Arkansas -v - "Arkansaw"

[Slydude]

Try this one out - Nachitoches.

Beat me to it Tom. Even most Texans get that one wrong. Great way to know if you are talking to a telemarketer.

The name btw seems to be a French adaptation of a native term.

 

[toMACsh]

I work at a port. We get truck drivers who pronounce it 'Beeu-mont' and 'say-bine'.
And I'm not talking about the middle eastern ones. It's the northern ones. Even some from west Texas.

Shopping at a "Big Box" store one time, I had an employee showing me the Beaulieu pattern of carpeting. She called it "Bee-lou", noting "that is how we say it". I said, "Well, it's French. I believe the proper way is "Bow-leur"." She had to try it twice, with my correction in between, to get it right. I don't think she was too impressed.

 

[RadDave]

Shopping at a "Big Box" store one time, I had an employee showing me the Beaulieu pattern of carpeting. She called it "Bee-lou", noting "that is how we say it". I said, "Well, it's French. I believe the proper way is "Bow-leur"." She had to try it twice, with my correction in between, to get it right. I don't think she was too impressed.

Yes, well mispronouncing foreign names is common around here - one example is the name of a historic upscale neighborhood in my town named Buena Vista - having had 2 years of Spanish in college, I would say 'bway na vis ta' w/ the i in vis pronounced like an e - in Winston-Salem, the locale is called 'bewe na vis ta' w/ the i sounding like an i like how 'vista' would sound in English. Dave

 

[IWT]

Shopping at a "Big Box" store one time, I had an employee showing me the Beaulieu pattern of carpeting. She called it "Bee-lou", noting "that is how we say it". I said, "Well, it's French. I believe the proper way is "Bow-leur"." She had to try it twice, with my correction in between, to get it right. I don't think she was too impressed.

In England, there is a place of the same name - Beaulieu - (nice area) near which I once used to live in Hampshire. There, it is pronounced Bew-ly. Once again, the English taking a French name and, over centuries, moulding it to suit local tastes (like Belvoir > Beaver: see an earlier posting).

Ian