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I'm sure there are a million examples of words that people pronounce differently. (Do you pronounce the 's' at the end of Illinois?, Missouree or Missourah, etc.)

But I'm gonna start with one that I wonder if I'm weird cause I hear people pronounce it one way and I think its just wrong:

Topo

While technically not a word, it is the name of a software package, and is frequently pronounced as an abbreviation.

I think its "top-oh" (rhymes with mop, flop, hop). I hear others pronounce it with a long-o: "tow-poh" (taupe-oh?). It drives me crazy.

Of course, I derive this from the original "topographic" which the initial o is pronounced "ah" versus "oh". (At least according to Dictionary.com)

Any thoughts on Topo, or other words that Dubya might have misunderpronuncicated?

another couple of items are not mispronounced words, but simply just dont fit the description attached to them.. here are 2:
Pull a trigger. NO, actually you squeeze a trigger. you Pull a wagon.
Fishing Pole. NO, you hang a flag on a Pole, you fish with a Rod.

te-wa wrote:Fishing Pole. NO, you hang a flag on a Pole, you fish with a Rod.

If you spell fishing the correct southern way fishin', then pole once again becomes correct.

Tough_Boots wrote:If you spell fishing the correct southern way fishin', then pole once again becomes correct.

But consider that oil is also pronounced oal (ole?)... Always makes me wonder what they call a baby horse given that one may confuse it with something Reynolds makes... (Tin foal)

tin foal is the amount of young horses that are more than nine, and less than eleven.

@te-wa

Between you and Alston I'm surprised I can sleep at night... ] (*,)

If you pull a trigger, you won't hit what you're aiming at. ;)

te-wa wrote:tin foal is the amount of young horses that are more than nine, and less than eleven.

I hope you feel better now knowing that many of us are now groaning.

So is the correct pronunciation of Mazatzal Mah-zaht-zal? When I went to Wide World of Maps they looked at me like I was from Mars! ;)

me and friends always called it Mah-ZAHT-zal. seems the emphasis is on last syllable (mah-zut-ZAHL), which sounds odd. but then, Mad as Hell sounds even dumber. Mazatlan. mah-zut-LAHN - same thing.
even better tho was Al's conversion from Sal-loh-may to the proper Sal-ohm.

te-wa wrote:me and friends always called it Mah-ZAHT-zal. seems the emphasis is on last syllable, which sounds odd. but then, Mad as Hell sounds even dumber. Mazatlan. same thing.
even better tho was Al's conversion from Sal-loh-may to the proper Sal-ohm.

Emphasis on last syllable would make it be Mah-zaht-ZAL.

Just sayin'. I always heard MAH-zuh-tahl, but also I always realized it was most likely a bastardization of the original pronunciation, kind of akin to saying "Galeros" for Galiuros, which is also pretty standard for local parlance.

azbackpackr wrote:Emphasis on last syllable would make it be Mah-zaht-ZAL.

right. i didnt spell it out. correct seems to be Mah-zut-ZAHL - I fixed prior post to correct this.


and it always looked like "golly - OOH - roes" to me.
just as it seems to me to sound like "tay-wah" but the "t" is kinda dull, like a t+d together.

how is Tusayan pronounced

te-wa wrote:even better tho was Al's conversion from Sal-loh-may to the proper Sal-ohm

hmm

joe bartels wrote:how is Tusayan pronounced

I've always said Two-say-an. Another mangle of place in AZ?

te-wa wrote:even better tho was Al's conversion from Sal-loh-may to the proper Sal-ohm.

Sal-ohm? I thought I said Shalom. Oy vey what have I done. [insert Rabbi smilie here[/insert]

Ok, my understanding about Tusayan comes from someone who used to live there. I was always saying Too SIGH yen. But my friend who lived there said they say TOO suh yen. Heavy emphasis on first syllable, with the second and third syllable pronunciations sort of swallowed. Anyone care to comment on this? Rob?

As for Galiuros, naturally one must assume the original pronunciation was indeed Gally OO rohs, rolling the r's also, which would be Spanish. However, NO ONE in Tucson or S. AZ that I ever met, who was a local, (hunters, hikers, etc.) said it that way. They do in fact call them the "Galeros."

When I lived at Grand Canyon, everyone called it Too-say-an.

Yeah, but where is the emphasis? On the first syllable? That is how I have been hearing it. TOO say an or TOO suh yen.

azbackpackr wrote:AZ that I ever met, who was a local, (hunters, hikers, etc.) said it that way. They do in fact call them the "Galeros."

That's how my Tucsonian chef buddy says it. He won't recognize it if I say it right.

te-wa wrote:just as it seems to me to sound like "tay-wah" but the "t" is kinda dull, like a t+d together.

Well, shucks. And here I've been thinking of you as TEE WAH all this time.

I say TEE vuh (sandals) as well. I own four pairs. I do know that it is supposed to be pronounced Teh vuh. I don't like how "teh vuh" sounds, however.

the true pronunciation of te-wa is just between you and me.. so dont go tellin' everybody. its "terd wad"