As an avid reader from an early age, I learned many words from the page rather than conversation. As a result, I’ve mangled more than a few utterances. (Reading Oedipus Rex aloud in fifth grade, I unknowingly went with the British EED-i-pous rather than the American ED-i-pus, much to classmates’ amusement.)
Place names can be especially tricky. Here’s a far-from-complete list of pronunciation tips for the names of some of the places I’ve visited.
Repeat after me…
Edinburgh, Scotland
Ed-in-BURG is a town at the bottom tip of Texas near the Rio Grande.
Ed-in-BURR-uh—the uh just a wisp of an afterthought—is the misty, festive castle town in Scotland, famous for bagpipes, Robbie Burns, and a tattoo that leaves no mark.
Cairns, Australia
It’s not kairnz. Instead, when you refer to this gateway city to the Great Barrier Reef be lazy: just say cans. Want to affect an Aussie accent? Go with kenz . As long as you omit the R, you’ll be right in the eyes—and ears—of the locals.
Brisbane, Australia
Moving south to Queensland and the Sunshine Coast, you’ll find Brisbane. Instead of a hard A, go for ben, as in BRIZ-ben.
Melbourne, Australia
Mel-BORN is a city in Florida. MEL-bun is a city in Australia. Locals pronounce it MEL-bin. (Note: the Melbourne suburb of Cranbourne is CRAN-born. Yeah, I don’t get it, either.)
Chile
It doesn’t rhyme with while, and it’s not chilly, either, although the weather is often just that. Per the rules of Spanish pronunciation, Chi is pronounced chee and the e sounds like the e in men (as opposed to the e in key). Thus this South American country is pronounced CHEE-leh.
Reykjavik, Iceland
Whoa, check out all those letters! Here they are, translated into pronunciation: RAY-gyah-veek. Note: don’t drop a two-part kee-ya in the middle; Iceland’s capital city isn’t four syllables. Keep it to three by turning the K into a G that softly slides into the yah. And there’s no ick at the end. Bonus points for rolling the R ever so slightly.
The Caribbean
Say this aloud: Royal Caribbean cruises. Now say this: Pirates of the Caribbean. Did you say Caribbean two different ways? Me, too.
Americans routinely stress the second syllable (ka-RIB-bee-un) while denizens of the UK or Commonwealth countries usually stress the first and/or first-to-last syllable (ka-rib-BEE-un). How do most islanders pronounce it? Given their colonial roots, they tend to go with the Brit version (BEE-un at the end). Some islanders even stress the Car, as the origin of the word is the indigenous Carib people. (Note: Carib isn’t without controversy—its origin relates to cannibal, which is what Christopher Columbus falsely claimed natives were.)
Newfoundland
Lose the found: pronounce Newfoundland similar to understand. If anything, the found becomes a light, half-ignored fin: NEW-fin-land. (Don’t forget the last d!)
Iran and Iraq
There is no “I” in Iran or Iraq: it’s ee-RAHN and ee-RAK.
River Thames, London
Pretend the h isn’t there. Then pretend the a is another e. You’ve got it! London’s central river is called the River Temms. (Yes, River goes before Thames, not the other way around.)
Tanzania
Tanzania is a made-up name. Back in the 1960s, the separate lands of Tanganyika and Zanzibar were consolidated into one country, and unimaginative bureaucrats simply jammed parts of the two names together into one word. So you may say it tan-zan-EE-ah, tan-ZAH-nee-ah, or even tan-ZANE-ee-ah. (When I was there, most locals used tan-ZAH-nee-ah.)
Versailles, France
French is a language with many silent letters, which on occasion trips me up. This country estate of King Louis XVI is pronounced Ver-sigh.
The Himalayas
I arrived saying, Him-uh-LAY-uhs. I left saying something else.
First, most people left off the s, making it the Himalaya. A lot of northern Indians and Nepalese said Him-MALL-lie-yah—emphasis on the second syllable. (Some Indians put the stress on the lie.) Some crammed the four syllables into three: Him-MALL-yah. I even heard people shorten the whole 1,500-mile mountain range into the two-syllable Himal (pronounced Him-MALL), which means snowy mountain.
Budapest, Hungary
Buda and Pest used to be separate Hungarian settlements; the two were joined (along with the town of Òbuda) in 1873 to become the official capital of the country. It’s pronounced Booda-pesht.
Toledo, Spain
When you are in Spain and not Ohio, it is Toh-leh-doh, not Toe-lee-doh.
Phuket, Thailand
No, it isn’t pronounced like a certain English curse word! This city is Poo-ket or Poo-get.
So there you have it; some fun with phonics ( or, if you prefer, faa-niks).
