how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

i've been thinking about this topic a bit recently. i went to one of my brothers hs bball games in a town in buena vista township. the town was just "buena", however everyone insisted in calling the town "b-you-na". then today, the packers on tv with brett "farve" favre.

i think that whatever name you want to be called is up to you, but i dont think you get to pick an odd alternate (ie wrong) pronounciation. maybe this is just one of my compulsive tendencies coming through though.

anyway, i just wanted to hear some other people's thoughts on the issue.
thanks, and happy holidays

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

obsessive compulsive?

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

Normally I would agree with you, but it's Christmas and almost New Year's Eve and I'm resolving to be more tolerant of my fellow man. So, I say however anyone wants anything pronounced is OK by me. In closing:
http://www.eccociqua.it/cover/covers...luxe-front.jpg

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

You get to pick how to pronounce your name. You don't have to make sense at all. It's your name.

Your town should be pronounced however the majority of people who live in that town pronounce it, no matter how absurd. People who don't live there have no say.

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

In this vein, I would really appreciate it if people would stop saying "Appalayshun".

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

Yeah, Coloradans pronounce Buena Vista pretty weird. They also insist on pronouncing the "s" in Louisville.

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

I live in Buena. I call it Buena.

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

In high school I was friends with an offensive lineman named Kwame Harris, who almost chose Michigan but instead went on to play for Stanford and now plays for the 49ers.

I was talking about him with a friend of mine from Michigan who basically knows everything about college football, and it went kind of like this:
Friend: How's Kwame doing? (she said it like Kwame Brown)
Me: I haven't talked to him in a while. It's KWAME though (rhymes with fame)
Friend: What? no it's not
Me: That's how he says it
Friend: Does he know he's saying it wrong?

I didn't know what to say, so I laughed, even though she was being totally serious.

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

[ QUOTE ]
You get to pick how to pronounce your name. You don't have to make sense at all. It's your name.

[/ QUOTE ]

Just don't get all annoyed when everyone pronounces it the "wrong" way.

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

Knew a girl at work once with the name Marie. Except she INSISTED it was to be pronounced Maw-ree, or basically like the name Maury. Got real mad when someone who didn't know her read her name off a list and pronounced it like 99.9% of the rest of the Marie's in the world pronounced it.

If you insist on a non-standard pronunciation of a standard name, you better learn to live with mispronunciation.

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

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They also insist on pronouncing the "s" in Louisville.

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I correct people who say Louisville wrong.

Its not "Lou-wee-ville" it is Lou-a-vull"

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
You get to pick how to pronounce your name. You don't have to make sense at all. It's your name.

[/ QUOTE ]

Just don't get all annoyed when everyone pronounces it the "wrong" way.

[/ QUOTE ]

Unless you tell them how to ponounce it and they keep doing it wrong.
me: Otis
them: Otease
me: Otis
them: Otease, hahahaha! Otease!

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

Hey, I live in Rhode Island, where some things just don't make sense. Like why is East Greenwich pronounced (GREEN-witch) but West Greenwich is pronounced (GREN-nich).

Also I used to live in Mass, and have no idea why it's FramingHAM, WareHAM, WalthAM, and WilbraHAM, but Hingham is prounounced HINGum.

And I grew up in New Jersey where Newark is basically pronounced "Nurk" but in Delaware it's pronounced like it's a two word description of what Noah replaced the old ark with?

And while we're at it, to all Spanish speakers, why are all the other "New" states, "Nueva" in Spanish, but New Hampshire isn't?

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

Is there any state name that gets mispronounced as much as Oregon? It's or-a-gin not or-a-gon, even though the dictionary for some reason lists both. I guess I'm just a local nit. The only other state I can think of that might be close is Illinois.

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

Or a State Capital name that get's mispronounced as often as Pierre, SD

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

Things involving peoples' names are amongst my biggest pet peeves:

1) When a person has a foreign-sounding or otherwise odd name and someone who is reading the name out loud makes a big production of how he/she "has no idea how to pronounce this <hahahaha>" -- basically treating the person who has the different name like he/she's a freak. It's much more polite to make an honest effort at pronouncing the name, and then asking "Is that how it's pronounced?" without acting like their name is the weirdest thing you've ever seen.

2) People who have a weird name and then get upset when someone mispronounces it. It's fine to correct them, but don't act like they're ignorant for not knowing how to pronounce a name they've never sene before -- unless they act like the people described in #1 above while doing so.

3) Parents who give their kids weird names, so that their kids will have to spend the rest of their lives dealing with #1 and #2.

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Things involving peoples' names are amongst my biggest pet peeves:

1) When a person has a foreign-sounding or otherwise odd name and someone who is reading the name out loud makes a big production of how he/she "has no idea how to pronounce this <hahahaha>" -- basically treating the person who has the different name like he/she's a freak. It's much more polite to make an honest effort at pronouncing the name, and then asking "Is that how it's pronounced?" without acting like their name is the weirdest thing you've ever seen.

2) People who have a weird name and then get upset when someone mispronounces it. It's fine to correct them, but don't act like they're ignorant for not knowing how to pronounce a name they've never sene before -- unless they act like the people described in #1 above while doing so.

3) Parents who give their kids weird names, so that their kids will have to spend the rest of their lives dealing with #1 and #2.

[/ QUOTE ]
I was with you until #3. Any name a parent gives their kid probably isn't so weird to them.

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Or a State Capital name that get's mispronounced as often as Pierre, SD

[/ QUOTE ]

Hmm, I don't know this one. I'm guessing it must be pear, since the French man's name would be instinctive? What about Montpelier, VT? Is that pronounced frenchy or non?

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Or a State Capital name that get's mispronounced as often as Pierre, SD

[/ QUOTE ]

Hmm, I don't know this one. I'm guessing it must be pear, since the French man's name would be instinctive? What about Montpelier, VT? Is that pronounced frenchy or non?

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I'm pretty sure Pierre should be pronounced the french way - "Pee-yair".

I've always heard Montpelier pronounced in the anglicized fashion "Maunt Pee-lee-er". However, I'm sure at its founding, it was pronounced "Mohn Pell-ee-ay"

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

I have a weird name, and so have thought about it a little...

My name begins with a "Hey" ...which looks like hay (which is for horses) But it comes from the German "Hei" so it's pronounced Hi (how ya doin?)...SO really, I say it wrong. It has a Y so it should be pronounced more normally. Really it's actually spelled wrong, but again that's my Dutch-Jewish ancestor's fault for trying to be different...

I hear Hay a lot. My policy:

1. Phone solicitors, tellers, clerks, my boss: I don't correct. Let em be "wrong"...it don't matter

2. Teachers, co-workers, bartenders, other acquaintances: ONE correction. If they persist, let it go. Not their problem.

3. Friends, chicks, hookers: correct once…more if necessary, get slightly annoyed if chronic…

In conclusion, names, like all words, have only suggested pronunciations. The standard is determined by the culture at large, NOT by the individuals or groups closest to the words. This can change, and be odd.
Sorry: JAPAN, FARVRUH, PARIS (TX), KANT, NUKELEER, DAYCARTE, oDISSe-us, PRINCE…

Good Work: Beijing, Missourah, Dem-EE, Conan O’Brien, Vagner, Socrates…

And if Steely Dan says: OragON, then so do I! [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]


Personal Greetings in this Holiday Time

--GA

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

SD's capital is pronounced PEER, not pee-AIR

VT's is mont-PEEL-ee-ur, not moan-pell-YAY

Sort of like that big city in MI is dee-TROYT, not du-TWAH [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

People are gonna say what they gonna say, I'd say let em go nuts but my inner nit will still note them as idiots.

I think Im the only one on the east coast I've met that pronounces oregon the way oregonians do.

Worcester Mass gets mutilated the most from what I've heard.

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

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Worcester Mass gets mutilated the most from what I've heard.

[/ QUOTE ]

Isn't it "Wooster"? I thought there was a separate town in MA named Wooster but the first google comes back with is Worcester's city page. I think people pronounce it "Wor-chester". I was born in Springfield but moved away when I was a wee tot.

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

the 's' is silent in Illinois

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

[ QUOTE ]
the 's' is silent in Illinois

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Yeah, I think some folks will try to insert it as 'Ill-i-noy-is'.

I grew up in and went to college in Charleston, SC. Some weird pronunciations (local) there:

-Hasell Street - (say "Hazel")
-Huger Street - (say "Hugh-gee")
-Legare Street - (say "Legree")
-Vanderhorst Street - (say "Vandrost")

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

I once had a boss named "Richard". He would always get pissed at us and say his name wasn't pronounced, "Dick".

He never got it.

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

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[ QUOTE ]

Worcester Mass gets mutilated the most from what I've heard.

[/ QUOTE ]

Isn't it "Wooster"? I thought there was a separate town in MA named Wooster but the first google comes back with is Worcester's city page. I think people pronounce it "Wor-chester". I was born in Springfield but moved away when I was a wee tot.

[/ QUOTE ]

wuss-ter

also if you're from worcester you evidently pronounce it wiss-ter

wooster and worchester are completely wrong and nobody from around here says those

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

My name is Michaud. It's pronounced Me-show. Even the Cajuns get this wrong when they see it.

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

[ QUOTE ]
wuss-ter

[/ QUOTE ]

[img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

[ QUOTE ]
My name is Michaud. It's pronounced Me-show. Even the Cajuns get this wrong when they see it.

[/ QUOTE ]

You're names not Jack? Awwwwwww.

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

Always found it interesting that Houston St. in NYC is pronounced "how-ston".

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

It's sad how many times I've heard Min-in-in-apolis (from telemarketers)

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Is there any state name that gets mispronounced as much as Oregon?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think you're right.
But a lot of people say Nev-aah-da instead of Nevada. They say awe instead of ah. We are on the west coast, thus we don't use an east coast accent when pronouncing our state name.

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

my *last* name is Michaud.

My first name is Darrel, though, so no, it ain't Jack :P

My sister calls me Jack, though.

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Is there any state name that gets mispronounced as much as Oregon?

[/ QUOTE ]

I think you're right.
But a lot of people say Nev-aah-da instead of Nevada. They say awe instead of ah. We are on the west coast, thus we don't use an east coast accent when pronouncing our state name.

[/ QUOTE ]

wait, what?

ahh = awe? no

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

Massachusetts has to be the worst offender.

Haverhill is HAY-vrill
Chelmsford is CHUMS-ferd
Concord is CON-kid not Concorde

And, of course, Massholes invented the silent R.

Andover is AN-do-va
Worcester is WUSS-ta

Re: how much say do you have in pronouncing your name or town?
 

A town by me gets pronounced incorrectly all the time. Wanaque is almost always mispronounced WAH-NAK-YOO. The correct pronunciation is WAH-NAH-KEE (it's a native american name).