You forgot "cheeca hites" (Chicago Heights)SoupOrMan wrote:Thanks to our politics, Illinois is already a pretty strange duck compared to the rest of the country. One of our quirks is apparently mispronouncing town names in a deliberate fashion. This was again brought to my attention when someone gave me a town name that sounded way out of the ordinary.
For example:
"Athens" is pronounced as "Ay-thens" unless you're talking about "New Athens" then "Athens" is pronounced normally.
"Berlin" is pronounced with emphasis on the first syllable and the last syllable has that lovely muddled "schwa" sound (for linguistics sticklers out there.) So it's pronounced like "BER-luhn." Unlike New Athens, the "Berlin" in "New Berlin" is pronounced in the Illinois manner.
"Cerro Gordo" isn't pronounced as it would be in Italian. It's "Serro Gordo" instead.
"Gillespie" isn't pronounced like the name of the famous jazz musician. It's pronounced "Gellispie."
"Milan" is pronounced to rhyme with "Nylon" with the emphasis on the first syllable. "MY-luhn."
"Vienna" is pronounced with a long I sound like "vital."
And of course, "Hell" is pronounced "the Bridgeview neighborhood of Chicago."
and
"Sss-Ollnd" (South Holland)
I'm so glad I don't visit anymore.
Illinois, another name for sphincter.
Illinois, even the Norwegians kept going.
Cook County, Illinois; further proof the crap ends up at the center of the vortex.