Here “bus” is pronounced like “buzz” and I didn’t realise it was weird until I went down to Devon and it was a dead giveaway that I’m a Brummie lol
In Iowa, USA:
- The town of Buena Vista is pronounced “byoo-nuh vist-uh”
- The town of Nevada is pronounced “neh-vade-uh”
In eastern MA, we have towns Berlin pronounced BERLin, Peabody pronounced PIBudee, Quincy pronounced QUINzee. I’m sure there’s more I’m forgetting.
Boiseans pronounce it boy-see, but everyone else pronounces it boy-zee. It makes it easy to tell who is from there
That’s the opposite of Quincy where the naives call it Quinzy.
I haven’t lived there in a while and I don’t pronounce it that way anymore, but where I grew up, water is universally pronounced “wooder”.
My wife thinks it’s funny that most words with a “t” in the middle, I pronounce as "d"s… Butter is budder, better is bedder, water is wooder, etc…
Also, creeks are “cricks”.
Is the thing on top of a house called a roof or a ruff?
You from NJ?
When I was in school, I had a teacher who insisted on pronouncing the word “across” as “acrosst”.
No thank you! That one really bothers me for some reason.
Same as “eltse” for else, “foe-ward” for forward, “warsh” for wash, and “ayggs” for eggs.
And some people say “heighth” for height and I swear it’s just to fuck with me.
Melbourne.
Now most will read that and go Mel bourn. But in Australia we say Mel Bin.
A really easy way to tell if someone isn’t an Aussie while there.
I pronounced it like “Mel-born” until an Australian person corrected me lol. it’s like Gloucestershire but in Australia!
Gloss-ter-sher?
yup like gloss ter sheer
Old gen x Australian here, and pretty much everybody I know pronounces it Mel burn.
To pass as local I say the Mel part clearly and mumble bu or bun at random, depending on the mood. So MELBu
But the real test is all the mumbling variations of Straya, AUSTRAia, etc
Is there a similar “tell” with how people pronounce Darwin?
It’s ironic Aussies don’t pronounce the R in Melbourne considering you add Rs to every other word!
They used them all up
I lived in Louisville, KY briefly, and the official pronunciation is apparently “Luuhwuuhh”. You will be mocked if you get it wrong.
Not “loovul”? I need to brush up.
Southern Baden Württemberg: everything is followed by ‘li’.
Please, we must have some examples of this.
‘Le’ works too.
My doctor has an Impfung-Eckle (vaccination corner) and a Laborbänkle (lab bench).
No…li
Do the British and Irish dialect quiz. It’s really interesting to find out what words you use and how you pronounce them pinpoint where you grew up and where your family is from. I’ve got a mixture of London, Midlands and Devon and it’s bang on!
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/02/15/upshot/british-irish-dialect-quiz.html
Paywall
Houston is not pronounced “hews-ton”, it’s “hows-ton”
Hues-ton here
Crayon: crown
Caramel: CAR-mul
Pecan: peh-CAWN
So you pronounce crayon like a kings hat/ tooth repair?
Yes. It’s not very common and seems to occur where regional differences merge.
True, I’m just used to hearing either Cray-on or Cran (like cranberries)
Also I know I struggle with colors sometimes… But I don’t see green or yellow on that map, just red and blue… Is that just me haha
Green is in the northwest corner of Wisconsin.
Yellow is honestly a terrible color choice for this map, because the pronunciation isn’t truly regional. I think it’s clustered along the edges of a few different red areas, mostly on the east coast and some Southern areas.
I actually think the author’s note about it being a merging of pronunciation makes sense, because I was raised in a transitional Southern dialect but my parents both have an east Midland dialect
Got any cricks nearby?
Ah yes, the coloring company, crow-la
Bavarians pronounce Chemie, China, Chlor, and others with CH starting, with a K! KEMIE, KINA, KLOR!
Bavarians there is so much go hate about you!
How do you pronounce it? Schemie, Schina, Schlor?
Schlor? except that this one is in any case pronounced with hard K anything else seems ridiculous
I was looking up Bavarian dialect terms and found “fesch” (attractive/stylish).
Vindication for Gretchen Wieners! “Das ist so fesch!”
Port Dalhousie (dal-oo-sy) in St Catherine’s. When it should be port (Dal-how-sy)
It’s apparently the only thing named for that dude pronounced that way too, Dalhousie University as an example. Wiki page has an etymology section that has some suggestions as to why, it’d sound weird to me though pronounced the other way.
We recently moved to a new area and there is a nearby town called Monticello. The locals all pronounce it mon-tee-sell-oh and will correct you if you say mon-teh-chel-oh. Doesn’t quite fit the question cause I think the locals are insane for that 😅
Spaniards: Montitheyo
It’s “Zed” not “Zee”
Fellow member of the zed crowd!! When someone says “zee” to mean zed it often sounds like they’re saying the letter c lol
Everyone knows the song goes “ex, why, zed. Now I know my ABCs, next time won’t you sing with med”
The song was written by an American so understandable that they’d do it with the wrong pronunciation.
“X, Y, Z, now I know my alphabet so I can keep it in my clever head”
wait that’s supposed to rhyme with the Z? It rhymes with the ‘me’ so it seems like it doesn’t need to rhyme with the Z
I said I know my ABCs, I didn’t say I know how to structure children’s songs. Next you’re going to expect me to be able to work AND be sober at the same time, SHEESH!
Say Jay-Z
Jay-Z
I’m told there are differences between “merry”, “marry”, and “Mary”, but I don’t believe it.
My ex got so mad because down here the boy name Don and the girl name Dawn sound about the same. He would yell no it’s not it’s DAAHN and DWAWN! But we don’t have that nasal Midwestern thing, it’s just Don and Daun.
In my area, “Don” is pronounced with the mouth wide, jaw open. Force a smile as you say it, and you should be in the ballpark.
“Dawn” is pronounced with the lips pursed. Kiss your grandmother on the cheek.
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I’m from NJ and Murray, merry, marry, and Mary are all distinct.
Berry is like merry and bury is like Murray.
I’ve lived in Philly and then the suburbs for a couple of decades now and have never noticed the berry-bury thing - I’m guessing it’s a South Philly thing? So do you eat straw’bury’s or do you ‘berry’ your dead pets?
I get the rest, but how is “Mary” different?
Mary rhymes with fairy
That’s how I pronounce it. So now I’m even more confused! How is “merry” different? Because I pronounce that just like Mary.
Merry is like “meh” + “ree”
I’m also from NJ, but I would be pressed to hear the difference between Marry and Mary tbh. The rest are all distinct though!
But I’m also told, when people find out I’m from NJ (online people), that “You don’t sound like you’re from NJ” so idk.
I was born here, so simply I must sound like someone from NJ cause I am! Logic.
Interesting! I think central, north, and south Jersey all have some distinctions in accent. Plus I think a lot of people have a pretty stereotyped idea of what New Jerseyans are “supposed” to sound like haha
Oh yes, people absolutely have an idea of what we’re suppose to sound like!
Once I start cursing like a sailor they go “oh okay yeah you’re from NJ” lmfao. I don’t curse nearly as much in text.
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