[mc32]

Does it do the same for people visiting the US? I can imagine tons of butchering especially with placenames which have Native American derivation. Arkansas, Puyallup, Potowomut, or even idiosyncratic places like Peabody \’pee’bdee\

[aidenn0]

Living in SoCal, as far as I can tell, google maps generates some random numbers and then uses the result to decide whether it should use the Spanish or English pronunciation of roads with Spanish names.

In some cases it uses different pronunciations for two words in the same road name (I've heard "Calle Real" pronounced with "Calle" correct but "Real" as the English word "real"; other times it gets calle wrong and other times it gets them both right).

[troebr]

It does, I moved to New Jersey from France, and my phone was in French. Navigation was kind of funny because it was attempting to pronounce English words as if they were French. For instance, street was pronounced "stré" ("streh", if you are not familiar with é).

Google maps was struggling with Roman numerals in France: many streets and avenues are named after kings, say "Louis XVI", "Henry VI" etc. Back in the days it wasn't able to pronounce those, VI would have sounded like "vee". It's probably been fixed since, that was almost 8 years back.

[AnimalMuppet]

There is a city in Texas named Amarillo. What is the "correct" pronunciation of that city name - the Spanish way of pronouncing the word, or the way the locals say it?

[tyingq]

Worcester, Massachusetts is also interesting, in a different way. The locals say it right, but anyone not familiar gets it wrong.

Or maybe UK folks get it right?

[tboughen]

I live 25 mins away from Worcester UK. All U.K. born adults know to pronounce it “wuster”

[barneygale]

UK pronunciation is two syllables "WUSS-tar", and most people here get it right because Worcester Sauce is a big thing.

[thaumasiotes]

Worcestershire sauce ("wiss-ta-shirr") is a thing in the US too, though not Worcester sauce.

[swish_bob]

Except it's still mostly pronounced WUSS-ter sauce in the UK.

[adrianN]

Do you mean Warchestersauce? Sponsored by Blizzard?

[thaumasiotes]

No?

[chrisseaton]

It’s pronounced wuss-tu-shu.

[thaumasiotes]

/wɪs.tə.ʃɚ/

[mc32]

That reminds me of Salinas \suhleenis\ Calif and Salina \suhlainuh\ Kansas.

Sequim, WA is an interesting one.

But back Spanish, the word Mexico itself I’ve heard as: \meiko\, \’mehiko\, \’meXiko\, \’meksiko\ and of course \’meksikou\

[asveikau]

I believe that one had [ʃ] (English 'sh') when the Spanish got there but then there was a change in Spain (in Castilian only even, not in Catalan or Galician) from /ʃ/ and /ʒ/ -> /x/ (like the 'ch' in loch) and they brought it to the Americas.

Somehow those Spaniards brought that change to /x/ to all those Nahuatl place names but they never brought /θ/ to everyday speech in Mexico. I scratch my head at that.

[caf]

The way Nat King Cole pronounces it in Route 66, of course.

[balls187]

Puyallup is a good one. Tough for many americans to say (who aren't from the region).

Pronounced "pew-all-up" for those who are curious.

[Gaelan]

Huh. As someone born and raised in the region, it’s hard to imagine how else it would be pronounced. Poo-y’all-up, maybe?

[balls187]

"Poi-all-up" is what I've typically heard after leaving the area for school.

True story, I worked at the South Hill Mall.

[saghm]

I had never heard this name before, and that's the guess I made before reading the rest of the comment.

[balls187]

As is the case of many places in Washington State, the cities name comes from pacific coastal tribes.

Specifically The Puyallup Tribe.

Seattle, Tacoma, Rainier, Sequim, Nisqually, Samammish, Snoqualmie, Skykomish, Snohomish, Tillicum, etc

[saghm]

Interesting! Thanks for the info

[wccrawford]

I would have guessed "puh-yall-up".

[bsimpson]

A friend and former flatmate of mine split his childhood between the US and Mexico; he has native accents in both languages.

It's wild to hear him phoning home, rattling off Spanish words faster than I can discern them, and then use a local pronunciation (and American accent) for Spanish-origin names like Divisadero or Arguello.

[personlurking]

In Puerto Rico it sure does a lot of butchering, after having taken Ubers there