Quicksand Fans

Here's a funny video of non-native speakers trying to pronounce place names from Upstate NY. It's a mixed bag of cultures; besides the "English" as the Amish call us, there were the Dutch in the Hudson Valley, Germans in the Mohawk and Schoharie Valleys, and of course the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. (We didn't just steal their land, we stole their form of Government, too.) And other native tribes in distant corners of the state.
All of them left their mark on place names, some of which have become Anglicized, which makes for verbal confusion. For example, any French names that crept in got pronounced phonetically; so Arnot, NY is pronounced "are not" instead of "are know".

http://youtu.be/Uvmfh7yDMCI


In defense of my home state, while our place names may be well-nigh unpronounceable, at least they're not as weird as the place names in Northwest Pennsylvania- places like Turtlepoint, Vowinckel, Eighty-Four, Nine Mile, Intercourse, Jersey Shore, Elk Lick, Kasson, Kossuth, Kinzua, Eldred, and many more.

Dildo, Newfoundland

Not sure if I can top that

In Pennsylvania it takes approximately 28 minutes to get from Blue Ball to Paradise via Intercourse.
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Interco ... 183438!3e0

Mynock wrote:In Pennsylvania it takes approximately 28 minutes to get from Blue Ball to Paradise via Intercourse.
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Interco ... 183438!3e0

Nice! A lot of North/ South action, with a little East/ West.

jadokast98 wrote:

Mynock wrote:In Pennsylvania it takes approximately 28 minutes to get from Blue Ball to Paradise via Intercourse.
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Interco ... 183438!3e0

Nice! A lot of North/ South action, with a little East/ West.

Here are some place names in Arkansas: Bee Branch, Booger Hollow, Flipin, Needmore, Pickles Gap, Fifty Six, and Toad Suck.

There's town in Britain called Dull. It recently twinned itself with a town in America called Boring. They hold an annual Dull and Boring day.

In my own county there's a village called Ugley. This is home to the Ugley Women's Institute.

For pronunciation fun, you must go to Wales. Try to say Llanfairpwyllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantisiliogogogoch. Yes, really.

Lomax wrote:There's town in Britain called Dull. It recently twinned itself with a town in America called Boring. They hold an annual Dull and Boring day.

In my own county there's a village called Ugley. This is home to the Ugley Women's Institute.

For pronunciation fun, you must go to Wales. Try to say Llanfairpwyllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantisiliogogogoch. Yes, really.

I tried to pronounce that but I think I hurt myself.

Locally called Llanfair PG I believe!!

Hungary has Bugyi ("Panties"), Nagybajom ("My Big Problem"), and Kiskorpad ("Your Little Dandruff" or "Your Little Wheat Germ," though I prefer "Dandruff"). And, of course, Kentucky has the greatest park name ever, Big Bone Lick State Park.