Mispronunciations

[Hamakimon]

I come from a fairly small city in central California named Lompoc, pronounced “Lom-poke”. There have been several movies produced where the name of my town is mentioned (Usually in regards to the prison located there), The Fast and the Furious, Out of Sight, Tango and Cash to name a few. Any ways, what bothers me is that every time it’s mentioned, the characters mispronounce it saying Lom-pock instead of Lom-poke. This may seem ridiculous to even mention, but I am curious. How does a common mistake like this make it through to production? Don’t the production companies pay people to correct errors like this?

[Joaneasley]

Unless there's somebody from Lompoc around, no one realizes they are saying it wrong. I've visited there (the beautiful flower fields, not the prison.) But I didn't know I was pronouncing it wrong until now.

[Mac H.]

If visitors call it 'A', but the locals call it 'B', then a character in a movie who visited the place SHOULD call it 'A'.

It doesn't matter if it is 'right' or not, it matches what outsiders would do.

Another example is the Cannes film festival. Even many of the people going to the festival pronounce it 'Cans', where as the locals all insist that it is pronounced 'Can'.

Mac

[Marine66]

I was once on a phone in a restaurant filing a story. I told the desk I was in Lom-pock. A little old lady overheard the conversation, walked up to me and began poking me in the chest, saying "It's Lom-poke. It's Lom-poke." You guys are sensitive.

[tabula rasa]

Here, we'd pronounce it ... "MisproNOUNciations" :)

[ComicBent]

They also always mispronounce Biloxi, Mississippi, as *bih-LOCK-see* when it is actually *bih-LUCK-see*.

But the worst of all: the German word Fräulein, correctly pronounced *FROI-line*, almost always comes out *FRAW-line*.

[nic.h]

I come from a country of major cities constantly mis pronounced. We grin and bear it, but for future reference...

Brisbane is "Bris-ben" not Bris-BANE. Ignore the spelling, we can do it for Arkansas, so why can't you?

Canberra is Can-bra - NOT CanBERRA. Again, spelling be damned. It's a name. Say it like it's said, not like it's written.

And my favourite, because it's my home town: Melbourne - not a cross between Mel Brookes and a Matt Damon character. Just plain old Mel-ben.

Thank you. I feel much better now. (I won't even bother with the Aboriginal names of places. One thing at a time.) :D

[ComicBent]

Crikey! I had no idea, mate.

Now, please don't tell me that Sydney is not pronounced sid-nee. :o

[nic.h]

You can keep Sydney. :) But promise me you'll stop calling Uluru "Ayres Rock".

[7oak]

Then there's Missouri, that's pronounced Missouruh by many. See

http://missourifolkloresociety.truman.edu/Missouri%20Folklore%20Studies/THE%20PRONONCIATION%20OF%20MISSOURI.htm

for an exhaustive linguistic explanation of the problem. It will give you some understanding of the complexities of the issue.

In my hometown of Columbia, SC, we know whether people are natives by the way they pronounce Huger Street. Natives pronounce it You-Gee. Go figure.

In Atlanta, I was flummoxed by Houston--which is How-ston there.

TPTB should look into these things but they probably imagine they have more to do than stir up the ire of local residents.