Americans pronounce some of these differently depending on the part of the country. I guess technically the locals who live there are the ultimate arbiters as to the correct pronunciation.
Anyone who's been to nevada would know they pronounce all of their Spanish names incorrectly... but at the end of the day it's still the names of their stuff
Consensus don't always mean correct. In my city, the horrible gringos insist on calling a street named Guadalupe "Guada-loop." I will die on this hill. I will not fuck up a word that badly, in any language. It's just ignorant.
I am with you, Darrin. She kept trying to slur it into semi-intelligible syllables. She nailed that the accent was on the middle syllable, and the vowels were imperfect (just like most Americans are).
She said it right the first time, but the more she said it the worse it got. Finally at the end she was just saying it too fast and totally missing the second syllable.
You'll find that a number of these differ even within the US because of local "slang" and accents. Several of these are pronounced differently in various parts of the US due to that. You'll also find the "official" pronunciation of some of these places being what you expect, but sounding different from the locals because of that "slang/accent" issue.
Yes, I was surprised when Louisville was mentioned as “Loo-uh-vull”,but Nashville and New Orleans weren’t mentioned. I’ve heard the natives of both places say, “Na-eesh-vull and “Nyawlins”,respectively.
I live in West Tennessee and within 100 or so miles I can be in Milan, Paris, Moscow, Corinth, Memphis, Athens, Rome, Melbourne, Sparta, Lebanon and many others! It's like a world tour!
Yeah, I have witnessed people in Nevada get kinda pissed about it being pronounced wrong - think mid-sentence corrections. But I doubt such stern rebukes would happen to someone with a British accent, or any foreign accent. Californians should probably know better.
Louisville Ky girl here. For some reason on the news, the reporters always say 'Loo-EE-vill' those of us who actually live here just say loo-vul or lew-vul.
@@meghanmcintosh135 Its like how we in Georgia laugh when people pronounce every T in Atlanta. Its the quickest way to spot a tourist or a recent transplant. We pronounce our state capitol as Atlanna.
She didn’t quite get Appalachia, but I think she was actually pretty correct with Potomac until she started getting too fast with it. Not everyone puts so much emphasis on the “toe”. I usually say it a bit more subtly, but the emphasis is still stressed on the “toe”.
I can’t believe none of these videos ever have Michigan cities in them. I always have fun trying to get people to pronounce Ypsilanti and Sault Sainte Marie 🤣
Michigan has sooooo many. I saw a video by a creator that was trying to get people to try pronouncing Michigan cities, but I can't remember the channel name
Tawas, Ossineke, Osceola, Oscoda, Cheboygan, Au Gres, etc... Had a friend from Texas who lived near Ossineke for a while and he used to say Oh-SIN-ick-ee.
Appalachia can be said either way. They span from Maine to Georgia. The north and south pronounce it differently. However here in New England we will refer to the souther part of the range with the southern pronunciation
That's just because Louisville, Kentucky was named after the French King(s) Louisville, Colorado was named after its founder, whose name was Louis; and he wasn't French.
@@Fool3SufferingFools My last name is French. A lot of random English phrases in Louisiana came from translated French too literally. Making the groceries instead of grocery shopping “aller faire les courses” etc.
When I first moved to Kentucky in 1999, I had assumed Lousiville was named for Lewis and Clark, since Clarksville is just over the river. At the time I was living in Lexington and working in Versailles (Ver-sailes). Been in Louisville 17 years now.
If you get the chance to visit the US again, may I just say that NYC doesn't completely represent the rest of the country. There are good and bad things about all 50 states, but if you can, check out a "less tourist-y" city. Usually, it's a lot less expensive w/out big city taxes. Hope you enjoy wherever you visit! :)
I hope this makes you feel better... I have lived all over the U.S.A. and you will find different pronunciations in different areas, they call it colloquialism. So, depending on where you live here, and the accent from that area, you will get a variety of ways to pronounce places! God bless you both!
@@jacob4920 I was born in the North, grew up in the south, relocated in the west, living again in the North. My accent changes with whoever I am speaking. I find that after living all over the U.S., that I, without thinking about it, take on the accent of whoever I am speaking to! Strange, I know, but helpful when making others comfortable in conversation. Love your videos, you two are refreshing compared to all the other voices on UA-cam. God bless you mightily!
I live in Michigan we have a Charlotte, just like North Carolina. However, ours is pronounce shar-LOT, theirs, SHAR-let. So, pronunciations vary according to locations, too.
You gotta get around to the State series he's doing, with town pronunciations quizzed State by State. He's only two in (I think he's only doing like one per week).
There is also a town in Missouri named "Nevada" that the locals pronounce "nuh-vay-duh". And just up the road from where I live is Miami, Oklahoma. Whereas the Florida city is pronounced "my-am-ee", in Oklahoma it's "my-am-uh"
@@S1D3W1ND3R015 I was born and raised there ( 8th generation Los Angelonian here) and we've always said Los Angeles. The only time we say "L.A." is when we say East L.A. "L.A." became way more popular in the late 90s and has become more normal the more transplants move there.
@@jedimastercaeli Yeah I wasn't a very good spokesman as I've never lived there. Lol. I just never really hear it as the full name. I've always heard people say LA
@@S1D3W1ND3R015 lol no worries. I just wanted to give a natives perspective. I don't live there anymore and I'm not sure anyone can pay me enough to move back. 🤣
*The Massachusetts part at the beginning* Those of us in Massachusetts pronounce Worcester etc the same as you guys. People from other states have issues with Massachusetts town names. Great video as usual!
Your girlfriend got the correct American pronunciation of "Potomac" right off the bat. Gotta give credit where due. Nailed it even if in her English accent. ;)
I believe they are married. I could be wrong, but they are "The Beezleys"...and I don't think they are brother or sister either. I've only started watching them for a few months, but I've picked up a few comments that sound like they are married.
Uruguay in Spanish is pronounced something like ooo-roog-why except the G is very subtle and the R would be short. I don’t know how to explain it but many of the spoken sounds in Spanish don’t even have an equivalent in English so I won’t try lol Also, Louisville has different pronunciations depending on where you’re at. I’ve heard Lewey-ville or Lew-uh-vull most often
The Louisville thing is true, IF you're talking about the one in Kentucky. The one where I live (Louisville, Colorado) is pronounced 'Loo-iss-ville" because it was named for its founder, a guy named Louis. Not Louie, and not French.
Biggest challenge I think is that U sits alone. Like you said, the OO. there's no Y sound. Lou-ah-ville is a good approximation. New Or'lenz is perfecto. As a Tejana, I'm offended on behalf of the entire state of NeVAHda for what they've done to it. And I will physically cringe if I hear Colo-rad-o instead of ColoRAHdo, which was touched on in the one about 50 state accents.
@@reanimated Well, we here in Colorado almost universally say 'call-ah-RHAD-oh' with the 'aah' sound, like when you're surprised you might exclaim "Aah!" And I should know, I was born here and have lived here my entire life.
@@richardeshom4985 I just can't resist a bit of Jeff Foxworthy humor here. "Ya'll go'in tah Looahvhule? Hop on, I'll geetcha there. Won't take but a squeak from a possum's butt! Just be careful of that beaver.
I've got a family in Massachusetts, and that state has an amazing mix of English-inspired and native names that are then locally pronounced the opposite of what you may expect! "Leominster" = "lemon-ster", "Worcester" = Wuh-stir (or, "wuh-stah!"), Scituate = "sitch-oo- it", and so on. Drives non-locals crazy sometimes.
@@ercokatty He may not know how the Brits pronounce those place names. Most Americans don't. I hear ads on my local radio for Berkshire Hathaway realty and they obviously have no idea how the Brits pronounce Berkshire.
People in east of the Rocky Mountains pronounce the state of "Oregon" as "oar ee GONE". People from Oregon or nearby states say "OAR ih gun". Some people from the east pronounce "Washington" as "Warsh ing ton". Locals, "Wash ing tin".
Here in Oregon we have the weirdest name pronunciation you'll find. The city Aloha(uh-loh-uh), a street in Portland named Couch(Cooch), Gleneden(glen-uhd-un) beach and much more. All pronounced completely messed up and I don't know why. However some of them are based on Native American names that are difficult too like Champoeg(shampooie), or the Willamette(wuh-la-muht) river or Chautauqua(shuh-taa-kwuh).
Funny. Chautauqua. It's a county in NYS. But not pronounced with the soft sh at the beginning. It starts with the hard ch. Every thing else is the same
Oooo… I forgot about Aloha! Having grown up in Hawaii, I was pronouncing it like the Hawaiian word until I heard it said a few times. I found it very surprising since it was actually named that because of Hawaiians who moved there!
From a previous comment, I must agree, that you James and Millie are honorary Americans! Welcome. I live in Massachusetts and it makes me giggle when people mispronounce Wocester, or Dorchester... etc.
Many American names in the western states have Spanish names. Due to Mexico being apart of that area before the Mexican-American war. A lot of northeast/New England have British location names! Also as someone from Kentucky NO ONE but, born and raised Kentuckians know how to say Louisville correctly (it is literally like nails on a chalkboard when someone say it wrong) lol 😂 also Millie you should KNOW by now us southerns never say it the way it’s written haha
New England does have a lot of British location names, but we also have a TON of native american names as well. Some are tricky to say even if you grew up here.
Just wait until you get to the the Hawaiian and Samoan names. I'd love to see them try especially some of the longer ones. Even some of the MIcronesian names are a bit complicated. Even here in Washington, we have place names like Puyallup, rainier, and Sequim. I just wish there were more first nations names, because place names preserve languages.
Here's a partial list of names from the Pacific Northwest (in no particular order and not all are from native languages): Chinook, Willamette, Tualatin, Tanasbourne, Chemeketa, Siskiyou, Umpqua, Oregon, Camas, Lacamas, Clackamas, Ochoco, Skamokawa, Wahkiakum, Kahlotus, Ilwaco, Chewelah, Wenatchee, Aeneas, Okanogan, Steilacoom, Swinomish, Tshletshy, Clatskanie, The Dalles, Champoeg, Yachats, Aloha, Lebanon, Milwaukie, Scappoose, Umatilla, Estacada, Nyssa, Gervais, Deschutes, Chiloquin, Chehalis, Hoquiem, Snoqualmie, Washtucna
I heard a joke by Mell Brooks (Creator of Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein). He said that when English Settlers asked the natives, "What is the name of this place?" They answered in their own language, "What, do I look like tour guide?" The names stuck.
Hi, Beesleys. As a native of Appalachia, I can tell you that we southerners do insist that "App-uh-latch-uh" is the right way to pronounce the name of our mountain range. Millie, you did very well in your pronunciation of most of these place names. Two thumbs up! 👍👍
Exactly!! Native Appalachian myself, and I get so aggravated when some try to "correct" my pronunciation of MY HOME. So many try to adopt an "English rules" pronunciation, and have no idea that it is not an English word, hence, not an English pronunciation. I don't care how others pronounce it, it makes it clear they aren't natives here. But it sure gets my goat when they try to correct ME.
@@matildamiller3233, I agree. The name Appalachia comes from the name of a Muskogean tribe in northwest Florida; the Appalachee (App-uh-latch-ee) which is pronounced very similarly to the way we say Appalachia today. Take care, fellow Appalachian! (North-east Tennessee, here.)
A shame my home state didn't make the list, though I could go a lifetime without ever having to hear someone butcher the pronunciation of the Willamette river again, much less the state of Oregon(Seriously, how do people screw that one up so often?)
Before I ever went to Portland for the first time- i’m there at least twice a year now-I made sure to learn the correct pronunciation of Willamette! Lol I just knew it would have a very specific local pronunciation. Just like here in Arkansas, there are cities like Monticello, El Dorado, and Searcy that I guarantee aren’t pronounced the way these place names are usually pronounced. (I live in Saline County, but it’s pronounced sah-LEEN, even though it does refer to the salt licks found in the area.)
You Oar-goan-ee-ans have funny names just like us who live on the other side of the Columbia. Of course, if you drive south on 199 or 101, do you end up in Del Nor-tay county, or Del Nort?
Here’s one for you. I’ve lived in both North and South Carolina during my military career, and both have a city named “Beaufort”… NC residents pronounce it “BOW-fort” SC is “bew-FORD” Both are technically right, if you think of the conflict between “Beautiful” and the French word “Beau” Definitely an interesting way to tell what state the person was from. ;)
I live in Massachusetts and we kept the British pronunciations (you can tell if someone just moved here when they try to pronounce Haverhill, Worcester, Leicester, Lowell, Billerica, Dorchester after they learned how to pronounce Worcester, etc...) and we also have a lake whose name is 45 letters long (it’s comes the Loup Language). If you want to hear people from other parts of the country try to say our place names look up trying to pronounce Massachusetts place names because not only are some British but there are also native names that some people do mispronounce (Massachusetts is one of the names that gets mispronounced)
Is the city of Worcester, Massachusetts, pronounced by people from Boston as "WUH stah"? That's what I remember from my time in Massachusetts. I went to college in Cambridge and visited Worcester for a concert or two at the Centrum.
@@kittycatgaminghayley6210, a college classmate of mine is from Fall River. Her accent is slightly different than I what I normally encountered in Boston. To my ears, the accent became less pronounced as I went further west in Massachusetts, like Springfield.
@@MichaelScheele that’s because western Massachusetts isn’t apart of Eastern New England English and instead apart of Western New England English (yes those are both categories) so the accents are different
Completely depends on where you’re from in the US. Southern US states pronounce Nevada as “Ne-vah-da”. Same as Colorado..southern folks say “Cahl-oh-rah-doe” not “Cahl-oh-rad-hoe” 😂
Louisville is actually pronounced different ways depending on which state city he is talking about. Louisville exists as a city in different states and each state pronounces it differently. All the names the "Lost in the Pond" guys said for it are correct depending on where you are.
My bottle of water spilled on my schedule… ;) Also many of these pronunciations have more than one way to say them. New Orleans can be pronounced new orleens or new orlins. I’ve heard Nevada pronounced both ways that u said as well.
I'm from New Orleans. A very small portion of the locals say nawlins. Most out of towners actually pronounce it with a proper tone, with emphasize on orLEANS. Truthfully though, I was born and raised there, and either way is accepted. There are many different ways you can say it. New Orleans folk mostly want out of towners to come and have a great time. The way the name is said, really doesn't matter.
Best of all, Americans love to name towns after foreign places and then mispronounced them. Lima, Ohio is named after Lima, Peru, but is pronounced LIE-MUH. Again in Ohio (my Native State), you'll find Versailles pronounced VER-SAILZ. And there are plenty more.
Place names all over Louisiana can be astonishingly horrid. HORRID. This is a city in Louisiana: Natchitoches Locals and other Louisianians pronounce it NACK-a-dish. another one is Tchoupitoulas -- CHOP-i-TOO-less What fun, eh?
Y'all in England butcher French. We in the US butcher Spanish, French, and a whole heap of other languages that this country has historically been in contact with.
Michael Hill, those of us living near Chicago (me about 1.5 hrs. away) do a rather decent job of butchering Polish as well. But, we're not alone in that. Ever hear Hispanics say chick-AWE-go? Japanese have a hard time with "L", and Germans who learn English later in life have a hard time with "W", as in "VIP-er-vill" for whippoorwill.
@@jimgreen5788 Well, yes, of course, every country struggles with pronouncing other languages'(or even their own) words. For instance, a lot of foreigners have a hard time with the th in English because it's such a rare sound internationally. Those barriers and bastardizations translate into places too.
One thing that you have to remember about America is that we are made up of so many nationalities all mixed together. That a lot of words are regionally pronounce different. Such as Pa toe mac or pat o Mac for Potomac. The Appalachian mountains and area are pronounced many different ways in the United States. It can be pronounced one way in the Midwest and totally differently in the south. A lot of things differ greatly from the north and the south in the United States in the way people say things. And as things move from east to west pronunciations vary greatly. I really enjoyed your video. God bless you and your family. Duane
You should look up the names of some of the cities in Washington state LOL. Lots of native american names. For example I live in Yakima Washington. Just south of us Toppenish and Wapato
So many Native American names throw not just foreigners for a lupe but a lot of Americans from other parts of the country as well. Living in the Pacific Northwest I grew up hearing and saying all the place names of cities, counties, rivers, and other geographical features that feature Native American names. Hearing someone try to pronounce some of them is particularly amusing. The name of the city on the banks of the river of the same name, Puyallup, Washington is always amusing. Just a few days ago I got a laugh out of a narrator in a video being screened here mispronouncing the name of Whatcom County when talking about the location of Point Roberts. The midwest has a lot of similar Native American place names that even give us Northwesterners issues.
When looking at American place names you ALWAYS have to remember-- at least half of them are based on native names. The spellings are based roughly on phonetic spellings by semi-literate explorers who wrote what they heard, but they were NOT linguists. Then there is the shift that happens over the past 100 years or more. You guys do pretty good. I can't figure out how you come up with some of the pronunciations of English place names. To me, I just see someone who was paid by the letters to create the names for a map and ignored the actual pronunciation when they wrote them down.
Being from the US, most of these are dependent on our personal accents. I have never heard of Louisville said anything other than "Loo-eee-ville." If the locals want it pronounced a different way. That's on them. I live in a neighborhood with a name that I have heard pronounced literally more than 5 different ways. I don't care if anyone says it wrong.
@@HBC423 I'm in the Southwest and for 60 years of my life I've only known it as "loo-ee-ville". That is what's frustrating about these types of topics, even locals in their own cities get a lot of them wrong.
It's hilarious how Millie made me subscribe by brute force. I don't know any other channel where this would have worked but she's so lovable and scary at the same time lol. James, your epic. Don't ruin your relationship b/c it's wonderfully complimentary! Upstate NYer who loves everything you do so don't stop; your friend Paul!
Wow! Millie just does _not_ accept "pah-TOE-m'ck" ... a little tip Millie, if you don't like strangers staring at you, don't visit the Potomac region. Despite many people insisting that Americans are rude and obnoxious, if you show up with an odd pronunciation of a place-name, many of us won't bother correcting you if you're obviously an overseas visitor - we'll just chalk it up to "well, you can't necessarily expect somebody from ______ to get every word right, all the time!" But many of us will stare at you, some hoping you'll get the clue and ask "so, what's wrong?" P.S. - in Spanish "Chile" is pronounced "CHEE-lay"; trust somebody with a few years of Español under his belt, and who has spent a fair amount of time with Spanish-speakers, discussing geography. The amazing thing to me is the number of people that I've run across who literally can't seem to _hear_ the difference between "CHEE-lay" and "chilly"! I can't believe the number of times I've had this conversation: Them: It's "CHILL-ee", of course. Me:. No; it's "CHEE-lay". Them: That's what I said, "CHILL-ee". Me: No; you said "CHILL-ee", when it's "CHEE-lay"! Them: [with a puzzled look] But you just said it twice, the same way! Me: You can't hear any difference between "CHILL-lee" and "CHEE-lay"?!? Them: You're just repeating yourself ... without any difference. Why? It almost feels like I'm doing the "Who's On First" routine from Abbot & Costello, except it's way more annoying!
Can confirm from northern Appalachia we use the 'LATCH' variant. If you do run into someone who uses the 'LAY' variant they are also likely to say your name incorrectly on purpose if it isn't common, going as far as saying back to you wrong several times before giving up dramatically, so make of that what you will.
During WWII, my former father-in-law, Ken, (an American) spent some time in a British army camp. One day, during a conversation with a British officer, Ken said something about the training schedule for the day. He pronounced the word with the hard "c" (like a "k") as Americans do. The British officer said, "You mean schedule." He pronounced it like "shed", the way the British do. This was apparently the 3rd or 4th time he'd been corrected by other Brits and he was becoming a bit annoyed about it. So he replied, "Well, excuse me. I haven't had much Shooling". Fortunately, the British officer had a sense of humor so Ken got away with being a smart-ass to an officer.
I love ya guys and enjoy your reaction videos, but you can't complain "that's not how its written" about Louisville when you guys have Leicester and just ignore half the letters in it. Fair is fair, we can ignore letters in Louisville.
There's a family story from the deep dark past that I should relate. Back in the day, before WW2, one of my aunt's brothers was, for a while, educated in a British school in Burma (his father was in the oil industry). They were taking a geography class, and the teacher (British) insisted that the river that flowed past Washington D.C. was the POT-oh-Mac. My distant relative tried to correct her but was unsuccessful. My favorite weird pronunciation of American place names is two-fold. There are two Lancasters in the United States, one in Pennsylvania and the other in California. You say the Pennsylvanian one in a similar way to how a Brit might say it, with an American accent of course, but the California one you say Lan-cass-ter, the way it's spelled (to an American anyway). The other involves the states of Kansas and Arkansas. Kansas you say Kan-zass, while if you add Ar to the front of it, it becomes Ar-kin-saw. I read somewhere years ago that the state legislature in Arkansas actually passed a law (with no criminal penalties) making it illegal to pronounce their state's name Ar-kan-zass. Perhaps true, perhaps apocryphal, but believable in any event.
Here in Pennsylvania you mostly hear Ap-pa-lay-sha , unless you happen to live in the mountains where we use the region name instead , where I'm at we just say Laurel Highlands , other areas we call by region are the Tuscarora's and Poconos
I was born in Worcester, Massachusetts and lived in the area most of my life. We pronounce all the towns mentioned at the beginning exactly as the Brits do.
The names of over half the states in the US and even a higher percentage after you cut out the first 13 colonies come from Native American words. As we have very few native speakers of most of those tribes left, the original and most correct pronunciation of most of our states and MANY towns are almost entirely lost to history. Just in Minnesota (which is Native American itself) there is: Mahtomedi Wayzata Mahnomen Ponemah Quamba Pokegama Kandiyohi Isanti Menahga Kabetogama Okabena Winnebago Winona Wabasha Given more time I'm sure i could come up with more but I have lived in Minnesota where all of these towns are and there are a few that I wouldn't get correct either
In Colorado it’s pronounced “LEWIS-vill” rhymes with “will” and also we have a town called Buena vista in Co, and the residents pronounce “Buena” like “Boon-ah” (rhymes with tuna)
One my east coast friends always get wrong when they visit me in California is "La Jolla". Its a little beach town near San Diego. Most people say "La--Jaw-luh" but its actually "La--Hoy-uh"
I think it depends heavily on what part of the U.S. the person is from. I mean some of us in NY have a hard time understanding the real southern drawl country accent that people down South have if its really heavy lol. And I'm born and raised in NY and said New Orleans the way it looks like it should be pronounced too like you guys and it used to drive me nuts when I would hear someone pronounce it New "Orlins" so it varies across even our own country as well. There are so many different accents in the U.S. - you have the southern or "country" accent, the Midwest accent, the "New York" accent ( which to me is just the normal way of speaking, everyone else has the accent lol) and you have differences in pronunciation all throughout the West Coast as well.
I’m a Kentuckian and we pronounce Louisville as “Loo-uh-vull”. My cousin lives in Louisville, Colorado and they pronounce their town, “Lewis-ville”. To-may-to, to-mah-to. 🤷🏼♀️
That was so funny! I live in North Carolina and listening to you both I couldn't pronounce the names. I laughed and laughed since I couldn't tell what was right or wrong. I was born in Charlotte, North Carolina but moved to Jefferson, North Carolina in 2020. You should know that I knew how to pronounce each one correctly; just got into what you were saying. I love your channel! Oh, by the way, I didn't type "y'all" instead of 'you both". That's just a Southern way of saying You All! I say it all the time.
Americans pronounce some of these differently depending on the part of the country. I guess technically the locals who live there are the ultimate arbiters as to the correct pronunciation.
I totally agree. Except for Nevada. I'm just convinced they are just trying to troll everyone with that stupid pronunciation lol
except for Nevada because it’s literally Spanish
Anyone who's been to nevada would know they pronounce all of their Spanish names incorrectly... but at the end of the day it's still the names of their stuff
@@Twichl I think Caliente is one of the few cities pronounced correctly.
Consensus don't always mean correct. In my city, the horrible gringos insist on calling a street named Guadalupe "Guada-loop." I will die on this hill. I will not fuck up a word that badly, in any language. It's just ignorant.
Millie, we've always known you're a true American at heart. And we can make James an Honorary American.
I think Millie's father is American.
In my Spanish classes, we were taught that the proper pronunciation of Uruguay is "oor-a-gwhy" and "Chile" is "chill-ay"
I was taught in my Spanish class to pronounce Chile as Chee-lay.
@@swaffdog6521 that's actually right, I meant that but didn't think too much about the spelling.
Ooroogwhy.
@@swaffdog6521 Chee-le
Chile is more accurately pronounced as _Chee - Lay_
Millie had Potomac exactly right, the first time. But, after James said it wrong, so many times, she then said it wrong before starting the video.
Na she didn't lol
I am with you, Darrin. She kept trying to slur it into semi-intelligible syllables. She nailed that the accent was on the middle syllable, and the vowels were imperfect (just like most Americans are).
She said it right the first time, but the more she said it the worse it got. Finally at the end she was just saying it too fast and totally missing the second syllable.
I love how Millie is showing more and more sass. The 2 of you will be full-blooded Americans in no time haha.
Word
This for sure.
She’s actually saying Potomac with a Maryland accent as we have “Potomac” named landmarks and schools in the state
Until she started saying it too fast
You'll find that a number of these differ even within the US because of local "slang" and accents. Several of these are pronounced differently in various parts of the US due to that. You'll also find the "official" pronunciation of some of these places being what you expect, but sounding different from the locals because of that "slang/accent" issue.
Yes, I was surprised when Louisville was mentioned as “Loo-uh-vull”,but Nashville and New Orleans weren’t mentioned. I’ve heard the natives of both places say, “Na-eesh-vull and “Nyawlins”,respectively.
I live in West Tennessee and within 100 or so miles I can be in Milan, Paris, Moscow, Corinth, Memphis, Athens, Rome, Melbourne, Sparta, Lebanon and many others! It's like a world tour!
I was incredibly impressed that you confidently, and with zero hesitation, correctly pronounced "Nevada".
That was awesome.
Yeah, I have witnessed people in Nevada get kinda pissed about it being pronounced wrong - think mid-sentence corrections. But I doubt such stern rebukes would happen to someone with a British accent, or any foreign accent. Californians should probably know better.
Louisville Ky girl here. For some reason on the news, the reporters always say 'Loo-EE-vill' those of us who actually live here just say loo-vul or lew-vul.
I've heard many Southerners call "New Orleans" "N'aulins".
But not people from there. Georgia and Mississippi are well known for mangling New Orleans
I've never heard anyone in Arkansas call them that.
People in New Orleans say it that way.
@@GinaMarieCheeseman It would be said as a joke if they say that way or they just moved there
@@meghanmcintosh135 Its like how we in Georgia laugh when people pronounce every T in Atlanta. Its the quickest way to spot a tourist or a recent transplant. We pronounce our state capitol as Atlanna.
Weird. We lived in New Orleans for about 5 years. We always heard/said ‘nu-all-inns’.
To be fair here, many Americans pronounce some of these incorrectly as well. Louisville and Nevada especially.
Millie nailed it! I didn't think you'd get Appalachia because of your mini stroke over Potomac lol. Y'all are great! Much love
She didn’t quite get Appalachia, but I think she was actually pretty correct with Potomac until she started getting too fast with it. Not everyone puts so much emphasis on the “toe”. I usually say it a bit more subtly, but the emphasis is still stressed on the “toe”.
I can’t believe none of these videos ever have Michigan cities in them. I always have fun trying to get people to pronounce Ypsilanti and Sault Sainte Marie 🤣
Soo-Saint-Marie? (Had a few Coastie buddies stationed there). Yet most of the rest of us have a different, and sadly tragic name for it… 😞
Or Mackinac Island! Or Charlevoix.
Michigan has sooooo many. I saw a video by a creator that was trying to get people to try pronouncing Michigan cities, but I can't remember the channel name
Tawas, Ossineke, Osceola, Oscoda, Cheboygan, Au Gres, etc...
Had a friend from Texas who lived near Ossineke for a while and he used to say Oh-SIN-ick-ee.
Appalachia can be said either way. They span from Maine to Georgia. The north and south pronounce it differently. However here in New England we will refer to the souther part of the range with the southern pronunciation
Louisville: loouh-vull
The other 49 states + Millie: yeah that’s not how it’s written though 😐
That's just because Louisville, Kentucky was named after the French King(s)
Louisville, Colorado was named after its founder, whose name was Louis; and he wasn't French.
If you were going to pronounce it the actual French way, it would be L’wee-VEEL, but no one speaking English would ever say that.
@@kennethcook9406 Lol I know. I speak French. Twas a joke :)
@@Fool3SufferingFools My last name is French. A lot of random English phrases in Louisiana came from translated French too literally. Making the groceries instead of grocery shopping “aller faire les courses” etc.
When I first moved to Kentucky in 1999, I had assumed Lousiville was named for Lewis and Clark, since Clarksville is just over the river. At the time I was living in Lexington and working in Versailles (Ver-sailes). Been in Louisville 17 years now.
If you get the chance to visit the US again, may I just say that NYC doesn't completely represent the rest of the country. There are good and bad things about all 50 states, but if you can, check out a "less tourist-y" city. Usually, it's a lot less expensive w/out big city taxes. Hope you enjoy wherever you visit! :)
It's more expensive for non-Americans to go to places that aren't for tourists in terms of flights.
I hope this makes you feel better... I have lived all over the U.S.A. and you will find different pronunciations in different areas, they call it colloquialism. So, depending on where you live here, and the accent from that area, you will get a variety of ways to pronounce places! God bless you both!
America is a veritable SWAMP of numerous "dialects" on the same language. I stopped trying to pin them all down a long time ago.
@@jacob4920 I was born in the North, grew up in the south, relocated in the west, living again in the North. My accent changes with whoever I am speaking. I find that after living all over the U.S., that I, without thinking about it, take on the accent of whoever I am speaking to! Strange, I know, but helpful when making others comfortable in conversation. Love your videos, you two are refreshing compared to all the other voices on UA-cam. God bless you mightily!
You're thinking of dialect and pronunciation, a colloquialism is slang or an idiom that is from one area
Delhi is DELL-high, Versailles is vur-SALES, New Madrid is New MADD-rid.
Ah Schenectady, a city name easily pronounced with body parts. Skin, Neck, and... Well, you can figure the rest out.
😂😂😂
Catskill is pretty easy for people to pronounce.
I live in Michigan we have a Charlotte, just like North Carolina. However, ours is pronounce shar-LOT, theirs, SHAR-let. So, pronunciations vary according to locations, too.
You gotta get around to the State series he's doing, with town pronunciations quizzed State by State. He's only two in (I think he's only doing like one per week).
There is also a town in Missouri named "Nevada" that the locals pronounce "nuh-vay-duh". And just up the road from where I live is Miami, Oklahoma. Whereas the Florida city is pronounced "my-am-ee", in Oklahoma it's "my-am-uh"
Another one that Brits seem to get wrong is “Los Angeles”, which they like call “Los Angeleeez”.
This drives me insane, and I don't even know why.
As an American. I very rarely hear anyone say the full name. Everyone just calls it LA.
@@S1D3W1ND3R015 I was born and raised there ( 8th generation Los Angelonian here) and we've always said Los Angeles. The only time we say "L.A." is when we say East L.A. "L.A." became way more popular in the late 90s and has become more normal the more transplants move there.
@@jedimastercaeli Yeah I wasn't a very good spokesman as I've never lived there. Lol. I just never really hear it as the full name. I've always heard people say LA
@@S1D3W1ND3R015 lol no worries. I just wanted to give a natives perspective. I don't live there anymore and I'm not sure anyone can pay me enough to move back. 🤣
*The Massachusetts part at the beginning* Those of us in Massachusetts pronounce Worcester etc the same as you guys. People from other states have issues with Massachusetts town names. Great video as usual!
Your girlfriend got the correct American pronunciation of "Potomac" right off the bat. Gotta give credit where due. Nailed it even if in her English accent. ;)
Sorry but your wrong. She said poe-tm-ic instead of puh-toe-m'ck. It was a good try though.
I believe they are married. I could be wrong, but they are "The Beezleys"...and I don't think they are brother or sister either. I've only started watching them for a few months, but I've picked up a few comments that sound like they are married.
@@darnoc0010 I have to disagree as well...I thought she said it correctly the first time she said it.
@@darnoc0010 I agree with you she got it wrong the first time.
She said Patemic with no emphasis on the second syllable Pa-TOE-mic
It was close enough the first time that no one would notice in normal conversation. I'm sure it was better than many Americans.
Uruguay in Spanish is pronounced something like ooo-roog-why except the G is very subtle and the R would be short. I don’t know how to explain it but many of the spoken sounds in Spanish don’t even have an equivalent in English so I won’t try lol
Also, Louisville has different pronunciations depending on where you’re at. I’ve heard Lewey-ville or Lew-uh-vull most often
The Louisville thing is true, IF you're talking about the one in Kentucky.
The one where I live (Louisville, Colorado) is pronounced 'Loo-iss-ville" because it was named for its founder, a guy named Louis. Not Louie, and not French.
Biggest challenge I think is that U sits alone. Like you said, the OO. there's no Y sound. Lou-ah-ville is a good approximation. New Or'lenz is perfecto. As a Tejana, I'm offended on behalf of the entire state of NeVAHda for what they've done to it. And I will physically cringe if I hear Colo-rad-o instead of ColoRAHdo, which was touched on in the one about 50 state accents.
@@reanimated Well, we here in Colorado almost universally say 'call-ah-RHAD-oh' with the 'aah' sound, like when you're surprised you might exclaim "Aah!"
And I should know, I was born here and have lived here my entire life.
My most frequent encounter from natives (in Kentucky) sounded like the even further contracted "Loo'vl".
@@richardeshom4985 I just can't resist a bit of Jeff Foxworthy humor here.
"Ya'll go'in tah Looahvhule? Hop on, I'll geetcha there. Won't take but a squeak from a possum's butt!
Just be careful of that beaver.
I've got a family in Massachusetts, and that state has an amazing mix of English-inspired and native names that are then locally pronounced the opposite of what you may expect! "Leominster" = "lemon-ster", "Worcester" = Wuh-stir (or, "wuh-stah!"), Scituate = "sitch-oo- it", and so on. Drives non-locals crazy sometimes.
Unlike many instances, the pronunciation of Worcester is exactly like the Brits pronounce it. So is Leominster.
A guy my father worked with was late his first day on the job because he was looking for the “Woostah” exit.
@@mescko Agreed. We pronounce those exactly as the Brits do. I’m not sure what his point is there.
@@ercokatty He may not know how the Brits pronounce those place names. Most Americans don't. I hear ads on my local radio for Berkshire Hathaway realty and they obviously have no idea how the Brits pronounce Berkshire.
People in east of the Rocky Mountains pronounce the state of "Oregon" as "oar ee GONE". People from Oregon or nearby states say "OAR ih gun".
Some people from the east pronounce "Washington" as "Warsh ing ton". Locals, "Wash ing tin".
I always pronounced it or-eh-ghen
As someone from the Oregon, I pronounce it ore-gin
I’m absolutely losing it at you two completely forgetting how you pronounced it like 30 seconds earlier lol
Right?! Lol. The best.
My husband is from a small town in Pennsylvania. They have a road called Menoher. Stupid thing is pronounced "meh-nok-rrr". Like what the heck! 🤣😄
Here in Oregon we have the weirdest name pronunciation you'll find. The city Aloha(uh-loh-uh), a street in Portland named Couch(Cooch), Gleneden(glen-uhd-un) beach and much more. All pronounced completely messed up and I don't know why. However some of them are based on Native American names that are difficult too like Champoeg(shampooie), or the Willamette(wuh-la-muht) river or Chautauqua(shuh-taa-kwuh).
forget those specific places. The amount of people who pronounce Oregon incorrectly is just awful.
Funny. Chautauqua. It's a county in NYS. But not pronounced with the soft sh at the beginning. It starts with the hard ch. Every thing else is the same
Oooo… I forgot about Aloha! Having grown up in Hawaii, I was pronouncing it like the Hawaiian word until I heard it said a few times. I found it very surprising since it was actually named that because of Hawaiians who moved there!
From a previous comment, I must agree, that you James and Millie are honorary Americans! Welcome. I live in Massachusetts and it makes me giggle when people mispronounce Wocester, or Dorchester... etc.
Many American names in the western states have Spanish names. Due to Mexico being apart of that area before the Mexican-American war. A lot of northeast/New England have British location names!
Also as someone from Kentucky NO ONE but, born and raised Kentuckians know how to say Louisville correctly (it is literally like nails on a chalkboard when someone say it wrong) lol 😂 also Millie you should KNOW by now us southerns never say it the way it’s written haha
I’m from NorCal, and “Frisco” and “San Fran” are nails on a chalkboard
What is the correct way to pronounce Louisville according to Kentuckians?
@@ZedrikVonKatmahl “Lou vil”
New England does have a lot of British location names, but we also have a TON of native american names as well. Some are tricky to say even if you grew up here.
@@Lisah707San Fran is, Frisco is just a funny meme because it annoys people from the city
I live near Louisville, Ky. It's Loo-a-vul. Any other pronunciation is like listening to nails on a chalkboard.😆😆😆
Just wait until you get to the the Hawaiian and Samoan names. I'd love to see them try especially some of the longer ones. Even some of the MIcronesian names are a bit complicated. Even here in Washington, we have place names like Puyallup, rainier, and Sequim. I just wish there were more first nations names, because place names preserve languages.
Yeah, I'd say a good third of the names in the Pacific Northwest are based off local languages. I'd love to see/hear reactions to them!
Here's a partial list of names from the Pacific Northwest (in no particular order and not all are from native languages): Chinook, Willamette, Tualatin, Tanasbourne, Chemeketa, Siskiyou, Umpqua, Oregon, Camas, Lacamas, Clackamas, Ochoco, Skamokawa, Wahkiakum, Kahlotus, Ilwaco, Chewelah, Wenatchee, Aeneas, Okanogan, Steilacoom, Swinomish, Tshletshy, Clatskanie, The Dalles, Champoeg, Yachats, Aloha, Lebanon, Milwaukie, Scappoose, Umatilla, Estacada, Nyssa, Gervais, Deschutes, Chiloquin, Chehalis, Hoquiem, Snoqualmie, Washtucna
I heard a joke by Mell Brooks (Creator of Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein). He said that when English Settlers asked the natives, "What is the name of this place?" They answered in their own language, "What, do I look like tour guide?" The names stuck.
I finally subscribed to Lost in the Pond, but I subscribed to you both first!
I live in a small town of Centre "pronounced center" on Weiss Lake
Hi, Beesleys. As a native of Appalachia, I can tell you that we southerners do insist that "App-uh-latch-uh" is the right way to pronounce the name of our mountain range. Millie, you did very well in your pronunciation of most of these place names. Two thumbs up! 👍👍
Exactly!! Native Appalachian myself, and I get so aggravated when some try to "correct" my pronunciation of MY HOME.
So many try to adopt an "English rules" pronunciation, and have no idea that it is not an English word, hence, not an English pronunciation.
I don't care how others pronounce it, it makes it clear they aren't natives here. But it sure gets my goat when they try to correct ME.
@@matildamiller3233, I agree. The name Appalachia comes from the name of a Muskogean tribe in northwest Florida; the Appalachee (App-uh-latch-ee) which is pronounced very similarly to the way we say Appalachia today. Take care, fellow Appalachian! (North-east Tennessee, here.)
@@C.O.G. east TN here as well 😁
We have a Louisville in Mississippi and it's pronounced "Lewis-ville" here.
Millie- it's pronounced Lost Wages, Nevada, not Los Vegas, Nevada.
😂 😂 😆
😂😂😂😂
A lot of Americans say "Looeyville". Millie said it right the first time for Potomac.
A shame my home state didn't make the list, though I could go a lifetime without ever having to hear someone butcher the pronunciation of the Willamette river again, much less the state of Oregon(Seriously, how do people screw that one up so often?)
Before I ever went to Portland for the first time- i’m there at least twice a year now-I made sure to learn the correct pronunciation of Willamette! Lol I just knew it would have a very specific local pronunciation. Just like here in Arkansas, there are cities like Monticello, El Dorado, and Searcy that I guarantee aren’t pronounced the way these place names are usually pronounced. (I live in Saline County, but it’s pronounced sah-LEEN, even though it does refer to the salt licks found in the area.)
I think I lose a year off my lifespan every time I hear someone say “Ore-GONE”
You Oar-goan-ee-ans have funny names just like us who live on the other side of the Columbia. Of course, if you drive south on 199 or 101, do you end up in Del Nor-tay county, or Del Nort?
Born in OR E GONE and live in WAR SHIN TUN . I feel ya!
@@jessieg58 Oh Lordy! I don't know why this one irritates me to no end. And a lot of t.v. personalities pronounce it Ore-GONE, seriously?😵
Here’s one for you.
I’ve lived in both North and South Carolina during my military career, and both have a city named “Beaufort”…
NC residents pronounce it “BOW-fort”
SC is “bew-FORD”
Both are technically right, if you think of the conflict between
“Beautiful” and the French word “Beau”
Definitely an interesting way to tell what state the person was from. ;)
I live in Massachusetts and we kept the British pronunciations (you can tell if someone just moved here when they try to pronounce Haverhill, Worcester, Leicester, Lowell, Billerica, Dorchester after they learned how to pronounce Worcester, etc...) and we also have a lake whose name is 45 letters long (it’s comes the Loup Language). If you want to hear people from other parts of the country try to say our place names look up trying to pronounce Massachusetts place names because not only are some British but there are also native names that some people do mispronounce (Massachusetts is one of the names that gets mispronounced)
Is the city of Worcester, Massachusetts, pronounced by people from Boston as "WUH stah"? That's what I remember from my time in Massachusetts.
I went to college in Cambridge and visited Worcester for a concert or two at the Centrum.
@@MichaelScheele Boston is not the only place that has that accent because the Boston accent is actually apart of Eastern New England English.
@@kittycatgaminghayley6210, a college classmate of mine is from Fall River. Her accent is slightly different than I what I normally encountered in Boston. To my ears, the accent became less pronounced as I went further west in Massachusetts, like Springfield.
@@MichaelScheele that’s because western Massachusetts isn’t apart of Eastern New England English and instead apart of Western New England English (yes those are both categories) so the accents are different
@@kittycatgaminghayley6210 Even people 20 miles west of Boston don’t have these accents for the most part.
What? No La Jolla, Nojoqui Falls, Lompoc, Ojai, Owyhee and Port Hueneme?
From the Spanish that I know, Uruguay would be pronounced "oo-roo-gwhy" and Chile would be "chee-lay"
East of the Mississippi it is usually pronounced Nevada, "Nuh vah duh".
Completely depends on where you’re from in the US. Southern US states pronounce Nevada as “Ne-vah-da”. Same as Colorado..southern folks say “Cahl-oh-rah-doe” not “Cahl-oh-rad-hoe” 😂
We can't help our accents, dammit.😅
Louisville is actually pronounced different ways depending on which state city he is talking about. Louisville exists as a city in different states and each state pronounces it differently. All the names the "Lost in the Pond" guys said for it are correct depending on where you are.
My bottle of water spilled on my schedule… ;)
Also many of these pronunciations have more than one way to say them. New Orleans can be pronounced new orleens or new orlins. I’ve heard Nevada pronounced both ways that u said as well.
I'm from New Orleans. A very small portion of the locals say nawlins. Most out of towners actually pronounce it with a proper tone, with emphasize on orLEANS. Truthfully though, I was born and raised there, and either way is accepted. There are many different ways you can say it. New Orleans folk mostly want out of towners to come and have a great time. The way the name is said, really doesn't matter.
Before I even watch the video: There’s no “gawn” in Oregon.
Millie! Dudette! You just karate chopped James high five without even the common decency of a "Hiiiiiiya!"
As a native around Wash DC and Virginia, Millie got Potomac correct, or the closest.
Yeah, I live in Arlington, Va and I say she got it right. 👍🏻
Yeah I'm a Marylander born and raised in Maryland about an hour or so away from DC and she got Potomac right the first time or at least she was close.
Lived in Virginia as a kid. We pronounced the Potomac River, Puh-toe'-mick emphasis on the..toe.
Best of all, Americans love to name towns after foreign places and then mispronounced them. Lima, Ohio is named after Lima, Peru, but is pronounced LIE-MUH. Again in Ohio (my Native State), you'll find Versailles pronounced VER-SAILZ. And there are plenty more.
Place names all over Louisiana can be astonishingly horrid. HORRID.
This is a city in Louisiana: Natchitoches
Locals and other Louisianians pronounce it NACK-a-dish.
another one is Tchoupitoulas -- CHOP-i-TOO-less
What fun, eh?
Texas has quite a few as well. When I was a kid I used call Waco "Whacko" and my relatives would correct the way I said it.
Always enjoy our channel, love how you Millie interact with each other. Be keep sharing.
Y'all in England butcher French. We in the US butcher Spanish, French, and a whole heap of other languages that this country has historically been in contact with.
Probably not Millie. She's lived her entire life on an Island 14 miles away from France.
Speak for yourself
Well yes but no…..depending upon who you talk to.
Michael Hill, those of us living near Chicago (me about 1.5 hrs. away) do a rather decent job of butchering Polish as well. But, we're not alone in that. Ever hear Hispanics say
chick-AWE-go? Japanese have a hard time with "L", and Germans who learn English later in life have a hard time with "W", as in "VIP-er-vill" for whippoorwill.
@@jimgreen5788 Well, yes, of course, every country struggles with pronouncing other languages'(or even their own) words. For instance, a lot of foreigners have a hard time with the th in English because it's such a rare sound internationally. Those barriers and bastardizations translate into places too.
Millie would blend right in, James would stand out.
Uruguay = Err-ah-gway
Chilé = Chi-LAY
And YES please do more of these!!
Uh, no. Why would a "Ur" be pronounced as "Er"? It's Oo-roo-gwahy. And Chee-lay.
One thing that you have to remember about America is that we are made up of so many nationalities all mixed together. That a lot of words are regionally pronounce different. Such as Pa toe mac or pat o Mac for Potomac. The Appalachian mountains and area are pronounced many different ways in the United States. It can be pronounced one way in the Midwest and totally differently in the south. A lot of things differ greatly from the north and the south in the United States in the way people say things. And as things move from east to west pronunciations vary greatly. I really enjoyed your video. God bless you and your family. Duane
You should look up the names of some of the cities in Washington state LOL. Lots of native american names. For example I live in Yakima Washington. Just south of us Toppenish and Wapato
Sequim, Tulalip, Puyallup. All those fun Salish names. 😉
The Natives of the Pacific Northwest take the cake for place names in the US. Puyallup, Sequim, Hoquiam, Yakima, Wenatchee, Tulalip, Palouse, Methow.
So many Native American names throw not just foreigners for a lupe but a lot of Americans from other parts of the country as well. Living in the Pacific Northwest I grew up hearing and saying all the place names of cities, counties, rivers, and other geographical features that feature Native American names. Hearing someone try to pronounce some of them is particularly amusing. The name of the city on the banks of the river of the same name, Puyallup, Washington is always amusing. Just a few days ago I got a laugh out of a narrator in a video being screened here mispronouncing the name of Whatcom County when talking about the location of Point Roberts. The midwest has a lot of similar Native American place names that even give us Northwesterners issues.
When looking at American place names you ALWAYS have to remember-- at least half of them are based on native names. The spellings are based roughly on phonetic spellings by semi-literate explorers who wrote what they heard, but they were NOT linguists. Then there is the shift that happens over the past 100 years or more. You guys do pretty good. I can't figure out how you come up with some of the pronunciations of English place names. To me, I just see someone who was paid by the letters to create the names for a map and ignored the actual pronunciation when they wrote them down.
Patricia Anderson, so true. For example, "Tennessee" comes from the Cherokee word "Tanassee".
Oooh, so cynical. I love it. 😉
My husband was born and raised in Las Vegas, NV and he always corrects me on the pronunciation of the state.
I am from the U.S. and I like your guys reaction on these videos
Yes! Another informative video...thank you.
Millie gets every word wrong and then claims victory. Love it!
lol @13:20 lol my little baby man (my nephew) just graduated from App State(Appalachia State) he was #10 on the football team Tim Frizzell.
Being from the US, most of these are dependent on our personal accents. I have never heard of Louisville said anything other than "Loo-eee-ville." If the locals want it pronounced a different way. That's on them.
I live in a neighborhood with a name that I have heard pronounced literally more than 5 different ways. I don't care if anyone says it wrong.
In the south we'd say Lou-vul
@@HBC423 I'm in the Southwest and for 60 years of my life I've only known it as "loo-ee-ville". That is what's frustrating about these types of topics, even locals in their own cities get a lot of them wrong.
Locals sometimes have their own pronunciations just so they can point and laugh at outsiders.
@@swissuz cuz you ain't from round here... but I would say Lou-E-Vil slugger... but if I was talkin bout the town, we'd say, Lou-vul
“O-kay, I think you’re wrong” Ha, ha!
It's hilarious how Millie made me subscribe by brute force. I don't know any other channel where this would have worked but she's so lovable and scary at the same time lol. James, your epic. Don't ruin your relationship b/c it's wonderfully complimentary! Upstate NYer who loves everything you do so don't stop; your friend Paul!
You two are so adorable. I love your videos.
Wow! Millie just does _not_ accept "pah-TOE-m'ck" ... a little tip Millie, if you don't like strangers staring at you, don't visit the Potomac region. Despite many people insisting that Americans are rude and obnoxious, if you show up with an odd pronunciation of a place-name, many of us won't bother correcting you if you're obviously an overseas visitor - we'll just chalk it up to "well, you can't necessarily expect somebody from ______ to get every word right, all the time!" But many of us will stare at you, some hoping you'll get the clue and ask "so, what's wrong?"
P.S. - in Spanish "Chile" is pronounced "CHEE-lay"; trust somebody with a few years of Español under his belt, and who has spent a fair amount of time with Spanish-speakers, discussing geography. The amazing thing to me is the number of people that I've run across who literally can't seem to _hear_ the difference between "CHEE-lay" and "chilly"! I can't believe the number of times I've had this conversation:
Them: It's "CHILL-ee", of course.
Me:. No; it's "CHEE-lay".
Them: That's what I said, "CHILL-ee".
Me: No; you said "CHILL-ee", when it's "CHEE-lay"!
Them: [with a puzzled look] But you just said it twice,
the same way!
Me: You can't hear any difference between "CHILL-lee"
and "CHEE-lay"?!?
Them: You're just repeating yourself ... without any
difference. Why?
It almost feels like I'm doing the "Who's On First" routine from Abbot & Costello, except it's way more annoying!
Can confirm from northern Appalachia we use the 'LATCH' variant. If you do run into someone who uses the 'LAY' variant they are also likely to say your name incorrectly on purpose if it isn't common, going as far as saying back to you wrong several times before giving up dramatically, so make of that what you will.
I love you guys love from Arkansas woo pig call them hogs for me ❤️
Pine Bluff.
During WWII, my former father-in-law, Ken, (an American) spent some time in a British army camp. One day, during a conversation with a British officer, Ken said something about the training schedule for the day. He pronounced the word with the hard "c" (like a "k") as Americans do. The British officer said, "You mean schedule." He pronounced it like "shed", the way the British do. This was apparently the 3rd or 4th time he'd been corrected by other Brits and he was becoming a bit annoyed about it. So he replied, "Well, excuse me. I haven't had much Shooling". Fortunately, the British officer had a sense of humor so Ken got away with being a smart-ass to an officer.
Dwight Eisenhower also ran into that, and would credit it to some "sheme in my shooling"
I love ya guys and enjoy your reaction videos, but you can't complain "that's not how its written" about Louisville when you guys have Leicester and just ignore half the letters in it. Fair is fair, we can ignore letters in Louisville.
So, the secret is, the pronunciation changes depending on which part of the country (or even state) you grew up.
Millie correctly pronounced Potomac.
'Appalachia' varies with regional accents. In the North East, at least in New England, it is ap-ah-LAY-sha.
There's a family story from the deep dark past that I should relate. Back in the day, before WW2, one of my aunt's brothers was, for a while, educated in a British school in Burma (his father was in the oil industry). They were taking a geography class, and the teacher (British) insisted that the river that flowed past Washington D.C. was the POT-oh-Mac. My distant relative tried to correct her but was unsuccessful.
My favorite weird pronunciation of American place names is two-fold. There are two Lancasters in the United States, one in Pennsylvania and the other in California. You say the Pennsylvanian one in a similar way to how a Brit might say it, with an American accent of course, but the California one you say Lan-cass-ter, the way it's spelled (to an American anyway). The other involves the states of Kansas and Arkansas. Kansas you say Kan-zass, while if you add Ar to the front of it, it becomes Ar-kin-saw. I read somewhere years ago that the state legislature in Arkansas actually passed a law (with no criminal penalties) making it illegal to pronounce their state's name Ar-kan-zass. Perhaps true, perhaps apocryphal, but believable in any event.
Also a Lancaster in Ohio. Not pronounced like the one in Pennsylvania.
Here in Pennsylvania you mostly hear Ap-pa-lay-sha , unless you happen to live in the mountains where we use the region name instead , where I'm at we just say Laurel Highlands , other areas we call by region are the Tuscarora's and Poconos
i really like Lawrence, he’s such a gentleman, never has anything impolite to say, though we probably deserve it at times.
I used to have Gloucester Canaries. A guy once called and asked if I had any clusters for sale. 🥴
I was born in Worcester, Massachusetts and lived in the area most of my life. We pronounce all the towns mentioned at the beginning exactly as the Brits do.
You two repeating Schenectady sounded like space aliens trying to figure out human guttural sounds. 😂
The names of over half the states in the US and even a higher percentage after you cut out the first 13 colonies come from Native American words. As we have very few native speakers of most of those tribes left, the original and most correct pronunciation of most of our states and MANY towns are almost entirely lost to history. Just in Minnesota (which is Native American itself) there is:
Mahtomedi
Wayzata
Mahnomen
Ponemah
Quamba
Pokegama
Kandiyohi
Isanti
Menahga
Kabetogama
Okabena
Winnebago
Winona
Wabasha
Given more time I'm sure i could come up with more but I have lived in Minnesota where all of these towns are and there are a few that I wouldn't get correct either
I should clarify that I have *lived in MN my whole life.
In Colorado it’s pronounced “LEWIS-vill” rhymes with “will” and also we have a town called Buena vista in Co, and the residents pronounce “Buena” like “Boon-ah” (rhymes with tuna)
One my east coast friends always get wrong when they visit me in California is "La Jolla". Its a little beach town near San Diego. Most people say "La--Jaw-luh"
but its actually "La--Hoy-uh"
I think it depends heavily on what part of the U.S. the person is from. I mean some of us in NY have a hard time understanding the real southern drawl country accent that people down South have if its really heavy lol. And I'm born and raised in NY and said New Orleans the way it looks like it should be pronounced too like you guys and it used to drive me nuts when I would hear someone pronounce it New "Orlins" so it varies across even our own country as well. There are so many different accents in the U.S. - you have the southern or "country" accent, the Midwest accent, the "New York" accent ( which to me is just the normal way of speaking, everyone else has the accent lol) and you have differences in pronunciation all throughout the West Coast as well.
I’m a Kentuckian and we pronounce Louisville as “Loo-uh-vull”. My cousin lives in Louisville, Colorado and they pronounce their town, “Lewis-ville”. To-may-to, to-mah-to. 🤷🏼♀️
It helps that Louisville KY is named after a French king (loo-ee) and Louisville CO is named after a not French guy (loo-iss)
Appalachian here. The further north of the range it gets, the more we say app-a-lay-sha. You should try Allegheny, Monongahela, and Youghioheny next.
In Pennsylvania we have many hard names such as Schuylkill, Duquesne, Lititz, and Bala Cynwyd. SKOO-kill, doo-KANE, LIT-itz, BAL-lah KIN -wood.
As an American, I also said woah when Schenectady popped up, and also guessed the same pronunciation that you guys did
That was so funny! I live in North Carolina and listening to you both I couldn't pronounce the names. I laughed and laughed since I couldn't tell what was right or wrong. I was born in Charlotte, North Carolina but moved to Jefferson, North Carolina in 2020. You should know that I knew how to pronounce each one correctly; just got into what you were saying. I love your channel! Oh, by the way, I didn't type "y'all" instead of 'you both". That's just a Southern way of saying You All! I say it all the time.
In Tennessee we have a town called Louisville…. but it’s pronounced Lewsville. So I still pronounce the one in Kentucky wrong all the time.
Names of cities in my home stare that trip up the tourists:
Spokane (spoKAN)
Puyallup (pewALup)
Sequim (skwim)
Hey homie 🖐 I live in Yakima