Schuylkill=Sky-kill
Not that.
Originally Posted by feltonhill:
Schuykill is closer to skookill ....
Variations of that. My Pennsylvania family .... SKOOL kul
Or the town in Nevada just east of the California border along the Truckee river and the SP/UP main line, spelled Verdi, like the composer, but pronounced verdye, And I've heard it pronounced ver-dye and ver-dye.
OK pronuciator experts how about this one!
Schoenersville
And if you are from " the valley" please give others 48 hrs to guess!
Schoenersville
And if you are from " the valley" please give others 48 hrs to guess!
Originally Posted by Kelly Anderson:
Try this one. Tooele, Utah, home of the Tooele Valley Railway. #11, an ex Buffalo and Susquehanna 2-8-0 is still on display in town.
Since no one who isn't local will ever get it, the correct pronunciation is Too-will-a. Don't ask me how they got that from Tooele.
I've always pronounced it To-illa
Oo - I got a couple. We have a major street spelled Garnet, but pronounced Gar- NET, and a street named after the mathematician Dirac, but pronounced Dye-rack, even by folks who know.
I live in Sioux City, Iowa, not to be confused with Sioux Falls, SD or South Sioux City, NE, or North Sioux City, SD. The most frequent mis-spelling is Siuox or Soo, or Sue City although there was a song written called Sioux City Sue. It is often pronounced as SI-OX.
Dick
Denver's Union station sits just off Wynkoop Street. Should be pronounced like wine - coop. Several years ago our current governor started a new business just up the street a bit. It was the Wynkoop Brewing Company, but since he was selling craft beers and not wine, he didn't want the "wine" sound and so pronounced the name of his business as win-coop. It's surprising how well that pronunciation caught on. I guess it's a good clue as to who are relative newbies and who are the old timers.
Regarding Buena Vista...
You'll probably get a good laugh out of this, but in Winston-Salem, we call it Boo-nah This-ta, not Buena Vista. Lived in NC all my life, but never figured out why we call it that.
Well, how about Sault Ste Marie, MI? (don't know why the French maintain 26 letters in their alphabet - they only use about 13 of them!) From which, the Soo Line derives it's name??!!
I too will admit that a year or two ago I suddenly had an epiphany and realized that the Gorre and Daphetid is the Gory and Defeated. Probably close to forty five years into reading and knowing all about it. Glad I figured that out finally...
Who is/was that Brett Favre guy?
Who is/was that Brett Favre guy?
During a group luncheon this past Sunday the question was asked, "is there a difference between 'bison' and 'buffalo' ?" I added the fact that the genus/species for the buffalo that roamed the Great Plains of America is Bison/bison. The fellow next to me added the fact that locals in the NS Bison railyard in Buffalo, NY pronounce it, "bi-zon yard". He ought to know since he was Norfolk Southern Assistant VP/ Chief Mechanical Officer (recently retired).
Bizon, eh?
s/b
won-neat-a
Matt01 posted:
Schuylkill=Sky-kill
Not that.
Originally Posted by feltonhill:Schuykill is closer to skookill ....
Variations of that. My Pennsylvania family .... SKOOL kul
If you're in Philadelphia, it's "Sure Kill". As in the "Sure Kill Crawlway". ;-)
Mitch
OK. So how is Monon pronounced?
MOE-non?
MOE-nun?
RoyBoy posted:OK. So how is Monon pronounced?
MOE-non?
MOE-nun?
Sorry, just too easy of a setup.
The Monon Railroad served Indiana, Chicago, and Louisville from it’s founding in 1897 til it’s merger with the L&N in 1971. It’s main shops were located Lafayette Indiana, home to Purdue University. As local legend has it, some aspiring young railfans attending Purdue thought it would make a great practical joke to re-letter a Monon boxcar parked at the local Ralston Purina siding from “Monon” to “Moron” They enlisted the help of students in the art department to create accurate stencils and sneaked down late one Saturday night to accomplish their mission. With the repaint completed, the group waited just outside of town to photograph their handy work as it left town the next day.
Dunno if our southern neighbors have called it "Tia" (aunt) "Juana" (feminine form of Juan "John, diminutive: "Juanita")...not Juniata... in affection or to be facetious? Might expect Spanish speakers to add the "i" in fun or familiarity. I certainly have heard it as, Tea-uh-wah-nuh.
If you use the Spanish pronunciation in Pennsylvania you will probably get a stupid look. They pronounce it June-ee-atta. I understand it's a native American word. I live on the California Nevada border next to a town spelled Verdi. But if you pronounce it like the composer's name you can get an annoyed look followed by, it's pronounced Vur-dye. And there is a town in New Mexico spelled Madrid but the emphasis is on the first syllable not the second.
prrhorseshoecurve posted:OK pronuciator experts how about this one!
Schoenersville
And if you are from " the valley" please give others 48 hrs to guess!
Shay-nerz-vill
Then there is Beaufort (boefert) NC and Beaufort(buefert)SC.
Wow..they pronounce the first part of Schoenersville like they would on the Rhein (Rhine). Unusual...not "Show-ners-ville" or "Skoonersville". I understand the problem:. I am from "Loolvull" (Louisvillle) and lived outside "Shovel" (Shelbyville) for a period.
Here is another goof I often here pronouncing Sioux City. Si-ox, Sooc City, or how do you pronounce it.
Dick
CBQer posted:Here is another goof I often here pronouncing Sioux City. Si-ox, Sooc City, or how do you pronounce it.
MNCW posted:
Great video, sounds like a great firm to work for as well. Thanks for posting. I won't go into Australian names here that would really confuse everyone! Ha Ha. Roo.
The Rutland (and now the Vermont Railway) runs through the towns of Vergennes (vurGENS) and Charlotte (sharLOT).
But PA is the king... with vurSAILS and DUboice.
Jon 
The current British pronounciation of “Strasbourg” appears to be “Foxtrot Oscar”, depending on which newspaper you read...
English place names have their own little quirks. Some are Norman French (like Ashby-de-la-Zouch) while some must make no sense (Featherstonehaugh, pronounced Fanshawe; Coggeshall, pronounced Coal)
Speaking of merry h'old H'england, l missed the station stop for Stonehenge (that town where the Russian couple was poisoned), because the conductor's Cockney accent was unintelligible to me. Had to pay to ride back, and missed the bus back to the station because of lost time. That gave me a couple of miles walk in the English countryside to another bus stop in the middle of nowhere ..it did show up!...to get back to station and train. Welsh placenames are hopeless..not just that RR station with the world's longest name.
The Long Island Rail Road often renamed towns if they didn't like them. One was "Saint George's Manor" which became "Saint George Manor" when the station agent's wife spilled paint on the sign. The next agent thought the name was too highfalutin' for a patch of land in the sandy pine barrens, and painted over "Saint George", changing the town's name to "Manor". Finally, the railroad upgraded the town by adding "ville" to the name... and today it's "Manorville".
Jon
KOOLjock1 posted:The Long Island Rail Road often renamed towns if they didn't like them. One was "Saint George's Manor" which became "Saint George Manor" when the station agent's wife spilled paint on the sign. The next agent thought the name was too highfalutin' for a patch of land in the sandy pine barrens, and painted over "Saint George", changing the town's name to "Manor". Finally, the railroad upgraded the town by adding "ville" to the name... and today it's "Manorville".
Jon
They also did that with the town of Wyandanch. When the LIRR originally built that far east the station was named "West Deer Park." This caused many people to confuse it with the Deer Park which was the next station up the line. The solution, naming the station after a Long Island Native American legend, and not long after the town took the name of the station.
Well, this could go on forever. Here's my 2 cents. The southern Illinois town of Vienna is not pronounced like the one in Austria. No, its VI-enna. Emphasis on the Vi like in vital. And Des Plaines River is pronounced here as one word, not two words as the French would. In French I think it should sound like the little guy on Fantasy Island saying De Plane...De Plane.
Some time back I was filling the car at a gas station just off of I-80 when a lady at the pump directly across from me asked, in a very British accent, if this was the right road to get to To-lee-do. It took me a second to run that through my filter before I realized she wanted to know if she was on the right road to Toledo, Ohio.
CBQer posted:Here is another goof I often here pronouncing Sioux City. Si-ox, Sooc City, or how do you pronounce it.
Dick
Soo City, or Sue City. Same pronunciation.
Sioux is a native American name pronounced like the woman's name Sue.
June- e- atta
Rob Leese posted:During a group luncheon this past Sunday the question was asked, "is there a difference between 'bison' and 'buffalo' ?" I added the fact that the genus/species for the buffalo that roamed the Great Plains of America is Bison/bison. The fellow next to me added the fact that locals in the NS Bison railyard in Buffalo, NY pronounce it, "bi-zon yard". He ought to know since he was Norfolk Southern Assistant VP/ Chief Mechanical Officer (recently retired).
Bizon, eh?
When I was on a project at that yard in the 70's, it was Bi-son yard, pronounced Beye son. Maybe that AVP was one of the southerners.
Since the G&D has been mentioned, it occurs to me that I’ve never seen any pictures of the narrow gauge section, or particularly the locomotives?
Since “unintelligible cockney accents” have been mentioned, the stock answer to the buffalo/bison question is that “you can’t wash your hands in a buffalo”
mlaughlinnyc posted:Rob Leese posted:During a group luncheon this past Sunday the question was asked, "is there a difference between 'bison' and 'buffalo' ?" I added the fact that the genus/species for the buffalo that roamed the Great Plains of America is Bison/bison. The fellow next to me added the fact that locals in the NS Bison railyard in Buffalo, NY pronounce it, "bi-zon yard". He ought to know since he was Norfolk Southern Assistant VP/ Chief Mechanical Officer (recently retired).
Bizon, eh?
When I was on a project at that yard in the 70's, it was Bi-son yard, pronounced Beye son. Maybe that AVP was one of the southerners.
Yep. He began his career on the Southern RR in Georgia.
116 replies for a pronounciation query that could have been readily and correctly answered by a simple GOOGLE search? Of course, there exist REGIONAL pronounciations for any words or names, but usually there is a generally ACCEPTED one for a location's name. Mark me puzzled, and furthermore, most folks here are not trained linguists!
HUE-ston in Texas but HOUSE-ton (Street) in New York City.
NEW-erk New Jersey, New-ARK Delaware.
Pequea, Pa on the Susquehanna River is PECK-Way.
And in northern NJ, Bernardsville is BER-nerds-vil.
Minot, ND is MY-not. (Why not?)
Onego, WV is WUN-go (if you can find it.)
Versailles, IN is ver-SAILS.
Calais, ME is KALUS
Worcester Mass. is someplace between WOO-ster and WUH-ster.
OK, you left coasters please verify Mt. Tamalpais (Did I even spell it right?)
By the way, my Dad was British and he pronounced Virginia with four syllables.
Mt. Tamalpais = TAM ul - PIE - us.
