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I've lived in NY my whole life, but am not familiar with this stereotype about unpronounceable names. Apart from Kosciuszko there aren't too many difficult to

I've lived in NY my whole life, but am not familiar with this stereotype about unpronounceable names. Apart from Kosciuszko there aren't too many difficult to pronounce names of bridges/tunnels/express-ways, etc. Kosciuszko is a Polish name - the bridge is named after a Revolutionary War general, not a local New York politician. Most other bridges/tunnels/express-ways are named after famous American politicians (Washington/Lincoln/RFK), or are just named obvious descriptive things like "Brooklyn-Queens Expressway". Every now and then some bridge gets renamed (Triboro -> RFK), but nobody cares. AFAIK the only bridge named after a local New York politician is the "Ed Koch" bridge, but nobody calls it that anyway.

sandworm101 9y ago
http://www.timesunion.com/local/item/Movoto-Californians-try-to-announce-New-York-34644.php http://www.timesunion.com/local/item/Movoto-Californians-try... "Of course, this isn’t an exact science — different article in The New York Times even list slightly different pronunciation guides, and different native speakers pronounce words differently. In the Bronx, the streets are lined with tricky titles, including Lyvere Street, Lowerre Place, Fteley Avenue and Schieffelin Avenue." https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/01/pronouncing-the-unpronounceable/ https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/01/pronouncing-th... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_eponymous_streets_in_New_York_City https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_eponymous_streets_in_N... It's a thing. That natives don't see it only makes it more a thing.
- charles-salvia 9y ago
  Okay, well - never knew this. But that example seems really cherry-picked. Many NY street names are just numbers, even in other boroughs outside Manhattan. Many streets in the Bronx are just a number (130-something street to 230-something street, carrying over from upper Manhattan).
NathanKP 9y ago
Yeah I'd say most things are pronounceable, but we have some weird ones like Houston Street. When I moved to NY from Texas some years ago I was pretty surprised to find out it was pronounced "how-ston" instead of "hew-ston".

sandworm101 9y ago

http://www.timesunion.com/local/item/Movoto-Californians-try-to-announce-New-York-34644.php http://www.timesunion.com/local/item/Movoto-Californians-try... "Of course, this isn’t an exact science — different article in The New York Times even list slightly different pronunciation guides, and different native speakers pronounce words differently. In the Bronx, the streets are lined with tricky titles, including Lyvere Street, Lowerre Place, Fteley Avenue and Schieffelin Avenue." https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/01/pronouncing-the-unpronounceable/ https://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/01/pronouncing-th... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_eponymous_streets_in_New_York_City https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_eponymous_streets_in_N... It's a thing. That natives don't see it only makes it more a thing.

charles-salvia 9y ago
Okay, well - never knew this. But that example seems really cherry-picked. Many NY street names are just numbers, even in other boroughs outside Manhattan. Many streets in the Bronx are just a number (130-something street to 230-something street, carrying over from upper Manhattan).

NathanKP 9y ago

Yeah I'd say most things are pronounceable, but we have some weird ones like Houston Street. When I moved to NY from Texas some years ago I was pretty surprised to find out it was pronounced "how-ston" instead of "hew-ston".