I grew up in a little town in Wisconsin where many of my friends didn't get their hair cut, they got their "hairs cut." And I remember my parents telling me not to talk like my babysitter when I told them I was "futzing around."

Jupidupi, that's a Yiddish expression.

"JFK said Cuber.”

He sure did! I also remember Edward Kennedy introducing Sammy Sosa (baseball player) as ”Sammy Sooser.” LOL, he could have at least said ”Soser.”

Bookwoman, my babysitter probably didn't even know what Yiddish was. But I think you're right, and maybe a reference to flatulence. That would explain why they didn't want their three year old using the expression.

I used to say 'futzing around' a lot, but people would sometimes look at me askance, so I say 'fiddling...' now instead - it means the same thing 😃

I had a pa-ern(pattern) drafting teacher in college, from Lon Guyland, who swallowed her Ts. I thought that was a regional thing. I recall a classmate saying she hated it - it bugged her. After she said that I always noticed it. It didn't bother me, tho. I thought it was interesting.

And my dad's (Jewish) family came from London, England. All words ending in an 'ah' sound were pronounced with an 'ar', and words ending with an R at the end were pronounced with an 'ah'. That's an accent, not mispronunciation.

P.S. You don't have to know what Yiddish is to use Yiddish words, there are a number in common usage.

I was in my teens before I met some transplants from CA to WA who called the state Warshington. It was so confusing to me where they picked up the r. I don't hear that much anymore, but boy does it bug me when I do! I suspect the family wasn't native to CA but from someplace in the midwest where the r came into play.

Again, I don't know if this is regional or cultural, but I notice quite a few people pronouncing words that end in 'ing' who pronounce the g as a hard g instead of as a meld of the n and g.

Not sure I understand a hard "g" at the end of an "ing". I have heard a "k" instead of the "g". So sinking becomes sink-ink.

Then there is "news speak" where best becomes bust etc.

Yes, Annie, that's what I mean.

It's so funny. One person in our yarn group uses the word "like" incessantly. And it's funny how, like, before, like, too long, like the rest of us, like are saying it, like, all the time! I swear it's contagious!!

There are few things that bother me when reading or listening to someone talk, but the one thing that gets on my nerve (I stop reading/listening) is when people say "I seen that!" NO! NO YOU DIDN"T! I learned in grade 2 that it's poor grammar. Did everyone miss that day in school?

Maybe it becomes acceptable when more than four people are using it? Anyway I think people like to mess words up and phrases up in order to look like part of their group or lead their group somewhere.

Unless someone is a writer, I try not not get to worked up over the words that other people say. I grew up where various words were slaughtered daily. As far as I knew/know, that is the correct usage. Lol!

There are words that get my attention too. One is the pronunciation of the word 'library' without the first 'r'. The student who gave my daughter her campus tour kept talking about the 'libary'. My daughter, husband and I all noticed it. One of my parting instructions to my daughter as we left her at school was to make sure and go to the 'library' once in a while and see if she could find that extra 'r'. ;)

"some transplants from CA to WA who called the state Warshington."

You mean it's not pronounced Warshington? I think the two pronunciations are used with equal frequency down here. I don't find the difference particularly grating and it isn't heard much anyway. The word is more frequently heard when referring to the nation's capital city rather than the state. The city where the White House is, is definitely Warshington.

More troubling and more frequently heard mispronunciations are the names of two of our neighboring states.

1) Sorry folks, but Oregon is Ora gun, not Ora gone.

2) Similarly, Nevada is not Ne vah da. It's Ne vad a

We do a good job here of arbitrarily mangling location names of non-English origin, frequently Spanish or from the languages of indigenous peoples. It's done arbitrarily for confusion because some are done properly.

Sanazay instead of San Ho Zay (San Jose)

Lossgatus instead of Los (o as in post) Ga tos (o as in post), means "the cats"

LossBanus instead of Los (as above) Bon yos (Los Baños), the baths

Pasa robulls instead of Pasa Ro bless (Pasa Robles)

Va LAY ho should be Va YAY ho (Vallejo)

San lewis obispo instead of San loo-eece obispo (San Luis Obispo)

and on and on

but, done right are

La HOYa (La Jolla)

Ka WENga (Cahuenga, a street in Hollywood and also place locations)

Why NEE me (Hueneme, as in Port Hueneme)

Kam a REE yo (Camarillo)

La Can YA da (La Cañada)

and others

Let's not leave out Zebra which is pronounced in Africa and most parts of the world, to rhyme with Deborah. Not zee-bruh

Elmer, your post made me think of Illinois with its silent "s." I always notice when someone says "ill-ih-noise" instead of "Ill-ih-Noy."

And Michigan does not have a K in it. It is NOT Mich-ah-kin.

Prob because the letter outside the US is zed, not zee.

In many old movies from the 30s and 40s, Los Angeles is pronounced with a hard G 🙂

BIL tells of when he was little and his family moved from TX to OK, he was baffled by a grade school teacher who asked him to spell 'George Warshington', even repeating that pronunciation several times when he asked her to, so he did and she got mad at him 😄

That particular mispronunciation would, more likely than not, come from non-locals. LA had a mayor during the 60s-70s named Sam Yorty and his mispronunciation was with a hard G and was annoying - Las ANG a leez. He was originally from another part of the US.

I left it off of my list - the common pronunciation is another that doesn't follow Spanish phonetics. It's familiar-

Las Ang a less (soft G). G with the same sound as in Angie

Should be

Los AN hel less - the angels. And the common nickname, City of Angels.

Also why the American League baseball team is the Angels. It was an expansion team and was originally the second baseball team in LA. The team left LA before too long but kept the mascot name. That mascot name had earlier been used by a minor league team in town that I think was by then defunct

My husband’s parents lived in Southern CA their entire lives and used the hard G for Los Angeles. I grew up in a small, foothill town here called “Sierra Madre.“ I always found it interesting his parents pronounced “Madre” as ”Mad-ruh.”

Interesting. Did they live in LA proper or elsewhere in the region?

My mother's family were lifelong Angelenos, in city limits, and I don't remember ever hearing a hard G from any of them. My grandmother included.

I know Sierra Madre and never heard it said as Mad-ruh. Maybe your in-laws' mispronunciations were their own?

Heck, here in Illinois we have Des Plaines where all the “s”s are pronounced, and the vowels certainly do not sound French. And Bourbonnais, which no one knows how to pronounce. And Devon Avenue in Chicago. Not pronounced as the Brits do.

Not to mention Versailles (pronounced ver-sales), KY.

Oh yes, we have Versailles (ver-sales), too. Used to be the weather radar center before satellites, and probably still is.

Then of course there are the native place names that we have anglo-spelled, or re-spelled (and re-spelled again). The French spelling of Ouillemette has become Wilmette.

One of the first rules of language is, language changes.

Here’s a question: how do you pronounce the word spelled ”d o u r”?

Dour sounds like sour, no?

I say dour like sour but I've also heard it said to sound as a rhyme with sewer.

Foreign origin place names that are mangled are too numerous to list. I took a detour on a business trip once to visit a college friend who lived in Austin. Speaking on the phone to set it up, he said he'd bought a small ranch a bit out of town and we'd be spending a long weekend there. He said it was in Blanko - think of blank page. I looked on a map, didn't find it, figured I'd learn where it was when I was there. And show 'nuff I did -

Blanco, Texas

“I know Sierra Madre and never heard it said as Mad-ruh. Maybe your in-laws' mispronunciations were their own?”

I do think they were pretty much their own. I don’t recall ever hearing “Mad-ruh“ from anyone but them. They were both born and raised in South Pasadena. They moved to La Canada Flintridge early in their marriage which is where my husband grew up.

I lived for some time in NW PA and noticed the substitution of "warsh" for "wash." I found it irritating. Also, residents often said "I'm going to get dinner" instead of "fix" dinner. Also odd to me, why say "Chivy" when you mean "Chevy"? (for Chevolet).

“Also odd to me, why say "Chivy" when you mean "Chevy"? (for Chevolet).”

My dad would always say ”Chivy.”

The "get", as in prepare, or perhaps fix, was/is often used in this area, regarding dinner.

Long before the recently developed use as a trip to pick up a prepared one, also.

Three days - 121 comments: looks like laceyvail unveiled many a raw nerve.

ole joyful

There is a city just south of Seattle called Des Moines. But ours pronounces the last S. I think the one in Iowa's DesMoines is silent isn't it? A married couple I know from Missouri - he is from Missouri; she is from Missouruh.

In French,

Des Moines sounds like day mwon (a sound somewhere like on). Some monks or from the monks

Detroit sounds like day twa, straights.

Boise = Boisé, sounds like bwa zay, wooded

Terre Haute sounds like tear oat, high ground

Pierre in South Dakota is said there as Peer but in French of course is pee-air

To end, St Croix in the Virgin Islands, the second word doesn't rhyme with boy but rather would be Qwah, rhymes with blah

You have to realize that the first old world explorers of the Midwest were French, who named places using, gasp, French! Later emigrants knew no French. Hence...Ver-sales.

I believe most of the American Indian place names in New England are written phonetically as originally pronounced, but how to prove that?

Yes, I know. But I thought the impetus wasn't exploration so much as the fur trade.

Fur, hides, farmland, as well as exploration.

Oh, don’t forget Montpelier, Vermont.

Of course, when I am in Europe, I pronounce my iwn name ipwith the accent of the language I am speaking. It might not sound my like my name in ”American” accent. Even the spelling, and ultimately pronunciation, of my immigrant grandparents and their siblings’ names were changed from Ellis Island onward.

I never say fix dinner or get dinner....around here, we make dinner.

Ah exploration by the settlers. Was it Mrs. Q who taught us the 5 Gs of why people came to America: God, Greed, Gold, Glory and Ground. Haven't thought of that in 50 years!

That’s pretty much it, Annie, I like it! Although some were drug along...I mean, dragged along, like my Bedstemor and her siblings, and their mother for that matter.

I think your teacher was presenting an American's perspective in a boastful way, rather than thinking of what motivated those who came.

People came to escape wretched conditions and poverty in the regions they left. Many were illiterate, without means, and without occupational skills. They hoped to find a place where they could have a been existence. The Qs mentioned are more romantic to ponder but I think reality was a bit more gritty.

As to the writing down of Indian names, the tribal name of Ojibwa and Chippewa are/were the same word.

Actually elmer, I think she was just trying to simplify concepts in an alliterative way to make them easier to learn for her 5th grade class. Apparently it worked as I still remember them. And if you knew her, she was far from boastful...one of the sweetest teachers I ever had.

In the old working farms it is very correct to 'get dinner' (or supper). It meant to actually go gather the eggs. Unearth some potatoes and vegetables. Get some milk from the coldhouse. Did this many times with grandma. The women were out of the house doing chores in the field or animal husbandry during the day. Women left the field earlier than the men to 'get' dinner. It it still the same scenario in some parts of USA. Eastern Kentucky, West Virginia from personal experience.

My intent, Annie, was to highlight the pablum of sterilized/whitewashed history curricula that was taught to those of our generation when we were children. Traces of which sadly still linger in some places.

The local tribes weren't so happy about the arrival of the Plymouth colonists that they made a big feast to welcome them. Slaves didn't live happily nor were they treated humanely by their "owners". The Founding Fathers were not populists trying to provide democratic freedom and liberty for all - women couldn't vote, non-landholders couldn't vote, and slavery was legal. Reservations weren't created for Indians so that they could live happily together.

That was my comment - it may have been a good aide-memoire for little kids at the time but we should all know now that much of the then received history was deliberately and outrageously untrue. An aide-memoire for phony history, best discarded and not repeated.

But Elmer, she did say "Greed." Not so pretty, but pretty accurate. And "Glory" for the white man, not so much for everyone else.

Again, laceyvail, my point was that the above mentioned Gs applied to few and mostly not to a large percentage of those who came during the period I cited. Those fleeing the famines and poverty of the southern parts of Italy, the Irish fleeing the Potato Famine and English oppression, Eastern Europeans and Baltic State refugees hoping there could be more to life than ethnic oppression and their miserable and hopeless existences. No greed or glory or the others involved with them.

There are more people with Irish ancestry in the US than in Ireland. That's how massive the immigration has been. Heck, the current population of Ireland is under 5 million. I'll bet there are as many or more people of Irish ancestry in just New York state and Massachusetts combined than there are in Ireland.

Elmer, we were talking about the explorers and settlers from the 1500s and 1600s, not the Irish potato famine or Eastern Europeans centuries later. We were talking about what drove them to cross the ocean to reach America (such as religious freedom like the pilgrims or gold like Pizarro) not what they did once they got here. And just because what we learn when we are younger is simplified and incomplete, doesn't mean that that's where learning stops. One may learn as a toddler that 2+2=4. That doesn't prevent them from learning about integers or number systems as they mature and are able to grasp more difficult concepts.

While I'm not surprised, I don't understand what drives you to take a pleasant childhood memory of my school days and criticize it, denigrate a fondly-remembered teacher of whom you have no knowledge, and turn it into something that is contentious and unpleasant by being critical and argumentative. I like to think it's just me (and maybe olychick) who triggers such responses, but if that's how you spend your time off line as well, I feel badly for you. Life doesn't need to be that hard.

I too have childhood memories of things said and done at the time, that a lifetime of learning and experience tell me now were very, very wrong. When I think of them, it's with disbelief and disappointment, not fondness or nostalgia.

Children in California, dating back to when I was a kid and before, learn about the trail of missions established by Father Junipero Serra and Catholic missionaries. Just as with Confederate hero names in the South, there remain streets and placenames commemorating the effort. I have many pleasant memories of school trips to missions, skits, projects, and other activities related to the classroom segments. The truth is, they were not a band of jolly friars who brought religion, culture and civilization to grateful indigenous people. Locals were treated like slaves and as elsewhere died from European diseases they had no immunity to. The missions were established with the encouragement and support of Spain to help colonize the area and bring it under its influence. A rather different story, just like the real story of immigration and other painted over black periods of US history for which more truth is given today.

It was you who used the words "the 5 Gs of why people came to America" and I was responding to that. If you were referring to a particular subset that you hadn't specified, then sorry. Try to be more clear. As we all know, all that's left behind from typing is words with unstated and intended context. No body or facial gestures can be seen nor anything more to explain the thoughts, than the words themselves.

Elmer, did you miss the first sentence? "Ah exploration by the settlers." And my post was in response to Chisue referring to "the first old world explorers". Instead of putting it on me to be more clear, perhaps you should try to read more carefully. Tend your own garden. I've never heard of people coming to America in the 1900s being referred to as "settlers". And I can't be held responsible for what you do or do not know, what you do or do not think or how well you read or comprehend.

But I'm glad you have some happy childhood memories.

You like to redirect - "that isn't what I said". Scandinavians who went to the upper Midwest were settlers of virgin land. Same reasons for flight applied to them.

I have many happy memories of childhood as well as many happy memories of the happy life I've had to this point, thanks for being glad. I too wish the same for all though I know not everyone has been as fortunate.