Well yeah, when you grow up around it, it's normal and you don't question it. Also, like half these people were trying to read these very phonetically.
Y’all I grew up saying it the correct “Nola” way and never realized until my hubby moved to NOLA to go to Tulane that to him (a Texan) the streets are the names of muses... calliope and Melpomene and Terpsichore etc.... I was like what are you talking about. That clearly says “calli-ope” I mean don’t you listen to any decent music?! lol. Jokes on me I guess! As a kid I also didn’t realize that the rest of the country didn’t get out of school for Mardi Gras.
Métairie : "large group of buildings and land used for agriculture and occupied by a sharecropper and his family". It's the meaning of the word in french 🙃
The funny thing is, French people are probably watching this thinking, “man, these people in Louisiana totally ruined our language.” True story: I knew a guy who had French people visit his company. They were going to go to Louisiana, so the guy pointed out places to go. The Frenchmen pointed out how many of the names were French. They pronouced Pontarchrain how the French would. The guy’s boss said, “good thing you came here, so you can pronounce it correctly!”. The Frenchmen just froze and stared at him.
I am french and I can confirm that. I guess that's a natural evolution of the pronunciation of the names. So if I understand it correctly, other Americans and French will get lost no matter how hard they try to understand the locals ahah !
When are y’all gonna do Louisiana TOWN names? My boyfriend and I have been waiting since this series started!!!! (All of these are great, but we’re so excited to see our state done.)
For some reason, when people mention Louisiana, they usually mean New Orleans. Don't get me wrong, I love New Orleans, but it kind of annoys me when people mention New Orleans like it's the whole state
Some of these got me, and my mom's from the uptown area, and I live across the lake. Def. got Tchoupitoulas. That's the one everyone from Louisiana tries to get their friends from out of state to say.
I’ve been WAITING for y’all to do this one!!!! So funny! I used to live on Freret and turned on Burthe everyday. Lol. There are SO many names visitors cant pronounce!
The first time we went to New Orleans, we got lost trying to find the French Quarter and stopped at a gas station to ask directions (This is before GPS) The guy was Cajun, so we had NO idea what he said! We finally found a kindly mail carrier who spoke clearly, and he put us on the right road. We were a block away, but couldn't find it.
I laugh how I got Socrates right. I saw it and all I thought was how it was said in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. I even said it in the stoner voice.
I actually learned how to pronounce New Orleans the French way. I still say it that way. Please tackle names in the state next. By the way, I have one that will stump you. Try "Rigolette". The pronunciation will make absolutely no sense!😁
SO-crates?! Did Bill & Ted pick out that one? 😆 Well, now I realize that it's not just a Pennsylvanian thing. We have a Dubois here that the locals call "DOO-boys". Kills me every time I hear it. 🤦♀️
Tchoupitoulas was the first word I ever learned to spell. My grandfather grew up right off that street, so he gave me a dollar upon spelling it correctly when I went to visit.
One of the tricks that I have learned in my short 35 years alive is to listen to the local talk, get them in a conversation, ask them for information, or even ask about the history of the place you are visiting and you will hear the way that street names are pronounced. At least that is what I did five years ago when I visited New Orleans during Thanksgiving week. We drove from Eastern Central Georgia to the Big Easy and back!! There's something about that city that draws you in and we plan to go revisit it before we die!!
In one of his songs Dr. John pronounced the street "Esplanade" as "Ex-pluh-naid". I always thought that was interesting, when we lived in N.O. when I was a kid I heard it called "Es-plah-nahd". Then a couple years ago I saw a website on N.O. pronunciation and rule #1 was, "Only Dr. John gets to pronounce it "Explanaide". A couple of other good street names to baffle out-of-towners are Bienville and Chef Menteur.
Maya Holmes Johnson I live up the road from Nacogdoches, my baby went to college in NO. We used to pass thru Natchitoches when we’d go visit her. The Cane River is gorgeous.
Nola, Who Dat! Represent! Love my home town and miss it so much. Born and raised for 30 years and even I still struggle with the names, rofl. I am giggle overing how they say New Orleans. They say it nearly how it sounds but we say it without a bunch of letters. Either Nolans or No Olens. Or just Nola.
Calliope = Ka lee ope. Technically, it is Cah LIE upee, but that specific pronunciation is for the proper word for a Merry go round! Definitely not for New Orleans! Melpomene = Mel po meen To the lady from Louisiana: I'm with you! You were right about how to say these words. I'm from New Orleans and that's the only way I've ever heard them pronounced.
I’m from New Orleans and I only noticed three street names I knew. Tchoupitoulas, Chartres, and Decatur street. All them other streets, I don’t know where those are!
You did it again with Euterpe, in that you okayed the accent on the 2nd. syllable, but on the screen, the 1st. syllable was capitalized, indicating that's where the accent goes. Oy vay, ai ai ai, for pity's sake!
0:41 That’s the correct pronunciation for the *muse.* We pronounce it “mell-fuh-MEEN.” NOLA born and raised; most of the muse streets are mispronounced locally.
Ok! 1st You started with the "Goddesses" which are the French pronunciation of the Greek Goddesses which have gotten anglicized. Tchoupitoulas, ya mis-splet it, there's an "o" between the "t" and the "u". You'll also get people from different parts of town referring to street differently. Love the vids!
Everyone wondering why they haven't done a Louisiana episode, they have. It took a while, but I found a mini Louisiana city pronunciations on their Facebook.
The south is superior y’all I mean we got everything! The food in Alabama, the bars/parties in New Orleans, the beaches in Florida and the mountains in Tennessee
That was cute. There's plenty of words and names down there that even locals would be clueless on. They're still so many cultures. Its like tea. It could be different from one house to the next I missed the B one. I grew up close to there, tho. 😆😆😆😆 i always mispronounce Marigny. I say "Marny". 😆 and Vieux Carré. 🤭 I think its voo car. I say something like "vooKuh-reee." I grew up with street names like Demontzulin. 💜💛💚
A few of those names were the Muses from Greek mythology. They have a Krewe and a parade named after the Muses too. I think there might be a street called Muses also. Tchouptoulis is very Greek.