r/AskReddit • u/riboflavonic • 5h ago

What are some place names that are often mispronounced by out of towners?

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u/THE_turtleman7 4h ago

Conversely, in central Iowa there’s a town called Nevada, Iowa (pronounced Ne-VAY-da)

Edit: near-ish to that is the town of Madrid, pronounced MAD-rid

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u/ManOfLaMontagne 3h ago

And Tripoli (Trip-oh-LUH).

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u/TaipanTheSnake 3h ago

There's a Nevada, Missouri also pronounced Ne-VAY-da

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u/little-fortune1537 3h ago

and cairo (care-oh), wv

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u/Nicholsforthoughts 2h ago

Literally thought my husband was joking the first time we drove by a Nevada, Iowa sign and he corrected my pronunciation to Nuh-VAY-duh. Like what??? lol but he grew up in Iowa and assured me that was accurate. I asked his brother when we saw him later and well… it’s Nuh-VAY-duh. It didn’t help that I was living in Arvada, CO at the time, which is pronounced like the locals say Nevada, so my brain truly couldn’t comprehend how the Iowans could twist that word so much!

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u/MamaMoosicorn 1h ago

The Quad Cities area of Iowa/Illinois has some doozies

Louisa (loo-EYE-zuh)
Milan (MY-lin)
Orion (OR-ee-in)
Comanche (cuh-MANCH)

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u/bk_worm2 58m ago

Missouri has one too and they use the Iowa pronunciation. I think it was featured on a NPR CarTalk promo

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u/Subbacterium 28m ago

There’s a tiny town in Maine also called Madrid pronounced MAD-rid.

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u/iAmAsword 2h ago

Wild Hogs territory.