Pronunciation

[JennJenn68]

Going all Canadian...

If you live in Stratford, Ontario, the pronunciation of the river is "Ah-von", with the emphasis on the first syllable.  That's how one can tell a native from a tourist, actually.  Tourists call it the "Ay-von" Theatre, like the cosmetics company.  People who grew up there or whose families were raised there (which is how I qualify) call both the theatre and the river the "Ah-von"...

[baglady]

Around here people tend to read an extra I into Willamette. Woody Guthrie turns over in his grave every time he hears someone sing "Sandy, William-ette and the Hood River, too/Roll on, Columbia, roll on."

Allow me to throw out the same challenge I've thrown out into other pronunciation threads:

Coxsackie and Schaghticoke, N.Y.

[JennJenn68]

Allow me to throw out the same challenge I've thrown out into other pronunciation threads:

Coxsackie and Schaghticoke, N.Y.

Um.  Gesundheit?   

[baglady]

Allow me to throw out the same challenge I've thrown out into other pronunciation threads:

Coxsackie and Schaghticoke, N.Y.

Um.  Gesundheit?   

No, that would be the proper response to "Cohoes." 

[Thipu1]

Around here people tend to read an extra I into Willamette. Woody Guthrie turns over in his grave every time he hears someone sing "Sandy, William-ette and the Hood River, too/Roll on, Columbia, roll on."

Allow me to throw out the same challenge I've thrown out into other pronunciation threads:

Coxsackie and Schaghticoke, N.Y.

NYS is noted for seemingly insane pronunciations.  We didn't live close to either of these places but we pronuounced 'Coxsackie' pretty much the way it is spelled.  We said, 'cock-SACK-ee'. 

Schaghticoke we pronounced as 'SHAT-uck' when we had to say the name of the place at all. 

Okay, we Downstaters aren't all that good with Upstate place-names, but we try and we want to learn.

There's an innocent little place in Rockland County with what seems a simple name.  the name of the place is Nanuet.  The correct way to say the name is 'NAN-you-ETTE' with almost equal stress on the first and last syllables.  However, when the name of the place shows up in the news, it's almost always pronounced, 'NAN-oo-it'. 

[camlan]

Upstate New York has some challenging place names, as I learned after my brother moved there. One in particular: Canandaigua. I can't post a pronunciation for this, because in order to say it, I have to stop and mentally replay my sister-in-law saying it. Just looking at the letters, I have no clue. Here's the official dictionary pronunciation: ka-nən-ˈdā-gwə.

[Thipu1]

Upstate New York has some challenging place names, as I learned after my brother moved there. One in particular: Canandaigua. I can't post a pronunciation for this, because in order to say it, I have to stop and mentally replay my sister-in-law saying it. Just looking at the letters, I have no clue. Here's the official dictionary pronunciation: ka-nən-ˈdā-gwə.

Kudos to you, camlan! Your pronunciation is the way I've always known it. 

[WillyNilly]

I always learned the name of the state as MISH-uh-gun. 

As for Wisconsin, we have family who live there and I've never noticed the 'honk'.  It's always been pronounced 'Wis CON sin'.

How about the island that is a part of NY State? 

Is it 'Long EYE land' or 'Lon GUY land?  Mr. Thipu was born and raised there.  We've always used the first pronunciation but we know many people who use the second.

You're both wrong, but close.    Its Longeyelan, (long-eye-lan) pronounced as one word, drop the "d" sound at the end.  But most people I know either say "the island" (again though pronounced without a "d" sound, tha eye-lan) or they say "Nassau" (naa-saw) or "Suffolk" (saa-fuk) or just "out east".

I think most amusing though is to call it "the island" that is part of NYS, since it is no where close to being the most famous of our numerous islands (I'd say Manhattan has that one for the win).

As for NYS towns, the funniest is having GPS try to pronounce the towns 

[baglady]

Around here people tend to read an extra I into Willamette. Woody Guthrie turns over in his grave every time he hears someone sing "Sandy, William-ette and the Hood River, too/Roll on, Columbia, roll on."

Allow me to throw out the same challenge I've thrown out into other pronunciation threads:

Coxsackie and Schaghticoke, N.Y.

NYS is noted for seemingly insane pronunciations.  We didn't live close to either of these places but we pronuounced 'Coxsackie' pretty much the way it is spelled.  We said, 'cock-SACK-ee'. 

Schaghticoke we pronounced as 'SHAT-uck' when we had to say the name of the place at all. 

Okay, we Downstaters aren't all that good with Upstate place-names, but we try and we want to learn.

There's an innocent little place in Rockland County with what seems a simple name.  the name of the place is Nanuet.  The correct way to say the name is 'NAN-you-ETTE' with almost equal stress on the first and last syllables.  However, when the name of the place shows up in the news, it's almost always pronounced, 'NAN-oo-it'.

Coxsackie: Cook-SAH-kee. Some old-timers say C'-SAH-kee.

Schaghticoke: SKAT-uh-coke. Some old-timers say SKAT-uh-cook.

I had a terrible time with Canajoharie when I first moved to the area. It looked vaguely Spanish so I tried to give the J an H sound (like "Jose") It's actually pretty much the way it looks: Cana-jo-HARRY. Commonly abbreviated to "Canjo."

[Thipu1]

Long Island is usually considered 'the island' because it has rather wealthy places such as the North Shore and the Hamptons. 
I once worked with a woman who had a funny take on this.  When asked where she lived, she would say, 'the island'.  'Long Island?'. 'No, Coney'.

[WillyNilly]

Long Island is usually considered 'the island' because it has rather wealthy places such as the North Shore and the Hamptons. 
I once worked with a woman who had a funny take on this.  When asked where she lived, she would say, 'the island'.  'Long Island?'. 'No, Coney'.

Its called "the island" in the NYC-metro area, but my experience is when speaking to out of staters, or international people, saying "the island" is not very clear.  That was my point.  Sure to New Yorker's its "the island" but on a national board full or international posters its seems too personal a term.     Sorta like referring to someone as "mom" - sure to your siblings, father, grandparents, even cousins or close friends "mom" makes sense.  When speaking to, say an insurance company or travel agent, its probably better to say "my mother, Mary Smith".

[Weez]

Going all Canadian...

If you live in Stratford, Ontario, the pronunciation of the river is "Ah-von", with the emphasis on the first syllable.  That's how one can tell a native from a tourist, actually.  Tourists call it the "Ay-von" Theatre, like the cosmetics company.  People who grew up there or whose families were raised there (which is how I qualify) call both the theatre and the river the "Ah-von"...

Both of those pronunciations would wrong for the River Avon in the Highlands of Scotland: it's pronounced Aan.  There are actually 8 different River Avons in Britain and I'd bet that they are all pronounced differently.  Us Brits are like that !  Amusingly, the name Avon comes from an old Celtic word, abona, meaning 'river'.