronounce "Juniata"...

 

Glad this southern boy didn't even try. I would have butchered it! The first thing that came to mind was

 

Waa - nee - taa.

 

Looks to me like someone messed up and put that first "a" in the wrong spot!

hollow pien yo

that's Señor Jalapeño!

 

frankly being from SoCal, the most annoying mispronunciation i hear is,

 

tia - juana vs "tea" - juana.

 

i could understand if it was spelled confusingly, but it's Tijuana!

where are people getting that other 'a' from?

 

cheers... gar - e

How about the "San Joaquin Valley" in California?  Isn't it pronounced "San Joke Quinn"?

Fun thread!

 

When I was a young snotty kid drooling over the Varney ads on the back of the hobby magazines showing vignettes from John Allen's infamous railroad, I simply took a naive stab at pronouncing his railroad's name.  It came out 'Gore and Daff-tid'.  Dad never corrected me...or caught on, perhaps.  I had few railroading buddies to talk with back then.  In fact, it wasn't until I went away to college....and joined their model railroading club...that I embarrassed myself to find out that...but of course!...Gorre & Daphetid was pronounced 'Gory and Defeated'!  Well, can we all say "DUH!"??

 

So, ever since, I've made society pay for my embarrassment over this by correcting folks on words or pairs of words that have successive p-h or t-h.  For instance, the genre of music, Hip Hop?.....my correct pronunciation: Hiffop!  The chapeau worn by the swells to the opera, the top hat?....Toffat!  A peephole is a Peefole! Lighthouse?....pronounced Lie-thowse.  Hothouse tomatoes?....pronounced 'Hah-thowse'  tomatoes!  Etc., etc., blah, blah. 

 

There's a bunch of everyday words/combinations that qualify for this 'correction'.  What's most fun is being able to make the challenge with a straight face and persist at length in the ruse.  The look on a youngster's face, for instance, when you challenge them with the logic that, 'Of course, p or t followed by h is pronounced f or th, right?', is priceless.  I've often wondered whether they've taken this back to their teacher for clarification. 

 

Oh well, Joo-nee-A-tuh, Joo-nee-AH-tah, Joon-YAH-tah, etc.....Poh-TAY-toe, Poh-TAH-toe, Toh-MAY-toe, Toh-MAH-toe....Let's call the whole thing off!

 

KD