So how does one properly pronounce PENNSY?
I always thought it was “penn-see” with a soft " s" sound but recently I heard “penn-zee” with a"z" sound.
So which is right?
Also, I always thought DRGW (Rio Grande) was “ree-oh” grand. But I have heard a couple of Colorado natives say “rye-oh” grand.
Have I been wrong all these years? Just curious.
Missouree, Missourah.
Madrid, NY is pronouced “ma-drid,” with the emphasis on the first syllable.
Don’t sweat the small stuff.
If there’s one thing that’s consistent in this country, it’s our inconsistency in pronoucing words…
Say aloud “Pennsylvania”
Sounds like a “Z” to me.
ROAR
I have always heard it pronounced pencil-vania. You get the “Z” with Pennzoil.
Pronunciations vary from place to place - deal with it. When you learn the local way of saying it - use it when you are in the locality.
The man I knew who worked at Roper Yard in Salt Lake City said “Ree-o Grand.”
Now, pronounce “Guyandotte” and “Ouachita.”
Yeppers!
, Larry is spot on! Regional accents and pronunciations abound.[:-^]
There is the Brooklyn (NY) ‘Earl’ for oil.
Cairo, IL is locally pronounced ‘Kay-roe’
People from Boston are dialectically marked for life by their words, as are folks from the Coastal North Carolina, and very Southeastern Virginia Coast…'Their’s is what could be best described as an ‘Elizabethan’ pronounciation. The Downeaster accent of Maine. Even in Hew Hampshire and Vermont there are subtle differences, linguistically
Just made a trip over to the Piedmont of North Carolina… It is an easy listen to distinguish those folk of the Hills of Western North Carolina, from their geographical neighbors of East Tennessee.
Those are only a very few that immediately spring to mind. Born in West Tennessee, and lived a good deal of my life South of the Magnolia Curtain ( Mississippi, to y’all who are Yankees !) [swg] Married to a
And there is a different pronunciation for Penn (pen) and pin! This blew my Southern mind (I know, it doesn’t take much). Pin-pen merger
I spoke with a fellow from around Wilmington, North Carolina who pronounced cow the same way you pronounce bow in “bow and arrow.” Yet we take bows after performances.
Don’t get me started on the pronunciation of Appalachian, either.
I’ve lived here my whole life.
There is no Z.
If you’re in Boston and ask a native what something costs you’re likely to get “anominalegg”. Translated that means an arm and a leg.
Then there’s Charlottet NC and Charlotte, MI. The carolinians accentuate the “Char” portion of the word and Michiganders accentuate “lotte”.
In Texas, they speak a whole nuther language.[:D]
…wait till he tackles Pueblo…
Answer one is yes and yes
Answer two is yes and yes
And answer three is NO.
There are so many regionalisms, dialects, sarcasms, spins, chides, and other pronunciation variations that you can’t take time to count them all or worry…say what you know, what you’re comfortable with, what is accepted where you are.
You should have heard the poor LION try to pronunce El Cajon.
ROAR
Repeat after me: “Pee - Arr-Arr” (the emphasis is on the first syllable, and the last two pronounced together quickly). The ex-Pennsylvania Railroad guys I worked with always referred to it as the “PRR”, never the Pennsy (either pronounciation), nor the “P-road”, etc.
Quoting Broadway Lion: “You should have heard the poor LION try to pronunce El Cajon.”
This reminds me of the lady who had been visiting in San Jose. In telling of her visit, she pronounced the “J” as a “j.” She was corrected, being told that the proper pronunciation is “San Hose,” as the people there pronouce a "j’ as though it were an “h.” When asked when she was there, she replied, “In Hune and Huly.”
I grew up in the South, and, somehow, acquired a southern accent (and, occasionally, someone will remark on it). For the benefit of those who have never traveled much in the South, let me say that there are many different Southern accents.
The summer before my last year in high school I spent two months in Baton Rouge with my brother and his family. When I returned home and detrained in Charlotte, N. C. (fifty miles from my home town), it seemed to me that the station master had one of the broadest accents I had ever heard–and I had heard him many times before I had gone to Louisiana.
I lived in Reform, Alabama, for almost nine years before moving here (Salt Lake valley)–and noticed that there was quite a difference in the way those native to Reform talked and the way those native to Columbus, Missssippi, talked–and less than thirty miles separated the two towns (the wives of two of the men I knew in Reform were from Columbus).
My wife was born in Evanston, Illinois, and grew up in Memphis–and never acquired the Memphian accent; she was often told, “You’re not from here,” when she began speaking with someone who did not know her. She could understand me, and I could understand her.
It is wonderful to go back to the South and visit with friends and relatives who know how to talk.[:)]
samfp1943 -
Cairo, GA is also pronounced “KAY-ro”. None of the kids fresh out of journalism school hired by the local Nitwitness (TV) News can get that thru their thick heads.
Liked your phrase for Mississippi (“South of the Magnolia Curtain”). I’ll have to remember that one - I try to collect and use vivid descriptive phrases.
deggesty-
In an earlier post I believe it was you who said the folks from NE North Carolina and SE Virginia had a very unique, almost Elizabethan pronunciation (my apologies to the actual author, if it wasn’t you). Whomever said it, they were so right! I once worked with a guy from somewhere in the Tidewater, and he had a pretty good dose of the Old English in the way he pronounced words.
In your post above, you make the point that there are many “Southern” accents. Right again! I grew up in SE GA, but my mother had family in SW GA, where they have an accent different enough that it can be easily distinguished from that of SE GA. Back in the days when Phil Gramm was a U.S. Representative from Texas, some reporter on TV made a comment about his “Texas drawl”. Hogwash!! Nearly hurt myself laughing at that, because it is obvious to anyone with the right ear that he learned to talk in SW GA. I believe his father was in the Army, but I know Gramm’s family was living near Columbus, GA when he was little. When my wife and I (she’s a Tallahassee, FL native) lived in Arkansas, we were asked thousands of times “Are you from Texas?” We spoke different enough from the Arkansawyers that it was obvious.
A good trick San Diego residents can play on visitors to pronounce a list of local place names: El Cajon, Jacumba, Jamacha, Jamul, La Jolla, Julian…
Note that El Cajon was on the San Diego, Cuyamaca and Eastern (now the El Cajon line of the SD Trolley) and Jacumba was on the San Diego and Arizona Eastern. Also note that the pass that hosts the AT&SF and UP Lines to L.A. plus the SP’s Palmdale cutoff is Cajon Pass (no “El”).
I’ll leave the first one to someone who knows, but I’ve visited Arkansas many times, and I’ve always heard the latter pronounced “WASH-it-ah”, which probably isn’t too far from the how the French explorer might have said it himself.
As you may know, one of Rock Island’s subsidiary companies was the Warren & Ouachita Valley, and in the company’s last years it marked some new boxcars with W&OV.
Amen to the vast variety of Southern accents!
Lots of little errors creep into otherwise good movies we see, and a favorite screw-up of mine is in the very enjoyable film “MIDWAY”, about
[(-D] That came to mind for me, too.