Here in western washington we have a town called Puyallup. It took me over a year of seeing road signs for the town and trying to phonetically pronounce to figure out it’s pronounced pew-al-up. It was tv advertisement for something that clued me in.
We have a town in North Carolina named Fuquay-Varina. A guy was driving through town and saw Fuquay-Varina Drugs, Fuquay-Varina Hardware, etc. he finally pulled into a local drive-in business establishment to ask how this place was pronounced. The person on the other end of the speaker patiently said; “Burger King.” BTW, the Town is pronounced Few-kway vuh-REE-nah.
Ray
Ah, yes! Now I remember the movie…tastier than the chocolate bar named after her!
Wayne
And we come full circle since Hershey, PA is served by the Reading. F&C has a resin kit for one of the RDG boxcar/hoppers that carried cocoa beans for Hershey.
Years ago I heard Reading pronuce Reading as in “What book are you reading?”
A guy is driving through a rural part of the state and comes toa town with an unusual name. So he stops at the restaurant and goes in. When the waitress comes over to the table, he asks her, " How do you pronounce the name of this place?"
The waitress replies, “Dare - eee Kween”.
Badum bum.
I don’t know if this counts or not, by my wife, born and raised in England pronounces Reading as Redding also. No German in her at all.
Close enough.
Yes Red-ing
Live 45 mins away.
I would hazard a guess that the one that pronounced it wrong (“Reed-ding”) was one of the “Glory Machines” videos? I have a couple of them, and it’s impressive how many place names the narrator (who apparently was a well-respected veteran Chicago broadcaster) got wrong.
Only two out of 28 have heard it prounounced reeding. I think it’s time
There was once a letter to the editor in Car & Driver magazine that asked:
Is it pronounced “porch” or “porsha”?
Ed. replied:
It is pronounced “It.”
And the railroad is Redding.
The big city to the east of it is Fulluffia.
Must be something in the wooder.
Eric
Oh I’ve HEARD it pronounced “reeding” MANY times - that doesn’t mean the person doing the pronouncing was right.
No one says the whole name - it’s just Philly. ANd it’s definitely something in the wooder. Or maybe it’s the hoagies.
–Randy
I call it the Reeding around die hard Reading fans. Gives half of a second of amusement.
And there is no “w” in Jag-u-ar.
Back in the early days of St.Paul’s Bandana Square shopping mall (originally Northern Pacific’s Como Shops - where the Twin City Model RR Club had it’s O scale layout for many years) there was a bookstore called “Reading Railroad” (pronounced of course like ‘reading a book’). As it happens, the owner was my older brother’s best friend going back to their schooldays.
Youse wants dem wif or wif out?
No. We surburban locals call it Filthydelphia.
Ah sure, the Surekill Crawlway.
Dave H.
Drexel U class of '79
There’s one to try and get people not familiar with the area to pronounce: Schuylkill.
And this is also why 1981 is a year I hate - the year they ended rail service between Reading and Philadelphia. Now my only practical option is to drive it. On a good day, I can get almost there in the same amount of time it would take me to drive to Exton which is the furthest SEPTA comes out on a regular basis.
–Randy
Amtrak 656 tonight to NYC again
Nah. That would be Downingtown, would it not?
Nah, Thorndale. Wouldn’t Norristown be closer? If you’re riding Amtrak to NYC, Exton is a good place to catch the train.
FWIW, in the early days of Conrail, the former Reading people derisively referred to the railroad as “Penn Rail”. Penn people derisively refered to the Reading as the *@$! “Reed-ing”.
Wid or widout applies to Steak Sandwiches, not Subs.
Boris