This is a new thread, created to avoid the off-topic police.
Quoting the Sage of Upstate New York: "Reminds me of the “g” in Samoan - which is pronounced as “ng,” but not as hard as in English. The prime example is the capital of American Samoa, Pago Pago, which the uninitiated usually say as “Paygo Paygo” or pronouncing the first syllables as in hunger pangs. In reality, it’s “Pahn go Pahn go, with the g kinda held on the back of your tongue. Hard to describe…”
I have been told that when a printing press, supposedly complete with all the necessary fonts was shipped to Samoa, somehow all of the letters “g” were lost enroute–therefore it was impossible to spell the name of the chief city correctly.
Of course, we can think of many place names in our country which are spelled in ways that confuse the uninitiated–Worcester (“Wooster”), for instance. Until my wife corrected me (she lived and worked in New York City for eleven years), I accented the ultimate syllable of New Rochelle until she told me that the penultimate syllable is accented.
For the benefit of all who caught two spelling errors in the above when receiving it via email, I failed to proofread it, but did correct them before leaving it on the forum.
From what my wife told me, it is RAH-shll. (I do not know how to put the schwa in after the “sh” or the “sch”.) For the benefit of the unlearned, a schwa is a very short vowel that is usually represented by an upside-down lower case “e.”
1974 Merriam Webster’s New Collegiate dictionary has the ‘r’ at the end of the first syllable, which is slightly emphasized and has a parenthetic (y) before a ‘u’ with a dot on top representing similar to ‘oo’ in foot. The second syllable is an upside-down ‘e’ representing similar to ‘u’ in abut. The third syllable (shel) is emphasized.
So something like Nur-uh-SHELL? Probably need a Huguenot.
Quite a few French Hugenots emigrated to the part of New Jersey where I’m from, Bergen County to be exact. Some came during Dutch rule, others during English, but most during the 17th Century as the New Rochelle settlers did. The present-day town of Demarest is named for one of the prominent Hugenot families, the De Marests.
As an aside, Bergen County residents pronounce the towns name as “Demma-rest.”
Amherst, Massachusetts, is pronounced “Amerst,” as is Amherst College. Amherst, NY is pronounced with the `h’. There are other Amersts scattered about the US and Canada, some of which may well be pronounced differently, yet, such as Amherst, VA and TX.
Many, many other towns have their own local pronunciations, such as Versailles, MO, 'Versales."
I was born in the state that’s Hi in the middle and round on both ends. Back there, the B&O served the town of Belpre (pronounced Bell-Pree), and a branch of the PRR served Cadiz (Caddis, with the accent on the first syllable). A major point on the NYC’s Big Four was Bellefontaine (just say Bell Fountain). If you come from the Cleveland-Akron area, you pronounce Cuyahoga Ki uh hoge uh (long O, hard G). But you might slip and call it Ki-uh-hogga (short O). If you’re in a hurry it’s Ki-hogga, and if you’re in a BIG hurry it’s Cogga. So don’t be confused if somebody says he’s from Cogga Falls.[:D]
You’re very close. The only nit-picking correction I would make is to attach the S to the last syllable: LANK-uh-stir. This considerably de-emphasizes the middle syllable. In contrast, we are familiar with Burt LAN-CASS-ter. Pronounce it that way in Amish country & you’ll get a wry smile from the locals. By the way, Reading is pronounced pretty much the same way they pronounce it across the pond (think past tense of “read”).
I am not sure about the Pennsylvania town, but it is LANK-as-ter county in South Carolina and the seat of the county is LANK-as-ter–I grew up ten miles south of the county seat. And, my father, along with many of his ancestors, was born in LANK-as-ter county in Virginia; I believe the name of the county seat is pronounced the same way.
Then, when I lived in Pickens county, Alabama, I met some people whose ancestors came from Lancaster county, S.C., who pronounced their family name Lan-CAST-er. (I also found some distant cousins whose ancestors had come from Lancaster county, S.C.)
And, considering that Quebec is the French spelling of an Indian (or First Nation, as they say now) name, I do not doubt that if the area had been settled by English instead of French, the name would be Kebec.
Ah yes, as to Reading, I was corrected early on by my mother as to how to pronouce the name (and she was born in Kochi, Japan–of missionary parents, one of whom was from Lancaster county, South Carolina and the other from Brunswick country, Virginia).