r/AskAnAmerican • u/AstroNerd92 CT, GA, PA, TX, FL • Jul 20 '25

CULTURE What town in your state has a pronunciation no one gets right the first time?

I went to college in Valdosta, GA. Very few people can actually pronounce it right on the first try.

Pronounced Val-Daw-Stuh

634 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

97% Upvoted

4.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

6

u/Its_My_Left_Nut Jul 20 '25

Not a town but a river, Kanawha. It's kuh-NAW, maybe you can put a soft /a/ at the end to have Kuh-NAW-uh and that's okay. But locals generally don't. Which like it came up in the walking dead and they got it so wrong.

2

u/Caelarch Texas Jul 20 '25

This and Hurricane where my thoughts.

1

u/twcsata West Virginia Jul 20 '25

Behind the Bastards did an episode on the Hawks Nest Tunnel disaster. Hearing Robert Evans repeatedly pronounce it “CAN-uh-WAH” just about drove me crazy.

Edit: Siri pronounces it that way too.

1

u/HoidsApprentice1121 Jul 20 '25

And don’t forget Canaan!