Regional Pronunciation Guide for Sports-Related Topics

[Mac the Knife]

One that I've never understood is Louisville.

I accept that locals typically say "Luhlvuhl" and just squash the crap out of it, but I've always said "Lou-ee Ville" particularly in relation to the baseball bats. I'm fine referring to the city with the mash potato name, but are the bats supposed to be called "Luhvuhull Sluggers?"

CSB Time: The first job interview I ever had was at a radio station in a small town, Blairsville, Pennsylvania. I was 15, lying about my age (17) back in a day when you could get away with that. The station had just changed hands, and I was interviewing with the new owner and a hired consultant. One of the first questions I was asked was "What's the capital of Kentucky?"

I answered, "Frankfort." At which point, the owner realized he'd asked the wrong question. "S**t," he says, laughing, "Where's the Kentucky Derby held each year?" he follows up with.

"Lou-eh-vull," I respond. Got the job on the spot.

Oh. And for anyone wondering, "Raleigh-Durham" is pronounced, depending on where you are, as "Rahl-ee" or "Dur-umm." There's no such place as "Raleigh-Durham."

Ok, I'm stumped. How else is "Raleigh-Durham" pronounced? I live about 10 miles from Raleigh, MS, and I've never heard a pronunciation other than "Rah-lee"

Some (among them Seth Meyers, until he was corrected) have spoken it "Rally."

Well let's just keep this Ohio thing rolling then, shall we? Let's see...

Lima: it's also a city in Peru; but apparently the city in Ohio pronounces it like the bean. (There's also a North Lima...but we won't get into how it's dang near on the Pennsylvania border while Lima is on the complete opposite side of the state...at a more northern latitude.)

Further up I-75 exists a place called Wapakoneta...I'm sure you see how that can get butchered ten different ways. I still don't know how to say it, but I heard someone on the news pronounce it as "wuh-PAH-kuh-nettuh".

Back to the long vowel sound thing...right around the I-71/I-76 split exists a place called Medina. Nope...not pronounced like the last word in the title of an old Tone Loc jam, but "meh-DINE-uh". Six or seven miles down from there is a town called Lodi...I still call it "low-die" out of habit, but I think it's actually pronounced "Low-dee".

Now...turning attention eastward..I need some clarification on some things.

I watched a lot of Reading Rainbow growing up. At the end of the show they always showed the credits, and mentioned that the show was sponsored (?) by the Carnegie Foundation. Now, all my life I grew up hearing that said as "CAR-nuh-gee", so that's what i always thought it was. But then I moved to Pittsburgh and...oh boy. Well they pronounce it as "car-NAY-gee". And sticking with jacked-up Pittsburgh dialect...the neighborhood I grew up in down home had a lot of French-named streets. Teo of them were Marseilles and Versailles. Now ever since my very first world history class in middle school I'd always heard these words as "mar-SAY" and "vur-SAI" (like the weapon), so I pronounced them as such. Well, there's a suburb east of Pittsburgh called North Versailles...except they call it "North vur-SAILS". As for the other place, there's a town out west of Chicago that has that name...but I keep hearing "mar-SAILS" out of them, too.

Oh and...not that anyone cares about this next part, but after the "three rivers"--Allegheny (that's alluh-GAIN-ee for those unfamiliar--say "alligator" a few times and you'll catch on), Monongahela (pronounced just as it looks) and the Ohio (duh), there's a fourth river that no one ever talks about called the Youghioheny River. I seriously doubt anyone there knows how to really say it--I have a hard enough time spelling it (spell check, please!), but I remember hearing a bunch of people call it the "YAHK-kuh-gainy"

What do yinz say?? /confused

Having grown up just outside Youngstown only to move to the Johnstown area in my early teens, I never had an issue with the Ohio pronunciations, but some of the Pennsylvania ones were (and are even today) mind-boggling.

[Sec19Row53]

Neither Green nor Bay is accented.

Unless you are Troy Aikman.

[2001mark]

Neither Green nor Bay is accented.

Unless you are Troy Aikman.

Phil Simms always loves to tell his bro Jeem Nance just how the game is going.

[pianoknight]

Oregon (and the Pac NW) have a bunch of placenames that were probably Native American words that have been ran through the French-Anglo-Saxon ringer over the years.

The Willamette Valley (and it's associated River) make up the sort of midsection of Oregon from about Salem down south of Eugene. It's the heart of Oregon wine country and where both UO and OSU are located. Locals know to pronounce it as wil-lam-it, like someone named Will ordering lamb. Tourists always say willa-met, like the author of "My Antonia" was meeting someone.

[BigBubba]

Etobicoke, the suburb of Toronto which happens to be home to Joey Votto and Rob Ford, is pronounced "Uh-TOW-bick-oh". Anyone who pronounces the "coke" like the soft drink is wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong.

Colonel.

Honestly... wtf is that about & why.

Leff-tenant.

[2001mark]

Rob Ford "coke"

e-tob-ic-oh. I pronounce the E but I don't make an eeee sound.

[Shumway]

I hear in Newark, they pronounce it "Nork."

Growing up in the Phila area and living in Phila, I've always heard it as "nork". If I ever hear "new ark", I know they're talking about Newark DE, not NJ.

This one threw me for a loop on one of my drives from NJ to SC a few months ago. Took the route without tolls with led me right by the UD football stadium, where I was hearing commercials on the radio about "New Ark." Took me a second to catch on.

I grew up near Lancaster, South Carolina. Pronounced LANC-uh-ster, but it's a really quick three syllables. More like LANE-c'ster. Lan-CAS-ter is in Pennsylvania.

That is not true. It's LANKester, though it's often mispronounced. Anyone from that area will correct you if you say Lan CAS ter.

I think on TV when they're referring to the Amish they invariably pronounce it lan-CAS-ter, but I had roommates in college from there and they insisted that it is LANKester.

Wait, really? Is it like this?

That's (almost) how we pronounce the city name in SC. I can't quite articulate how it's different, it's just a bit more... sped up.

yeah that's about right. Little more stress on the first syllabol. Interestingly, I just heard an ad for Lancaster brand chicken breast, and the add said "lanCASter". I swear thought that locals take issue with that pronounciation.

I'm a month late on this one, but as our resident Lancaster, PA product, I feel like I should chime in here.

It's totally pronounced Lang-kiss-ter....49erfan's video was pretty close.