I don’t know if this is just a crazy Midwestern thing, but there are tons of towns around here with person names, but they’re mispronounced. It drives me crazy, it has bothered me since I was a little kid. It’s like they’re just trying to sound as country as possible.
Examples:
[name_f]Salina[/name_f], KS - Suh-[name_f]LINE[/name_f]-uh instead of Suh-LEEN-uh (It’s in Saline County - [name_m]Say[/name_m]-leen like saltwater - so if they insist on pronouncing it goofy, [name_m]Say[/name_m]-leen-uh would at least make some sense.)
[name_f]Paola[/name_f], KS - Pay-ola instead of Pow-lah
[name_f]Beatrice[/name_f], NE - [name_f]Bee[/name_f]-ATriss instead of [name_f]BEE[/name_f]-uh-triss
That’s all I can think of off the top of my head. These are the ones mentioned regularly in the weather report on the news.
I was going to mention [name_f]Beatrice[/name_f]! I was born there, and until very recently I thought that the girl’s name was pronounced bee-AT-ris. There’s also:
[name_m]Norfolk[/name_m], NE - [name_f]NOR[/name_f]-fork.
Prague, NE - Prayg instead of Prawg
[name_u]Cairo[/name_u], IL - [name_u]KAY[/name_u]-ro instead of [name_u]KAI[/name_u]-ro
It’s Dare-ee-[name_f]ANNE[/name_f] Connecticut. I’m involved in theatre, and in the musical [name_f]Mame[/name_f], theatre companies are always mispronouncing the name in the song…Dare-ee-en. Drives me crazy. Also people say [name_m]NEW[/name_m] [name_u]Haven[/name_u] instead of [name_m]New[/name_m] [name_f]HAYven[/name_f].
And then there’s Damariscotta…lol.
Hmm… one of my friends in [name_m]Baltimore[/name_m] was talking about a (US) Birmingham and was saying ‘burming-[name_m]HAM[/name_m]’ instead of ‘BUR-mingum’. I have the feeling this will happen with all ‘ham’ ending place names across the pond.
In contrast most people here pronounce Maryland as ‘mairee-land’ instead of ‘mairlund’ which is how it sounds when my Marylanders say it and how I strive to say it too.
My husband is from Maryland and he does not say ‘mairlund’. It’s more like [name_f]Mair[/name_f]-uh-lind, which is how I say it too. However, I just told him about this and he said people in [name_m]Baltimore[/name_m] talk funny, so maybe your friend does say it like that!
Really? Peer? When we learned states and capitols in elementary school, we were taught Pee-air. But, it’s [name_m]French[/name_m]. There are lots if [name_m]French[/name_m] place names around here that we butcher, too. There are places called La Cygne and [name_m]Le[/name_m] Loup and we pronounce the La and [name_m]Le[/name_m] both like ‘lay’.