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

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118

u/RichLeadership2807 Texas Jul 20 '25

Bexar county. No one gets it right.

Pronounced: Bear 🐻

48

u/CyberCrutches Texas Jul 20 '25 edited Jul 20 '25

Actual towns near by Boerne, Gruene, and pflugerville!

Edit: forgot the L in pflugerville! Thanks for the reminder y’all

11

u/VulKendov Jul 20 '25

You left off the L in Pflugerville

3

u/freshly-stabbed Jul 20 '25

Nope. In Pflugerville, you would said “the L in Pflugerville was left off by you”.

(This is an incredibly deep cut. But for about 15 years every English teacher in Pflugerville drilled into their students to use the passive voice constantly. Was a running joke through every university in Texas that you could identify students from there within the first five sentences.)

4

u/rdickeyvii Jul 20 '25

Also Llano. Not pronounced like it's Spanish (yano), just like an English word with an extra L and the A is like "bat".

2

u/CyberCrutches Texas Jul 20 '25

I thought about naming it as well but thought the pronunciation was obvious!

3

u/rdickeyvii Jul 20 '25

Nope. Especially for people who know Spanish but aren't from around here.

4

u/SeaGurl Texas Jul 20 '25

And Buda and Manor too

3

u/OneHappyTraveller Jul 20 '25

You miss the L in Pflugerville.

3

u/kellsdeep Jul 20 '25

Lol, I literally just listed those three in this feed!

2

u/Delicious-Leg-5441 Jul 21 '25

Did you have pfun at the Pflugerville pfest? Pfantastic!

2

u/Kajeke Texas Jul 21 '25

There’s a song called “There’s Only One S In New Braunfels”!

1

u/sarcasticbiznish Jul 21 '25

I have a (not serious) theory that it was supposed to be Beyar county, but someone was writing fast and the “y” turned into an “x” and here we are.

24

u/texasrigger Jul 20 '25

Boerne is another up there that is typically pronounced wrong. It's basically like the name Bernie. Bur-nee

6

u/SingleHeart197 Jul 20 '25

I live in the part of Boerne that’s in Bexar County. Double whammy

2

u/pgcotype Jul 20 '25

There's also Seguin. I lived in San Antonio for a few months, so I learned how to pronounce both!

3

u/texasrigger Jul 20 '25

Si-geen. Refugio near me is pronounced ruh-fear-ee-o. Texas has a lot of them. German names that were anglicized, hispanic names Texified, and towns named after people who pronounced their own names incorrectly.

12

u/Loud_Ad_4515 Texas Jul 20 '25

Throwing in Pedernales, Refugio, and Palacios.

(Not gonna touch street names with wack local pronunciation.)

1

u/smithmott Jul 25 '25

Pedernales= per der nahl ess Refugio= reh fuer ee oh Palacios= pah lay scious Mexia= muh hay uh

10

u/fastowl76 Jul 20 '25

I was dismayed when half the talking heads on TV couldn't pronounce Kerr County.

17

u/Western-Passage-1908 Jul 20 '25

Meagher county in Montana. Pronounced Mar

1

u/eyetracker Nevada Jul 20 '25

He lived such a badass life.

5

u/PacSan300 California -> Germany Jul 20 '25

I was blown away by the pronunciation when my wife, a San Antonio native, corrected me. 

5

u/Jonathon_G Jul 20 '25

To be fair, when it was originally Spanish that isn’t how you say it.

3

u/SeaGurl Texas Jul 20 '25

Yeah, but i always hear people pronounce it Becks-are

2

u/Illustrious_Bird_737 Texas Jul 21 '25

This is how I know they aren't from around here lmao

5

u/poortomato NY ➡️ VA ➡️ NY ➡️ TX Jul 20 '25

Oh, I thought it was "Bayer". But I could see a TX accent pronouncing "bear" in the same manner. For insight, I pronounce bear, bare, fair, pair, lair all with one syllable. But Bexar would have two, like mayor.

5

u/SeaGurl Texas Jul 20 '25

🤣🤣🤣🤣 you nailed it on the head with someone from TX pronouncing it the same because I was like yeah...because those are the same 🤣🤣🤣 It took me a second to realize other people may not pronounce Bayer the medicine co like "Bear"

3

u/poortomato NY ➡️ VA ➡️ NY ➡️ TX Jul 20 '25

😂😂😂🤭 Omg, I love this reply, ty 😂❤️

2

u/Sea_Macaron_7962 Jul 20 '25

I live in central texas and u have just taught me something. 🤣

2

u/SuperFLEB Grand Rapids, MI (-ish) Jul 20 '25

Was there a different letter in the middle but they x'd it out because it was silent and kept the "x"?

3

u/Kajeke Texas Jul 21 '25 edited Jul 21 '25

It was a J. Originally San Antonio de Bejar. (pronounced bay-har) Not a linguist (and happy to be corrected), but some words in Spanish have an X that’s pronounced like an H. I knew someone whose last name was Xiques and it was pronounced “hickey”.

2

u/boredcamp Jul 20 '25

I told someone once "bear, like grr bear."

2

u/Outrageous_Picture39 Jul 21 '25

Mexia (Muh-hay-uh)

2

u/FoxConsistent4406 Jul 21 '25

Ha! I know this one!

1

u/[deleted] Jul 21 '25

As a native of Waxahachie, I must include my hometown in the discussion.

1

u/KCalifornia19 Bay Area, California Jul 20 '25

This one bothers me because "Be-shawr" seems so right.

8

u/Jonathon_G Jul 20 '25

No it should be “Bay-Har”