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Posted by
8293 posts

And then there is my city. Anglophone residents say "Mun-tree-all" Francophones say "Mohn-ray-al" So endeth the lesson.

Posted by
8889 posts

Moscow. US-Americans say Mos-COW (like the animal that goes moo). British say Mos-coe.

And: Leicester (ICE silent), Lincoln (most US-Americans know the L is silent because of the president), Warwick (second W silent) etc.

Posted by
4495 posts

Norma: One of the ways to distinguish American and Canadian English speakers is that funky Mun- sound. Americans say Mahn-

Since the natives say Moskva or similar I think it is irrelevant what is said in English, but British folks are adamant about rhyming Moscow with Glasgow.

Tokyo is properly 2 syllables, the Y is a consonant not a vowel, Tooooh-Kyoooooh, both the syllables are double long and it is often written with lines over the Os: Tōkyō to show the longer time extension.

Fun fact: Beijing means "north capital," Nanjing means "south capital," and Tōkyō means "east capital." Kyōto (no line over second O, the Tō- in Tōkyō and the -to in Kyōto are different) means "capital city."

Posted by
3940 posts

I just love hearing people try and pronounce these places in Nova Scotia...Tatamagouche, Stewiacke, Kejimkujik, Shubenacadie and, of course, Musquodoboit. I can proudly say I spelt all those correctly the first time!

Posted by
7448 posts

For what it is worth...with pronunciation, there is often a difference between the "local" pronunciation and the accepted English pronunciation. Think Paris, then of course any French speaker would pronounce "Paree", or the way a Spanish speaker pronounces Mexico versus how most English speakers do. The example of Tokyo above is also an excellent example, that is the way a Japanese speaker would pronounce, but not an English speaker. The English pronunciation is perfectly valid for English speakers, perhaps even more proper than trying to mix in the local pronunciation. Of course that may also lead to the argument of the use of the local designation of a place vs the English designation, (Firenze vs Florence, Munchen vs Munich, Vienna vs Wien, etc.) but let us not go there.

Posted by
5239 posts

And then there's this Welsh town..... Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.