the rurer of the worrd. (loudasthesun) wrote in linguaphiles,
the rurer of the worrd.
loudasthesun
linguaphiles

Del-high and Mye-lun

My work involves listening to people from all over the U.S. requesting (among other things) listings of businesses around them. One thing that's been particularly interesting is the naming of certain cities; they're spelled the same as a more famous city, but pronounced differently.

For example, Delhi, California is pronounced [dɛlhaɪ], not [deli] like the city in India.

Milan, Michigan (and according to Wikipedia, in a lot of other states) is pronounced [ˈmaɪlən], not [miˈlan] like the one in Italy.

Are there any more cities you know of that follow the same naming pattern, i.e. spelled the same as a more famous city but not pronounced the same (homographs?)

EDIT: Kinda forgot about this part... If you have any idea WHY the city is pronounced differently, it'd like to know that too, whether it be:
- named after a different person
- due to a historical misunderstanding
- ignorance on the part of the locals
- (American) English pronunciation being forced into non-AmEnglish orthography
- simply a coincidence?
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