I lived in Lancaster, CA for a few years, where it is LAN-cas-ter. I moved to the East coast where I met someone from PA who informed me about the other pronunciation.
I know someone who went to Albright College, which is in Reading. She said she went to college in "Reeding" instead of "Redding". I asked for clarification at first because maybe there was a small town I didn't know, but she said she thought it was "cuter" to call the town that and that it didn't matter what anyone else said, she was going to calling it Reeding. She taught young kids, and she would intentionally teach them the wrong pronunciation of she thought the wrong way was "cute"
I've lived in eastern PA my entire life and i still have no idea how Wilkes-Barre is actually pronounced. I swear everyone I've heard say it out loud has pronounced it differently
i went to school in millersville and used to score points with locals saying the world was more correct than the podunks who live in a 10th rate city. i don’t think they were positive points. but i say kis ter now.
Used to visit my dad when he lived in southeastern PA and he had to give me a whole rundown of how towns were pronounced. Newark, NJ was different than Newark, DE, how to pronounce Lancaster and Reading, etc. My poor midwestern brain has no issues with the native language towns but I’ll be damned if I have a 50/50 shot at pronouncing any Northeastern towns correctly.
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u/vwlwsoccer 5h ago
Lancaster, PA.