"What is this 'Joisy' you speak of?"

[silverthorne]

So, random thoughts of the day--first being is I think I'm going to end up making an icon of the above sentence, just because it's true.

See, if you don't say you're from 'Joisy' (a corruption from invading New York accents, I think), people won't believe you're from New Jersey. Thing is, I'm not even technically from South Jersey (who say it 'right', with the 'er' instead of the 'oi'), Because I was born in Trenton and then lived in Hightstown/East Windsor...which is more like 'central' Jersey headed towards north. And I never heard 'Joisy', even in the Italian neighborhoods I lived in, unless it was someone from New York saying it.

But that also got me to thinking about Nevada, of all things (probably because the news has been doing little tongue-in-cheek spots about how most of the presidential candidates 'offended' natives by saying it wrong), and how to say it 'right'.

Of course, like most folks, I say it 'Nah-Vah-Dah'...which is apparently way wrong. And I've heard it said the right way several times over the past two weeks. (For the record, now that I've stumbled on it again, it's 'Nah-Vaa (as in 'had')-dah, not 'ah' as in...well...'ah', which is how most non-native folks say it.)

Thing is? I'm still stuck on the wrong way, even though I run through other ways to say it (Nah-Vey-Dah...Na-Ved-Ah...Nah-fuck-it). It usally takes about sixteen tries and it's a complete accident when I finally stumble on the 'right' way to say it, at which point I have a Do'oh! moment, because there's no mistaking the proper way of saying it for anything else. And then I promptly forget it all over again the next time, thus having to repeat the entire process.

So, who else has this problem (or hears other people say something cringe-worthy because you know It's Wrong?).

Inquiring minds want to know. *g*

Comments

[rebl1969.livejournal.com]

We have a Nevada County in south Arkansas, and it's pronounced Nuh-VAY-dah. Dunno why, as it's named after the state of Nevada.

And hah! We can always tell newcomers, as they stumble over Ouachita. It's WASH-eh-tah, not Oh-you-CHEE-tah.

[silverthorne.livejournal.com]

No idea, although 'vay-dah' is closer to the spanish word it was taken from, pronunciation-wise. :)

And hah on 'Ouachita' (I've heard it pronounced 'Witch-ah-tah'). It reminds me of when I first moved to Tucson, and got invited to a friends house. I was trying to tell Grandma where the friend lived, and, as far as I knew, she lived on 'La Canada'--as in, the country Canada. Not the spanish word 'Can-ya-da' (which about as close as I can figure how to spell it out phonetically). It took Grandma, who had been in Tucson for about six years at that point, several minutes to figure out where the hell I was talking about. XD. 'Course, once I figured it out (IE: she was kind and told me) that half the places in Tucson were named in spanish, I did a lot better.

[silverthorne.livejournal.com]

Also, one embarassment I was, fortunately, spared was how to say 'Tucson'. Which is 'Two-Sawn'. (Some people start out with 'Tuck-San'. *g*).

[rebl1969.livejournal.com]

hahahahaha!

[silverthorne.livejournal.com]

The second most common mis-pronunciation seems to be 'Tuc-sun'--Like 'Texan', only, not. :)

[ninjagaijin.livejournal.com]

Anyone who isn't from Louisville has no idea how to pronounce it. It's not "Looeyville", it's not "Lewisville". It's pronounced by the natives like "Lulvul." :D

[silverthorne.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'd scrwe it up too and call it 'loovil' :).

[rebl1969.livejournal.com]

On a similar note, I've been mad since 1992 at how the national news media pronounces "Clinton". They get all clipped, and say "President Clint-ton", sounding like two Ts in the middle. Anyone from here will tell you it's Clintn, almost one syllable.
And, Little Rock? You say "Lilrock".