City Spellings/Pronunciations that do not make sense:

[ChoralScholar]

--------------------------
I'll start:

Natchitoches, LA

The locals pronounce it NAK-uh-tish (I've also heard NAG-uh-dish, but the same idea...)

What City spelling and pronunciations weird you out?

[KitchenWitch]

1. Poughkeepsie New York

[bertha katzenengel]

6. Puh-KIPP-See?

Is that right?

[KitchenWitch]

7. Yup

but man...

[ChoralScholar]

10. It does identify the out of towners, does it not?

There's a city in NE Arkansas called Blytheville.

Well, that's just a lot of unnecessary letters. They call it BLY-vuhl.

When someone says BLYTH-vihl, you know they 'ain't from around these parts'

[northzax]

132. puh-kip-shit?

no problem there.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

2. OMG I was down in Shreveport, LA at New Year's....

Hearing people say "NAK-uh-tish" was so damned annoying....

:grr:

:D

[ChoralScholar]

3. Nacogdoches, TX

which is from the same origin (Nacog. and Natch. were twin brothers) is pronounced like it looks, I believe.

Very strange.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

5. Yup, and isn't there a third town somewhere in there with a similar name?

Crazed Lousianians, et al. :eyes:

:P :P

[ChoralScholar]

8. I dunno.. I'm going to check. EOM

[BikeWriter]

30. Are you thinking of Wachihatchie, Texas?

[Ron Green]

39. Waxahachie, it is. Say "woks" instead of "wacks."

Edit to take out the "t." I think it's correct now.

[BikeWriter]

47. Thanks, you did good. ;-)

[bertha katzenengel]

4. La Plata, the seat of Charles County, Maryland

I grew up in So. California. When I moved here and saw "La Plata," I said, "La Plah-ta"

-- and I was corrected: "It's pronounced 'La Play-ta'."

How effing stupid. :eyes: It irritates the living shit out of me.

Sigh.

[Glorfindel]

11. I've heard Californians pronounce the "ang" in Los Angeles

like the "ang" in angle instead of the usual Spanish pronunciation. Specifically, Jack Webb on the old "Dragnet" show. So cut the poor Marylanders a bit of slack, Bertha my dear. :*

[bertha katzenengel]

14. Anjelica Houston's character did, too, in "The Grifters"

What an incredibly fantastic film.

Anyway, she pronounced it "Los Ann G'leez."

Slack... oh, all right. ;)

[Glorfindel]

16. You're the absolute best!

My worst pet peeve is "Ne-vadd-uh" and "Colo-radd-uh" for "Ne-vah-duh" and "Colo-rah-duh."

:pals:

[bertha katzenengel]

18. Glorfindel

looks like you and i each have a new friend :pals:

oh, god, i turned into a pumpkin an hour ago

'night, all

PS Speaking of Nevada: I went to Reno on job training many years ago. Saw my favorite bumper sticker ever. None has ever eclipsed it for that title. It read:

WELCOME TO NEVADA
CALIFORNIA'S DESIGNATED SMOKING AREA

:rofl:

[underpants]

57. I used to drive through there on 301

The question you are probably asking is "Well what the **** else would you drive through there on?"

:spank:

I wondered how the locals pronounced it. I never had to stop for gas there and the liquor stores up the road are drive through...so then there is that :rofl:

Nice stoplights though.

[bertha katzenengel]

97. Yes. Nice stop lights. And so many of them.

They're talking about a Waldorf bypass for commuters. By the time it gets out of infinite committees, environmental impact studies, nimby rallies, etc., Mrs. V. and I will be long-gone from here. Sigh.

[no name no slogan]

66. I think there's a Rio Grande in AR

and the locals pronounce it "Rye-oh Grand". :wtf:

But then again they may call Dr. Frankenstein's assistant "Eye-gor", too.

Or is that "Frahnk-en-steen"?

[skyblue]

110. Rio Grande, NJ

There's also one in NJ. Don't know how they pronounce it tho'.

[Glorfindel]

9. "All-Benny" (Albany) and "Vie-eena" (Vienna), Georgia

"Bill-ux-ee" (Biloxi), Mississippi

[ChoralScholar]

12. Mississippi! You've hit the mother load of crazy-ass pronunciations

Kosciusko (koz-ee-OZ-koh)
Pontotoc (PONT-uh-toc)
Sebastopol (I don't know this one)

[Glorfindel]

22. You're right...Mississippi is a treasure-trove of mispronunciations

Saucier = "So-shuh" - Gautier = "Go-shay" (ONE of these HAS to be wrong!)

[u4ic]

48. I knew someone with the surname of "Gauthier"

We're not French (his family was from Quebec) but we pronounced it GO-chee-AY

[deadparrot]

13. Worcester, MA. nt

Just can't get "Wooster" out of it, no matter how hard I try. :shrug:

[ChoralScholar]

15. That's a British thing.

They've got a ton over there. i.e. Gloucester (GLAH-ster)

[deadparrot]

20. Oh, I know.

It's just that the words and my brain don't work well together...I kinda short circuit for a second. :)

I'm currently in a seventeenth-century British history class, and it always takes me a second to adjust to all the names of the counties. :hi:

[ChoralScholar]

21. You'll like this then

by Dave Barry
---------------------------
To their credit, some countries have made a sincere effort to adopt English as their native language, a good example being England, but even there you have problems. My wife and I were driving around England once, and we came to a section called "Wales," which is this linguistically deformed area that apparently is too poor to afford vowels. All the road signs look like this:

LLWLNCWNRLLWNWRLLN -- 3 km

It is a tragic sight, indeed, to see Welsh parents attempting to sing traditional songs such as "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" to their children and lapsing into heart-rending silence when they get to the part about "E-I-E-I-O." If any of you in our reading audience have extra vowels that you no longer need, because, for example, your children have grown up, I urge you to send them (your children) to: Vowels for Wales, c/o Lord Chesterfield Parliament Luckystrike, the Duke of Earl, Pondwater upon Gabardine, England.
----------------------------------

[Spider Jerusalem]

27. Yeah, there are more inscrutable pronunciations...

in British English than any other language I can think of. For instance, the surnames Cholmondeley (pronounced 'Chumley'), Featherstonehaugh (pronounced 'Fanshawe'), and Beauchamp (pronounced 'Beecham'), Belvoir (pronounced 'Beaver'), St John (pronounced 'Sinjin'), Mainwaring (pronounced 'Mannering'), Bohun (pronounced 'Boon')...

Then when it comes to place names, you have Reading in Berkshire (pronounced 'Redding, Barkshire'), Bicester ('Bister'), Wymondham ('Windam'), Woolwich ('Woolich'...in pretty much any place name ending in -wich or -wick the 'w' isn't pronounced)...

[nutsnberries]

29. i knew those two would make it to this list-

You Might Be British or a Masshole IF> those pronounciations make perfect sense to you.

Another one that stumps visitors is Haverhill.

It's not Have-r-hill... it rhymes with save-rill.

[lukasahero]

136. Add Billerica to that list. eom

[Lydia Leftcoast]

121. And I was told the other day that Leominster (in England) is

pronounced "Limster." "Beaulieu" is "Bew-lee."

The ground over there must be littered with dropped syllables.

[MissMillie]

64. It's really not "wooster" but "wusstah"

MA is good with these crazy pronounciations:

Leicester = Lester

Chelmsford = Chemsfed

Quincy = Quinzee

[Gormy Cuss]

68. Darn tooting!

There was a great lounge discussion among Mass. folk about the pronounciation of Worcester and the contenders were 'Wusstah' and 'Wistah.'

Peabody = PEE-biddy
Medford = Meffid.
And then there are the 'hams....

[nutsnberries]

80. not Meffid so much as

Mehfuh, sort of.

I think you have to be from Medford to get it exactly right.

[Gormy Cuss]

84. Yep, in Summaville it's Meffid, in Medford it's Meffa.

I stand corrected. But the girls had bigger hair in Somerville.

[AlCzervik]

118. i grew up in Meffa, i always pronounced it Medfid.

[AllieB]

128. I have cousins in Medfid

there is some wicked good Italian food there!

[AlCzervik]

130. yup, Bob's on main street has wicked good subs, y 2 favorites from there

the italian bomb with extra hots and the meatball sub with extra provolone. Oh how i miss Bobs.

[deadparrot]

77. Thanks for the tip. :)

Gotta love regional variation when it comes to pronounciation. I'm not from NE, but I'm a Blues fan, and their farm team is up there. I just prounounce it the way our Canadian announcers do. :hi:

[NMMNG]

106. Many years ago one of their banks had a cute radio ad

They were mocking other banks that had "out of state" home offices. The script had a woman with a heavy southern accent saying, "Woostah, how y'all spell Woostah?". :rofl:

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

116. It's Wistah. Rhymes with Mistah.

[deadparrot]

129. Sorry.

I'm a midwest hack. The only way I hear it is through the mouths of Canadian play-by-play announcers. :D

[leftofthedial]

17. Houston, TX

pronounced HYEW stun, instead of the much more logical "Shitty, stinking town full of republican scum"

[ChoralScholar]

19. I mispronounced it at an airport once,

but somehow they got me on the right plane anyway.

[Glorfindel]

26. In Georgia, it's "HOWS-ton" County; in New York, it's "HOWS-ton"

Street, but somehow in Texas it becomes "HEWS-ton." Go figure.

[Bridget Burke]

67. Because the city was named after Sam Houston....

And that's how he pronounced his name. Most of the other Houstons are probably named after other Houstons.

I attended South Houston Jr High School & South Houston High School in the Pasadena school district. (All in the Greater Houston area.) Since Gilley's closed, Pasadena has mostly been known for its refineries. Both schools were sometimes called "SoHo."

Some years ago, I visited NYC. At the time, the area south of "Howston" street was newly chic. Every time I saw a sign like "SoHo Clothing"--advertising a shop for the tragically hip--I cracked up. The "SoHo" I knew may have been tragic--but it was never hip.

[BikeWriter]

33. Watch it now!

[Redstone]

35. Yeah, 'cause them damn New Yorkers pronounce it "How-ston" too.

I'm with you, BW. It's a sacrilege.

And you and I know it's San Jacinto, with a real J at the beginning of the second word, don't we? I've been up that tower many a time.

Redstone

[BikeWriter]

44. That battle sure changed world history, didn't it?

:shrug:

[leftofthedial]

36. sorry for the ten or twelve decent folk who are stuck living there

but what an awful place it is. I actually prefer Detroit to Houston and Detroit barely qualifies as civilization anymore.

[BikeWriter]

45. There are a few more Liberal Democrats here than that.

:-)

[leftofthedial]

51. cheers to all of you!

:toast:

[Richardo]

90. Thanks for watchin' our backs, pard....

:thumbsup:

PS: Detroit is the worst city in the US, and I've been to most of the large cities in the country.

[BikeWriter]

94. You got it, Richardo. Us Texans have to stick together.

:)

[msatty99]

23. VURR Sales Kentucky (for Versailles)

[msatty99]

24. Lewy ville (Louisville) Kentucky

Lull vull (how natives pronounce it)

also

Lua vall

[mzteris]

65. N'orlins

for New Orleans.....


'cept you don't really pronounce the "r" - just sort of a passing reference, if'n you know what I mean....

[Left Is Write]

81. Isn't it Nawlins?

:D

[KamaAina]

137. Depends on what part of town you're in

Uptown (above Canal St.): N'orlins; Downtown (below Canal): N'awlins

Can you tell I've been away too long? :-)

[yellowdogintexas]

139. "Luavull" is the closest pronounciation of Kentucky's largest

city. You can tell a native Kentuckian by the way we say it.


But Versayles just cracks me up and always has.

[kwassa]

75. My grandad is from Ver SALES (Versailles) Ohio

Other great O-hi-yuh city pronunciations

MY-lan, for Milan, Ohio

LYE-ma, for Lima, Ohio

[SeattleGirl]

25. Sequim, WA

Sequim is pronounced "Squim".

[XemaSab]

34. Puyallup

or however the fuck it's spelled too.

[SeattleGirl]

46. Well, you spelled it right, darlin'

But the challenge is to pronounce it correctly! :hi:

[ChoralScholar]

28. In Alabama, there's

a city called Guin. And just up the road, there's a city called Gu-win. I always wondered if the town split over a pronunciation argument.

[Nicole]

31. Miami, OK

It's pronounced my-am-uh.

[BikeWriter]

32. Hebert, Louisiana. It's pronounced Hee-burt...

The Heberts who live thare say their names "A bear".

[TankLV]

37. "Buff-lo" - for Buffalo.

I lived without the middle syllable for decades - my family is really guilty of it as are most long time older residents.

I miss my hometown, but I love it here in Vegas!

[July]

63. Hey, are you from Bflo.?

Me, too. I had a friend from Columbus, OH, who said it was pronounced "Clumbus," like "Bufflo."

[CanuckAmok]

102. God Bless the Continental, and Elmwood. I want a Mighty Taco!!

damn, I loves me some Buffalo.

[July]

112. Ah, Mighty Taco, the memories. And that damned tune!

I am so fond of the old hometown.

[Redstone]

38. Call-is, Maine. Spelled "Calais."

Redstone

[WritingIsMyReligion]

52. Heh; I forgot about that one.

There are a few other screwy ones in Maine, I'm sure....

[Ron Green]

40. In Texas:

Mexia: muh-hey-ya
Seguin: suh-geen
Bexar: bear

[u4ic]

49. Wow, another surname I recognize

on this thread. Seguin. SiGEHn (soft i)

[crispini]

114. Those all make perfect sense... in Spanish.

See also: Llano.

[njdemocrat106]

41. A few here in NJ:

Forked River (fork-ED, 2 syllables)
Navesink (NA-vuh-sink)
Guttenberg (GUTT-en-berg, not GOOT-en-berg)
Cheesequake (it's supposed to be CHESS-quick, but most people pronounce it the way it looks now).

In NY:
Copiague (CO-peg)
Islip (ICE-lip)

I believe Connecticut's Thames River is pronounced "Thames", not "Temz" like in England.

[Redstone]

56. Yes, it is pronounced "Thames." And can you PLEASE tell me where the

name "Cheesequake" came from? I've been wondering about half my life about that, and nobody seems to know.

Redstone

[njdemocrat106]

100. From the US Geological Survey website:

"Cheesequake State Park got its unusual name from a word of forgotten meaning from the Leni-Lenape Indians who fished and hunted in the area long ago."

http://3dparks.wr.usgs.gov/nyc/parks/loc50.htm

Cheesequake Park itself (located in the Cheesequake section of Old Bridge Township) is a really nice park, too, except they rape you for admission on summer weekends ($10 to get in and park).

[Aristus]

42. Puyallup, Washington.

Pronounced "Pyoo-al'-upp", not "Poo-yall-upp".

[norml]

43. Be-AT-ris for Beatrice. NOR-fork for Norfolk.

Beatrice is South of Lincoln. Norfolk is North of here.

[hfojvt]

104. I heard they were trying to distance themselves from the corporation

Beatrice, that is
but you don't think there's anything odd about Kearney?

[norml]

134. The corporation is trying to distance itself from Nebraskan pronunciation.

You mean Kearney isn't supposed to be pronounced as Carny?

[hfojvt]

135. ah, that is too bad

They shoulda gone the other way because the funny pronunciation would stick in people's heads. Poulan chain saws and Schoep's ice cream did ads making fun of the fact that nobody could pronounce their name. Schoep's ice cream was founded by my in-law Edward Schoephoerster so his real name was even harder to pronounce.

and yeah, if Kearney is going to be pronounced Carny, then why do they need two e's, especially the first one - tea is not prononce tah, beat is not pronounce bat nor is heat pronounce hat feat fat leap lap treat trat meat mat create crat deal dal real ral meal mal near nar fear far bear ... ooops

[u4ic]

50. Godalming

Godda-ming (am I correct Brits?)

[riona]

53. burnit = burnet (tx)

[tjwmason]

54. Pontefract - pronounced Pumfret.

Loughborough - Luff-borough

Leicester - Lester.

Kirkcaldy - Kircoddy.

All of the Scottish -burghs - and then one gets so used to it, that one wants to pronounce Pittsburgh as Pittsborough :eyes:

Americans place-names tend to have freakish spellings Mass.... for example - but we Brits have totally have the market cornered in irregular pronunciation.

Plus - the new leader of the Liberal Democrats over here is Sir Menzies Campbell - pronounced Mingis.

[LostinVA]

55. Lima (LIE-MA)

[Patiod]

123. We have a LIE-ma in PA, too

and you better not pronounce it LEE-ma

[underpants]

58. HURR-i-Kin West Virginia

Spelled Hurricane

[TommyO]

59. Schoenersville, PA

It's near Allentown, PA. Allentown is easy to pronounce, but Schoenersville is SHAY-ners-ville. It's always fun to hear some of the people on the local Clear Channel stations mangle pronunciation because they're not from the area.

[UrbScotty]

60. YPSILANTI, Michigan (nt)

[July]

61. Chili, NY -- that's chie-lie. nt

[Beware the Beast Man]

62. Ohio place names: Newark ("Nerk"), Mentor ("Menner"),

Mantua (Manaway).

PA place names:
Dubois (Do-boys), North Versailles (versales)

[hedgehog]

92. Nerk

Isn't that near L'inkster? (Lancaster)

[ThomCat]

69. Syracuse, NY

It's always fun to tell the mere sports fans from the actual locals.

It's Sear-a-cuse, not Sara-cuse.

[hedgehog]

93. Just south of

Fu'ton (Fulton) and 'Swego (Oswego)

[China_cat]

70. Huger, SC

pronounced U-gee and Mebane, NC, pronounce May'bin.

[Left_Winger]

83. Speaking of Huger...

As you probably know there is a Huger St. in Columbia.

When I was a student at USC I overheard an out-of-state student say, "I've been along every block of that street and I can't find that huge E."

[China_cat]

89. I think there's a Huger St. in every SC city.

Not to mention Legare. (La-gree)

[Left_Winger]

91. Another good one is...

Horry County - the way it looks like it's pronounced versus they way it is pronounced.

For those of you who are not from SC, it is pronounced one of two ways: 'oh-ree' or 'or-ree'.

[yellowcanine]

71. Worcester, Mass (Wooster). Spelled wrongly also, should be Worchester.

[yellowcanine]

72. Berlin, Maryland (bear'-lin) and Calvert County, Maryland (culvert) . But

you Pennsylvanians needn't get all puffed up with town names like Eighty Four, Intercourse, Bird-in Hand, and King of Prussia.

[grace0418]

73. Des Plaines, Illnois.

Des Plaines is pronounced phonetically ("diss-playnz" or "dess-playnz") and not "deh plahn" from it's French origin.

[Bassic]

88. Actualy it would be closer to

"deh plenne"

And it's not just French origin,that is an actual French name.

[wickerwoman]

105. See also: Pend Oreille, Washington

which I have often heard pronounced "Pehnd Ore-e-al" instead of "Pondoray" but mostly by drunk people.

[Patiod]

126. Like DuBois (dew-BOYS) PA,

[mikeytherat]

74. Norfolk, VA

Its not: NOR-FOLK, its either NAH-FUK or NOR-FUK.

mikey_the_rat

[kwassa]

76. The old cheer was "we don't eat nor drink nor fuk, fuk, fuk!"

juvenile, of course.

[RedCloud]

115. Why not stay at the Norfolk Inway?

Sounds like a great hotel.

[begin_within]

78. When people pronounce La Jolla as "La JOLLA" instead of "LA HOYA", even

though La Jolla isn't a separate city, it's a district of San Diego, and I don't even live in La Jolla, it still bugs me. It's pronounced "LA-HOYA." Also people who think it means "The Jewel" in Spanish, and this is just something real estate goofballs dreamed up. It means "The Hollow" in an Indian language.

[skyblue]

111. Jamacha

Jamacha is Ham A shaw. language barrier there I guess.

[kwassa]

79. some streets in DEEE-troyt

the major avenue Gratiot is pronounced GRASS- shit.

A famous local commercial was for GRASS -shit Auto Supply, with the impossibly busty Linda Vaughn doing the honors.

Lahser, another major street, is pronounced almost universally as Lasher.

[Left Is Write]

82. Just remember:

There is no "Z" in Boise!

[fleabert]

85. Ver-sales...versailles, KY- named by french settlers- Ver-Sigh is correct.

I got corrected by locals, and I took french in HS, lol!

and Louisville is pronounced - Loo-ah-vuhl instead of Lou-eee-ville. there's even a t-shirt to tell you how to pronounce it... it looks like it's up for debate, but anyone from there will tell you it's Loo-ah-vul.

http://shop.store.yahoo.com/allpro2/greatlooeylu.html

[ProfessorGAC]

117. The One In Illinois Is Pronounced Wrongly Too

Same way as what you said. Bugs me.
The Professor

[fleabert]

86. boerne, TX- Burn-eee.

I think it's German.

[Bassic]

87. I think the most notorious is

Tucson.

I mean, what the fuck? :shrug:

[WolverineDG]

95. A couple from Texas

Manor (outside of Austin) = MAY-ner

Weslaco (in the Valley) = WES-luh-ko

dg

[ChoralScholar]

96. oooh.. I forgot one from my home state!

Solgohachia (saw-guh-HATCH-ee)

[Blue_In_AK]

98. Valdez, Alaska

That's VALDEEZ for you Outsiders, but I guess the old EXXON VALDEZ taught you that.

[SmileyBoy]

99. New Prague MN: It's not New "PRAUGH", it's New "PRAYG".

Rhyming with "plague".

I have no fucking idea why...:eyes:

[CottonBear]

101. Talliaferro County, GA is pronounced Tolliver County.

Cairo, GA is pronounced KayRoh, Ga.

DeKalb County, GA is pronounced DeeCab, County.

[hfojvt]

103. Pierre, SD

furriners always wanna say "pee-air" whereas to locals it is "peer"

Norfolk, Ne is pronounced Norfork
Kearney, Ne and Kearney, Mo are both Carny with two totally useless e's
Muscoda, Wi is rhymed with 'day' instead of 'duh' like a musical 'coda'
Gotham, Wi is not Goth-am like Batman's town it is Goe-thum.

[Wetzelbill]

107. Prescott, Arizona is said like "Preskitt"

So says the hot girl from there who I used to hit on all the time. :) Well, kind of like a combo of "Preskitt" and "Preskutt." Somewhere in between those.

[skyblue]

108. Puyallup, Nevada, Wilkes Barre, Uwchlan

How do you pronounce Puyallup. Is it pooh yal up?
Nevada is pronounced Nev A Duh in Mo but Nev Ah Duh in the state of Nevada.
Wilkes Barre-- How do you pronounce that one?
Uwchlan--How do you pronounce that one? Is it Ukelan.

[Magrittes Pipe]

120. Wilkes-Barre

is pronounced "wilks barry."

[Patiod]

124. Uwchlan is easy - just drop the w - UTCH-lan

[skyblue]

109. Rodeo, La Canada, Perris

Rodeo in California is pronounced correctly with Spanish pronounciation (as it does come from the Spanish language) Ro Dey-o.

La Canada in California is pronounced with the Spanish Pronounciation La Can ya da. (as it does come from the Spanish language) However I do not not know what Canada means in spanish.

Perris in California - it is spelled "Perris" but you usually see Paris.

[Deja Q]

113. Landfall, MN - Try "Landfill" instead.

:D

[AlCzervik]

119. Humble Texas, the pronounce it "Umble", i don't get it.

[Tracer]

125. Biloxi.

Always thought it was pronounced Bil-OX-see until Katrina came along and all I heard was Bil-UX-see.

Was once asked directions to "Sih-TOO-it" (MA) and was totally confused until I realized that they meant Scituate (SITCH-oo-it).

[Lydia Leftcoast]

122. In Minnesota, Oregon

Minnesota:

Wayzata = Wy-ZEDDA
Mahtomedi= Motta-MEE-dye
Shakopee=SHOCK-a-pee
Lake L'Homme Dieu=Lake La Homma Doo
Lake Mille Lacs=M'LACKs

and one of the main streets of downtown Minneapolis is "Nicollet" or "NICK-let." I recently heard a new arrival say "Nicka-LET."

Oregon:

Yachats=YAH-hots
Estacada= Esta-KAY-da
Tualatin= Too-Walla-tin
Clatskanie=Clats-ka-NY (rhymes with "pie")

In Portland, the street spelled "Kearney" is pronounced "Kurny" by native Portlanders.

[northzax]

133. obviously it's Kurney

and it's will-lam-et damnit.

don't forget Couch (kooch) street.

or Gervais (Jer-Vis)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

138. Oh, how could I forget those?

Duh! I lived near Couch Street.

[Magrittes Pipe]

127. Cudahy, WI

CUD-uh-hay

[The empressof all]

131. Sequim, WA

Pronounced Skwim...... Beautiful place....But the name makes me think of rotting baby fish.

[yellowdogintexas]

140. Cairo, IL...pronounced KARO, like the syrup, with a long A

That one always made me nuts.

Then there is Lafayette which can be pronounced several ways.