Mispronunciations

Add Lima Locomotive Works, located in Lima, Ohio, i.e. NOT "Lima, Peru"! 

How about "gon-dough-la" vs. "gondulah?"

The grammar police are at it again. Unfortunately, I am one of them...

MELGAR

Reading Railroad?  John

Monon.

Not long after the breakup up of Conrail; I can recollect a conversation with a former NS account manager who referred to the “Juanita” shops in Altoona.  Of course; it’s spelled Juniata and pronounced “joo-nee-atta.

In a similar vein and relevant to this topic only because it involved a railroad man; I had several Canadian Pacific people in Carlsbad, NM for a potash mine visit.  While having dinner that evening; the waitress asked if we wanted dessert.  One of the guys from Montreal said he’d like a piece of (and I’m spelling this phonetically) - peecan pie.  The waitress looked at him and said “huh”?  He repeated “a piece of peecan pie please”.  She said “hold on” and came back with two other waitresses; asking him to repeat his order for their benefit.  When he did; all three started laughing and our waitress told him “hon; around here it’s pronounced (again phoenetically) - peekahn.”

Curt

Try "Ouachita" (Mountains)

Andre

Just be nice guys...already have had an alert....

Alan; you’re kidding I hope.

Curt

juniata guy posted:

Alan; you’re kidding I hope.

Curt

I agree! What could possibly have been offensive in the few posts above?

OGR CEO-PUBLISHER posted:

Just be nice guys...already have had an alert....

Really, some people need to give it a rest and you can report me if your that vain.

How about Worcester Mass.   Is it WOR-Cester or is it WO-R-cester.  Only us who live in mass know for sure and the end of the line on the old B&A now CSX.

MELGAR posted:

The grammar police are at it again. Unfortunately, I am one of them...

MELGAR

Well, in my opinion, this thread is really not about "grammar". Note that the title is about proper pronunciation.

An "alert"??  What I see posted is very innocuous.

Surely someone hit the "Alert" button by mistake.

Andre

Hot Water posted:

Add Lima Locomotive Works, located in Lima, Ohio, i.e. NOT "Lima, Peru"! 

You mean as in the bean!

" Berkshire Mountains"

Only you Americans would forget that it's pronounced "Barkshire." . As in a nightingale sang in Berkeley Square.  We English toffs can always find something to feel Lake Superior about.

Some people study linguistics at the graduate level.  Funded studies provide expenses for students to travel parts of the US of A with a list of words and a voice recorder.  People from various parts of the US are asked to read aloud the words on the list in what could be referred to as their native colloquialism.  Those audio tapes are then reviewed at the end of the semester.  John in Lansing, ILL

Sometimes it depends on your local dialect as well. Here in Northern Illinois we used to have a horse farm / park called ShIreland.

We also add the letter "S" to every grocery store even if it doesn't have an "S". I'm going down to the Jewels to pick up some grocery.

Just don't pronounce the "S" in our state name.

The Soo Line = comes from the phonetic spelling of Sault, as in Sault St. Marie.

Gary, I pronounce Worcester "WOO-ster" like boogie.  Andre, I have always said "WASH-i-ta".  Are those correct?

Railroaders on the D&RGW used a long I in Rio Grande: RY-oh-Grand.  Never pronounce the silent e in Grande.  Here are a few other local pronunciations for railroad locations:

Dalies, NM  =  Dal-EEZ     Waynoka, OK  =  Wye-NO-kuh or One-OH-kuh       Gallup, NM  =  Gallop (like a horse's gait)

RoyBoy posted:

Monon.

I'll not sit here and be called a Monon! Where's the uh-lurt button???

So, how does one say Monon?

superwarp1 posted:

How about Worcester Mass.   Is it WOR-Cester or is it WO-R-cester.  Only us who live in mass know for sure and the end of the line on the old B&A now CSX.

Huh. I thought it was something along the lines of WUH-stuh? Anyway, that's how I remember my college roommate saying it. Unless he was talking about some totally different place? I kid from Mizzuruh can have trouble with some of these things!

Tom:

Quite good!

"WASH uh taw" is the local pronunciation. I live in the Quachita Mountain region... in the town of (are you ready for another one?): Poteau.

Worcester:

Way back in my dark ages (when my hair was dark... yup, I had hair once) I was driving a truck headed for Armpit, MA or someplace. Was wondering how far I had to go, so while at a truck stop on on the western edge of MA I asked a local how far it was to "Wore ces ter". The guy looked at me funny... asking... "Where??". I pronounced it again "WORE CES TER". He explained there WASN'T such a place. I countered there was... so I produced my map Atlas and pointed to the place.

He burst out laughing at my hillbilly dialect and said "Oh! You mean WUSter!"... well WUSter is only about another (how ever many miles)!"

Guess I gave him a good laugh.

Andre

nickaix posted:

superwarp1 posted:

How about Worcester Mass.   Is it WOR-Cester or is it WO-R-cester.  Only us who live in mass know for sure and the end of the line on the old B&A now CSX.

Huh. I thought it was something along the lines of WUH-stuh? Anyway, that's how I remember my college roommate saying it. Unless he was talking about some totally different place? I kid from Mizzuruh can have trouble with some of these things!

Nickaix, you're correct. If you lack a Boston accent, as I fortunately do, then WUH-stir is allowable.

To Melgar's comment, grammar does not equal pronunciation and/or dialect.

And to Alan's comment, surely you're joking.

The once great Bill Cosby had a good bit comparing Europeans' ability to speak multiple languages vs. Americans'. "I speak Mississippi."

juniata guy posted:

Alan; you’re kidding I hope.

Curt

nope...for real....

OGR CEO-PUBLISHER posted:

nope...for real....

Uh, Alan, AP style calls for a space before and after the ellipsis (space period period period space), therefore:
"nope ... for real ..."

(FWIW, the Chicago Manual of Style calls for: space period space period space period space, therefore: "nope . . . for real . . ." Since you're in the publishing world, I assume that you use AP style.)

:-)

Back to the original topic. Tripoli Road in northern New Hampshire is pronounced "triple-eye," because it is named after the mineral Tripoli—again, triple-eye—which is also known as diatomaceous earth. If you follow that link you will see that the Livermore Tripoli Company was service by the Woodstock and Thornton Gore RR.

Matt_GNo27 posted:

OGR CEO-PUBLISHER posted:

nope...for real....

Uh, Alan, AP style calls for a space before and after the ellipsis (space period period period space), therefore:
"nope ... for real ..."

(FWIW, the Chicago Manual of Style calls for: space period space period space period space, therefore: "nope . . . for real . . ." Since you're in the publishing world, I assume that you use AP style.)

:-)

We use "FREE Style" GHEEEZZZZ. 

As a kid, I lived in the town of Hockessin Delaware that was a stop on the old Wilmington and Western RR. The locals called it Ho-ckess-in, but you could tell an outlander when they called it Hock-ess-in. Nobody ever figured out what the name meant.

Worshington DC.

Well, if you've studied languages and traveled, and want to find a restroom, a hotel, or restaurant, where the language or even accent is different you hope you are intelligible, and are disposed to be polite to visitors in your home area.  I remember stopping for gas in the early 1960's in Vicksburg, Miss. , and could not understand a word the pump jockey

And in Mass don't forget Peabody and Woburn.

said.  I missed my stop at that English town that made the news for the Russian poisoning (the closest railstop for Stonehenge) because the Cockney accent of the conductor might as well have been Swahili.  (I have also heard Stonehenge argued as ponounced "stone HEDGE") Those local yokel waitresses should have been politer to Canadian guests in our country.  Although l got rude treatment at a Quebec visitor center back in the "French power" era.

What's the correct pronunciation for the Monongahela Railroad?

How did JFK get Cuber out of Cuba?  John in Lansing, ILL

Tom:

i went to college in “Picksburg” as some of the locals called it so I’ll try to give you Monongahela phonetically.

Muh-non-ga-haaluh 

Curt

Long Island Rail Road stops can be butchered too!  Shinnecock Hills...Massapequa... Islip (pronounced I-slip).  I heard someone in Penn station ask for the train to Ron Kon coma once!

Jon

rattler21 posted:

How did JFK get Cuber out of Cuba?  John in Lansing, ILL

Rattler:

I’ve been on Delta flights where the captain referred to Atlanta as Atlanter.

But; my favorite Atlanta pronunciation - and this has to be spoken with a heavy Southern accent - is AH-lan-uh.

Curt

One mangled pronunciation is Gratiot, as in the street in Detroit, or the (now torn down) interlocking tower in St. Louis, MO. Very often you hear people unfamiliar with the name pronouncing it Gra-tI-ott, with an extra syllable, but it is properly pronounced Grash-it.

Jeff C

Non train, midwestern that I noticed lately: tour = too wer 

One of my personal favorite accents are the C&NW guys from, say Cheboygan,  talking about their "railroad brudders  from udder railroads".  I'm not making fun of them...I really like that.  If they could hear me, they would probably  chuckle right back.

juniata guy posted:

Tom:

i went to college in “Picksburg” as some of the locals called it so I’ll try to give you Monongahela phonetically.

Muh-non-ga-haaluh 

Curt

Muh-non-ga-hay-luh    which meets the Ohio and Yock-uh-gainey rivers at Picksburg.   Where you can get a bottle of pop, tie things up with gum bands and one time they painted up the jolly trolley in purty kellers.    And when you spill pop in the Frigidaire  you wipe it up with towel papers.