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http://www.mysanantonio.com/life/life_c ... 549987.php
Texas towns are not so foreign to native tongues
by Roy Bragg, San Antonio Express News
A consultant appeared before an area city council last summer and, from the podium, told the members and townspeople in attendance that he was happy to be working for the city of “New Braunsfels.”
Some in the crowd snickered. Others shook their heads and sighed. By inserting that additional “s” in the middle of the New Braunfels' name — a common mistake and a pet peeve of locals — the poor man had turned himself into an instant local punch line.
There are thousands of Texas towns and some of them, like New Braunfels (officially pronounced phonetically, though some locals call it “New Brown-fels”), have names that are constantly mangled by out-of-towners.
Jourdanton, named after a guy named Jourdan Campbell, is pronounced “jer-din-ton,” not “jordan-ton.” Buda, south of Austin, and Buna, out in the Piney Woods, get their names butchered in the same fashion. In both cases, the “bu” rhymes with “you,” not “boo.”
Seguin, says Main Street Director Mary Jo Filip, is often called “sequin” or “seg-ween.” Over in Boerne, tourism officials have made commercials about the mispronunciations — such as “born-ee” or “béarnaise,” with the tag line “As unique as our name.” Gruene, pronounced like the color, is butchered in many ways, says Judy Young, a New Braunfels tourism official: groon, grew-een, groon-ee, grew-ee-nee, etc.
The West Texas town of Iraan isn't pronounced like the Middle Eastern nation. The name is a run-on of the first names of Ira and Ann Yates and is pronounced “Ira-Ann.”
Bedias, just west of Huntsville in East Texas, looks like “be-die-us,” but it's “bead-ice”.
Leakey, in the Hill Country, appears to be “leaky” but is actually “lake-ee.”
Visitors to the Panhandle are constantly bungling the name of Miami, the Roberts County seat, by pronouncing it like the large tropical city in Florida. The big city in South Florida is “miam-ee,” but the town near the top of Texas is “miam-uh.”
County Judge Vernon Cook says there are at least two other small American towns named Miami and both are pronounced like his. The name, according to local legend, is an Indian word for “sweetheart.”
“I don't know if it's true or not,” the judge says. “I tell everybody we pronounce it ‘miam-uh' so we won't be confused with those idiots in Florida.”
Northeast of that, near the Oklahoma state line, sits Darrouzett, pronounced “darrow-zet.” Anahuac, on the other side of the state near Houston, is pronounced “an-uh-whack.” Colmesneil, another East Texas town, is a tough one. There are lots of ways to butcher it, but the only right way to say it is “kol-ms-neel.”
Some town names throw everyone for a loop.
The Southeast Texas town of Refugio is officially pronounced “ree-fury-oh.” This is especially weird, says Mayor Ray Jaso, because the town is named after the Spanish word for “refuge,” which is pronounced “ree-fu-yee-oh.”
“Somebody decided to say it that way a long time ago,” the mayor says of the name. “We don't fight about it anymore. We go along with it. We call it our official mispronunciation.”
Other town names continue to vex outsiders.
There's a general misconception that Burnet, sitting northwest of Austin, is pronounced “bur-NETT,” with emphasis on the last syllable. But local historian Carole A. Goble says the town is named after David Burnet, the first provisional president of the Republic of Texas, and his descendants pronounce it as if something is being torched.
It's such a common mistake, Goble says, locals came up a slogan to help the rest of us remember it: “Burn it, durn it. Can't your learn it?”
The best of the bunch, however, comes from Central Texas. It's the star of an old joke about a couple, entering a Limestone County town named “Mexia.” Soon, they get into an argument over how to pronounce the town's name.
She says it's “Muh-hay-uh.” He says “Mex-e-uh.”
To settle it, they stop at the first business they see, go inside and ask the kid working behind the counter about it.
“Son,” the man says, “how do you pronounce the name of this place?”
The kid stares at them for a long moment, then slowly and deliberately says, “Dairy … Queen.”
Wait. There's more.
It turns out, the woman was right. The town is officially pronounced “Muh-hay-uh.” But Linda Archibald, Chamber of Commerce president, says old timers, leaning on their small town twang, actually pronounce it a third way.
“They say ‘Mahair,' like ‘my hair.'”
http://www.mysanantonio.com/life/life_c ... 549987.php
Texas towns are not so foreign to native tongues
by Roy Bragg, San Antonio Express News
A consultant appeared before an area city council last summer and, from the podium, told the members and townspeople in attendance that he was happy to be working for the city of “New Braunsfels.”
Some in the crowd snickered. Others shook their heads and sighed. By inserting that additional “s” in the middle of the New Braunfels' name — a common mistake and a pet peeve of locals — the poor man had turned himself into an instant local punch line.
There are thousands of Texas towns and some of them, like New Braunfels (officially pronounced phonetically, though some locals call it “New Brown-fels”), have names that are constantly mangled by out-of-towners.
Jourdanton, named after a guy named Jourdan Campbell, is pronounced “jer-din-ton,” not “jordan-ton.” Buda, south of Austin, and Buna, out in the Piney Woods, get their names butchered in the same fashion. In both cases, the “bu” rhymes with “you,” not “boo.”
Seguin, says Main Street Director Mary Jo Filip, is often called “sequin” or “seg-ween.” Over in Boerne, tourism officials have made commercials about the mispronunciations — such as “born-ee” or “béarnaise,” with the tag line “As unique as our name.” Gruene, pronounced like the color, is butchered in many ways, says Judy Young, a New Braunfels tourism official: groon, grew-een, groon-ee, grew-ee-nee, etc.
The West Texas town of Iraan isn't pronounced like the Middle Eastern nation. The name is a run-on of the first names of Ira and Ann Yates and is pronounced “Ira-Ann.”
Bedias, just west of Huntsville in East Texas, looks like “be-die-us,” but it's “bead-ice”.
Leakey, in the Hill Country, appears to be “leaky” but is actually “lake-ee.”
Visitors to the Panhandle are constantly bungling the name of Miami, the Roberts County seat, by pronouncing it like the large tropical city in Florida. The big city in South Florida is “miam-ee,” but the town near the top of Texas is “miam-uh.”
County Judge Vernon Cook says there are at least two other small American towns named Miami and both are pronounced like his. The name, according to local legend, is an Indian word for “sweetheart.”
“I don't know if it's true or not,” the judge says. “I tell everybody we pronounce it ‘miam-uh' so we won't be confused with those idiots in Florida.”
Northeast of that, near the Oklahoma state line, sits Darrouzett, pronounced “darrow-zet.” Anahuac, on the other side of the state near Houston, is pronounced “an-uh-whack.” Colmesneil, another East Texas town, is a tough one. There are lots of ways to butcher it, but the only right way to say it is “kol-ms-neel.”
Some town names throw everyone for a loop.
The Southeast Texas town of Refugio is officially pronounced “ree-fury-oh.” This is especially weird, says Mayor Ray Jaso, because the town is named after the Spanish word for “refuge,” which is pronounced “ree-fu-yee-oh.”
“Somebody decided to say it that way a long time ago,” the mayor says of the name. “We don't fight about it anymore. We go along with it. We call it our official mispronunciation.”
Other town names continue to vex outsiders.
There's a general misconception that Burnet, sitting northwest of Austin, is pronounced “bur-NETT,” with emphasis on the last syllable. But local historian Carole A. Goble says the town is named after David Burnet, the first provisional president of the Republic of Texas, and his descendants pronounce it as if something is being torched.
It's such a common mistake, Goble says, locals came up a slogan to help the rest of us remember it: “Burn it, durn it. Can't your learn it?”
The best of the bunch, however, comes from Central Texas. It's the star of an old joke about a couple, entering a Limestone County town named “Mexia.” Soon, they get into an argument over how to pronounce the town's name.
She says it's “Muh-hay-uh.” He says “Mex-e-uh.”
To settle it, they stop at the first business they see, go inside and ask the kid working behind the counter about it.
“Son,” the man says, “how do you pronounce the name of this place?”
The kid stares at them for a long moment, then slowly and deliberately says, “Dairy … Queen.”
Wait. There's more.
It turns out, the woman was right. The town is officially pronounced “Muh-hay-uh.” But Linda Archibald, Chamber of Commerce president, says old timers, leaning on their small town twang, actually pronounce it a third way.
“They say ‘Mahair,' like ‘my hair.'”
