DARK SHADOWS FORUMS

General Discussions => Current Talk Archive => Current Talk '24 I => Current Talk '03 I => Topic started by: Birdie on February 14, 2003, 06:23:37 AM

Title: Worcester
Post by: Birdie on February 14, 2003, 06:23:37 AM
Now we have an idea where Tim has gone.  Kudos to Nancy Barrett for prononucing the city's name correctly.  I am impressed.  I know I have mentioned this before but I grew up in Worcester  I remember it thrilled me that my favorite show would mention my home town.  As young viewers we were dancing around the room to know have Worcester (pronounced Wooster) sometimes refered to as Worm-town  was named on TV.  

Birdie
Title: Re: Worcester
Post by: Carol on February 14, 2003, 05:34:12 PM
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Now we have an idea where Tim has gone.  Kudos to Nancy Barrett for prononucing the city's name correctly.  I am impressed.  I know I have mentioned this before but I grew up in Worcester  I remember it thrilled me that my favorite show would mention my home town.  As young viewers we were dancing around the room to know have Worcester (pronounced Wooster) sometimes refered to as Worm-town  was named on TV.  Birdie
I know how you feel, Birdie. DS mentioned Albany(NY) a few times and it was pronounced corrrectly. Natives say ALLBUNNY but out-of-towners say AL BANIE. Just glad DS didn't use Schenectady--that always throws people! Law & Order uses those city names all the time.
Then again, I learned that Houston Street is not pronounced the same as Houston, Texas. My upstate origins showed on that one.
Title: Re: Worcester
Post by: onyx_treasure on February 14, 2003, 05:50:53 PM
    My husband was born in Worcester.  He took me there a couple of times to see his old house.  He acted like we were visiting a sacred sight.  He moved to New Jersey when he was three and I have been taken to other sacred sights.  All hail the sacred grounds he trod upon.::)  
Title: Re: Worcester
Post by: RingoCollins on February 14, 2003, 07:54:06 PM
My hometown address is a small little village near Bristol TN [NASCAR capital] called Blountville, [which has an airport that is giving away socks to all searched passengers who are asked to remove their shoes - REALLY - and many locals are going to the airport in hopes of increasing their wardrobe!]  and it has never been mentioned on Dark Shadows.  But should it ever be, the correct pronunciation is not 'blawnt-ville' or 'blunt-ville'.....the blount is pronounced: 'Dull'


but I did see my great grandfather wring the kneck of a wooster once!
Title: Re: Worcester
Post by: Raineypark on February 14, 2003, 08:17:20 PM
::)     We practically DARE visitors to pronounce the local names around here.  We've got towns like Hauppauge (Hop-Hog), Sagaponack, Cutchogue, Aquebog, Nissequogue, and Poquott.  Not to mention Massapequa, Speonk, Amagansett and Pantigo!  [lghy]

rainey  
Title: Re: Worcester
Post by: Carol on February 14, 2003, 08:30:30 PM
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::)     We practically DARE visitors to pronounce the local names around here.  We've got towns like Hauppauge (Hop-Hog), Sagaponack, Cutchogue, Aquebog, Nissequogue, and Poquott.  Not to mention Massapequa, Speonk, Amagansett and Pantigo!  [lghy] rainey  

I love it! Schenectady is from the Mohawk Indian word meaning "other side of the pine lands". I was taught how to pronounce it by saying: "I'll SKIN your NECK TODAY"
Title: Re: Worcester
Post by: Raineypark on February 14, 2003, 09:05:06 PM
Isn't is amazing that they kept the names after they slaughtered the natives?  Wouldn't you think they'd try to pretend they were never here in the first place?

Nope!!....every 15 feet we've got another name which means "having something to do with water since we're surrounded by it on all sides"

My personal favorite is Lake Ronkonkoma (just TRY to guess where the accent goes!)....the bottomless lake where the Sachem's daughter allegedly waits to drag boaters into the murky depths.  

rainey
Title: Re: Worcester
Post by: dom on February 14, 2003, 09:42:03 PM
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My personal favorite is Lake Ronkonkoma (just TRY to guess where the accent goes!)....the bottomless lake where the Sachem's daughter allegedly waits to drag boaters into the murky depths.

You took the words right out of my mouth. I was going to list a few more until I realized that I could pronounce them but couldn't spell them, lol. I'll never forget the ribbing I took the day I asked where SOY-oh-set (Syosset - pronounced, sigh-AH-set) was.

My fave is the tale of the man who pronounced Yosemite, YO-se-might.

dom (who resides in the San Joaquin - pronounced, San-wah-KEEN - valley [I really messed up that one with - San-Joe-uh-KWIN]) ::)
Title: Re: Worcester
Post by: Raineypark on February 14, 2003, 09:56:08 PM
Want to start a fist fight?  Tell a local Quoge is pronounced Qw-ahh-g instead of Qw-ohh-g. [lghy]

rainey
Title: Re: Worcester
Post by: Bette on February 14, 2003, 10:23:41 PM
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My fave is the tale of the man who pronounced Yosemite, YO-se-might.

dom (who resides in the San Joaquin - pronounced, San-wah-KEEN - valley [I really messed up that one with - San-Joe-uh-KWIN]) ::)

Ah yes. Names I grew up with in Madera. My favorite Valley mispronunciations are Tulare (mispronounced as Tu-lar) and Visalia (mispronounced as Viz-alia.) Oh Dom, you really do take me back to my childhood DS years.

Bette
Title: Re: Worcester
Post by: Birdie on February 15, 2003, 06:14:21 AM
Wow, I would not even attempt to pronounce any of those names.  It would not be pretty.  

Ringo, Worcester has an airport too!  Of course not many planes  come in.  It is kind of a sorry joke in this part of the country.  They built the new terminal to tall in blocked the tower.  Than somehow one of the run ways has shrunk.

I grew up close to the airport.  Can you believe growing up we could go up in the tower?  How things have changed.  

Birdie
Title: Re: Worcester
Post by: jennifer on February 15, 2003, 09:26:48 AM
it is funny in Masschusetts(only state McGovern took in 1972) out in Worcester the accent is so different than'
The Boston accent. I grew up in watertown (right next to Boston) and when i went out west to school (Framingham State college of Christa M. of The Challenger) people there from westerm parts of the state made such fun of my accent! when i go down the cape there isn't that much of a contrast!
have a lotta chowda down there too!

jennifer
Title: Re: Worcester
Post by: sheenasma on February 15, 2003, 05:10:21 PM
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 Kudos to Nancy Barrett for prononucing the city's name correctly.  Birdie


Now if someone would just get "Bangor" right.

N, Mainiac
Title: Re: Worcester
Post by: dom on February 15, 2003, 06:47:00 PM
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Ah yes. Names I grew up with in Madera. My favorite Valley mispronunciations are Tulare (mispronounced as Tu-lar) and Visalia (mispronounced as Viz-alia.) Oh Dom, you really do take me back to my childhood DS years.

I know the feeling Bette, that's how I feel when Raineypark & Robin V. mention cities & towns on Long Island. I moved to CA in my thirties and caused a lot of laughter by trying to pronounce most of the Spanish named cites. My first blunder was La Jolla (pronounced - La Hoya) but I, having never taken a Spanish lesson pronounced it as, La Joe-la, [lghy]. I still get teased about that.
Title: Re: Worcester
Post by: Philippe Cordier on February 16, 2003, 04:57:49 AM
Interesting to read about all of these place names on the East and West coasts. I've read of many of the East coast places in books ever since I was a child, but didn't know the correct pronunciations of most.

I wouldn't have too much trouble when it comes to the Spanish names in California, since I've had quite a bit of Spanish.  Unfortunately, sometimes the correct Spanish pronunciation carries over, and sometimes not.  I remember referring to San Pedro to a California friend once (using the Spanish pronunciation, San PAY - dro), and he said they pronounce it San PEE - dro.  How unflattering!

Here in the Upper Midwest (I seem to be the lone representative of this part of the country on this forum), there are also many place names coming from the Indian languages -- Chippewa (Ojibwe) and Sioux (Lakota).  Also French from early fur traders.

Most pronunciations are Anglicized by now.
Title: Re: Worcester
Post by: Midnite on February 16, 2003, 05:11:51 AM
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Unfortunately, sometimes the correct Spanish pronunciation carries over, and sometimes not.  I remember referring to San Pedro to a California friend once (using the Spanish pronunciation, San PAY - dro), and he said they pronounce it San PEE - dro.  How unflattering!

Isn't that awful?  I have no idea how it got started, but that's how San Pedrans can tell if you're from around there or not. ;)

~Midnite (who lived in San PEE-dro, and I'm not the only on on the forum!)
Title: Re: Worcester
Post by: Philippe Cordier on February 16, 2003, 05:24:59 AM
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That's how San Pedrans can tell if you're from around there or not. ;)

~Midnite (who lived in San PEE-dro, and I'm not the only on on the forum!)


Yes, and I know who the other one is! :)  People from there seem to be very intelligent ... at least the three I know of (my friend was someone from grad school) ...

My own hometown is rather unique in preserving its French pronunciation.  (And although I'm part French myself, that's via a different route ... Alsace during the Franco-Prussian war, not the much earlier Voyageurs who founded my hometown, to which my parents only moved to in the 1950s.
Title: Re: Worcester
Post by: Josette on February 16, 2003, 07:19:45 AM
Just a few days ago during our public radio pledge period, one of the announcers commented on a nearby town of North Versailles and that one can tell if someone isn't from here if they say North Ver-sigh - it's pronounced Ver - sales.
Title: Re: Worcester
Post by: Philippe Cordier on February 16, 2003, 07:32:42 AM
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Just a few days ago during our public radio pledge period, one of the announcers commented on a nearby town of North Versailles and that one can tell if someone isn't from here if they say North Ver-sigh - it's pronounced Ver - sales.


Oh my God!
Title: Re: Worcester
Post by: ROBINV on February 16, 2003, 04:25:55 PM
I live and love on Long Island, and my town name is Massapequa Park, after the Indians whose land the white man stole.  It is pretty ironic that so many towns around here are named for Indians.  There was recently a controversy here about changing the names of many of the high school sports teams so they would no longer reflect our Indian heritage--in the name of respect!  For instance, my son's former high school team calls themselves the Chiefs.  I think it's a little too late to claim respect for the tribes that were ousted from their property so many years ago.    

Weird, wild world.  

Love, Robin
Title: : Worcester
Post by: RingoCollins on February 16, 2003, 08:27:19 PM
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I love on Long Island,
Love, Robin


Is it much of a commute?

[Sometimes I dream about going thru the Lincoln Tunnel....and sometimes I dream about going thru the JULIE tunnel]
 
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!  For instance, my son's former high school team calls themselves the Chiefs.  Weird, wild world.  

Love, Robin


Maybe they could modify it slightly, and call the team the Chefs - and dom would like that, eh?

Or how 'bout 'The Jeeves' and use 'GG' Edward as a mascot!
 
Or maybe 'The Sleeze' and have The So-Called-Rev as mascot.

And if they wanted to have patterns on their uniforms, go with 'The Slatterns' - you know who is the mascot!

---
we eat way too much, brunch is ready,...... aren't you all glad!

One White, One Blonde, One Bald