Poughkeepsie, NY, though I'm nowhere near there anymore.
When I was in New Zealand, I was confused because I heard Lake Taupo as both "Tau-Poe" and "Toe-Paw". Someone told me that "Toe-Paw" is the local pronunciation and that the other is the common Pakeha mispronunciation. Most of the cities called "Milan" in the US are pronounced "MY-lan" for whatever reasons.
@carlisamantha kuyke...what?? That's a doozie.
trillian- Versailles, Kentucky is pronounced "Veer- sails"
Ahhh Kuykendahl. Another street here in San Antonio, Huebner, pronounced HEEBner. Yeah, i don't know either. Also I live in Bexar County, pronounced Bear, it's an old trap. It's how you know you've lived here for long enough to be considered a local.
@imposterholmes It must be so confusing for people visiting NZ, almost every place name has a pakeha and Maori pronunciation haha! I think my favourite is Whakatane, pronounced Fuck-a-Taan-a but also pronounced woka-tayne
Pretty much every suburb my sister has lived in on the Gold Coast in Queensland (Australia), Mudgeeraba, Coombabah, Tallebudgera, actually, pretty much half the suburb names up there in general. And of course I live in Melbourne, Australia and none of us pronounce it correctly, in spite of how easy it looks ;-)
I'm from the Central Coast where they have Wattanobbi which they SWEAR is an indigenous word.
The proper way to pronounce "Nashville" can actually only be accomplished through a rare combination of tight jeans with ludicrously large belt buckles. It does something to the diaphragm and allows the diphthongs to be in the proper places. Much like pronouncing "Melbourne" requires a boomerang down the khakis.
We don't wear khakis. :) we are just lazy speakers
As Adam Hills says, the Australian accent is just the cockney accent slowed down because of the heat.
I love your United States of America, every place sounds like T.V.
Canowindra in NSW is prononced Ca-noun-druh. According to Wikipedia it's derived from an Aboriginal word meaning 'a home'.
*pronounced. My private school education was clearly wasted on me.
Basically Americans trying to say most Aussie names is fun times for me. Some near me: Indooroopilly = In-dra-pill-y Coorparoo = Coo-pa-roo Warwick = War-rick (like the Brits man!) Ebbw Vale = I have no clue... Just a weird name.
Here in Georgia, USA we have a city called Dacula. Pronounced "Duh-Cue-Luh". Also, I spent some time working in Sweden, where I frequently saw signs for a place called Linköping. Turns out the letters "kö" make a noise a bit like "shoe", so "Linn-Shoe-Ping".
It just so happens that Ebbw Vale is that name of the Welsh village where my Mum is from. "Eh-Boo" Vale :) :)
I'm Aussie, lived in the UK for a bit too. Both have some doozies. Scotland: Hawick = Hoik (more or less) Creswick = Crezzick Australia (cracks knuckles): Tangambalanga = basically the way it looks, but try saying it 5 times quickly. Goonoo goonoo = Gunna g'noo.
I'm German, living in Munich (but spent 10 years in NYC), and it seems like almost any place here is impossible for Americans to pronounce (for example München, the ü and ch sounds just don't exist in the English language. Love the podcast!
Listening to tourists trying to pronounce place names here in London is a kind of running joke with locals. Particularly American tourists. I think the reason is not that Americans find it harder, but that they will often just go for it, loudly and confidently. Also, it's not so much that the words are difficult to pronounce, so much as spelled in a rediculous way. Famously: Leicester sq = Less-ter square Edinburgh (Scotland, but people will insist on makeing loud plans to go there, on the underground) = Ed-in-bruh Magdeden Collage Oxford = Maud-lin Mousehole (Cornwall) = Mow-zel . I mean, what the hell? It clearly says Mouse Hole! And Cornwall isn't pronounced Corn-wall either, while we're at it, it's Corn-well or corn-wool depending Ina on which part of the U.K. you're from. I apologize for my people, guys. I think we are making it unnecessarily hard on everyone.