Strangely Pronounced Place Names

I think someone's been winding you up.

Where in Maryland are you from? Supposedly in the classic Maryland accent it's "Bawl-mer Mer-y-lin."

Once in awhile you'll hear (local) people get into fights over whether it's "loose-ee-anna" or "weeze-ee-anna," which is just weird :) I think it's a Shreveport-and-points-north vs. New Orleans-and-points-south thing.

That pronunciation was explained to me by an old highschool friend from North Carolina (who HATED the way we foreigners pronounced it Mary-Land). The way he pronounced it, the second and third vowels should probably be schwas, "Merələnd"

Spokane = "spo-CAN" (not "spo-cane")
Puyallup = "pee-yallup"
Issaquah = "issa-kwah"
Mukilteo = "muckle teo"

Oregon (these are VERY IMPORTANT! You could be arrested in the state otherwise)

Oregon = "Ori-gan" (not "Ore-GONE")
Willamette = "wi-LAM-met" (not "Willa-met")

Isn't Puyallup something closer to "pwee-all-up"? Except maybe two syllables?

as long as it's not "Pooya Lip", I think anything goes for Puyallup.

Peabody (massachusettes) = (pronounced) PEEB-dee

...where did teh 'o' go?

Other favourites from the Celtic fringes:
Mousehole
Quernmore.

Whatstandwell - whazzel

Belvoir - Beaver

this fact was used by the writers of my uni newsletter who had a character called Belvoir the Bursar's Beaver whose pic would appear in each issue with a speech bubble saying something mundane but useful, e.g. Belvoir the Bursar's Beaver Says "Don't Forget to Return Your Library Books Before the End of Term".

I think someone's been winding you up.

dorset street in dublin is pronouced door-SET but i thought that this was the only place in the world this happened.

Druid Hill Park in Baltimore is pronounced Droodle Park. There is a lovely town northeast of there called Havre de Grace, pronounced Haverr duh Grayce. Taliaferro as Tolliver is fairly common throughout Maryland and Virginia.

being one of said locals (lived there first 20 odd years of my life) i can confirm this 8)

andy

Damm those tricky French.

My favorite was Robbie Street in Halifax, pronounce it like the name and no one will know what your talking about since to them its always been ROWbe threet.

Plaistow - PLAH-stow
Highgate - High-gt (with the schwa as in Harrogate rather than the "ei" in Moorgate, Aldgate, or even Watergate)
Holborn - HOE-bn
Marylebone - Marlybone

And as a TEFLer, I take evil pleasure in hearing students and tourists confused by "Tott-num" Court Road and "Lester" Square !

Some places in Northern Ireland -

Lough Neagh = Lock Nay Biggest lake in the British Isles, fact fans.
Doagh = Doke
Coalisland = Cull-EYE-lun to the locals
Armagh = Arr-MAH
Omagh = OH-ma
Castlereagh = cassel-RAY
Ballymoney = BALLAH-money
Ballymena = BALLAH-meena

BUT

Ballyclare = BALLEE-clare