Any Scots in the Coachella Valley?

[SF Jeff]

Anyhow here's some local place-names to have fun trying to pronounce

Jumilla
Tuolumne
Tujunga
Cahuenga
Trabuco
Jurupa
Tassajara
Ojai
and last but not least Hueneme.

Tuolomne gave me and my friends fits when we went backpacking there in our early teens. We assumed "tow-LOOM-nee" and it wasn't until we got to Yosemite that we were corrected by a park ranger when we picked up our permits. There are two pronunciations that I know of: too-WALL-uh-mee or too-WALL-um-nee, the first being the more common.

Hueneme. Years ago when working in the Bay Area, a native BA co-worker came across this when working with google maps and was clueless to the pronunciation. I bet her $100 that she couldn't pronounce it and after a few comical attempts I told her (why-NEE-mee). I didn't want the money, but she insisted on buying me lunch to make good on the bet.

As a native Socal-er the rest are easy to pronounce because they are all more or less of Spanish origin, and back in the day I could speak passable Spanish but not so much any more (use it or lose it as they say). Cahuilla (near Coachella) could be added to the list also.

[OC Richard]

As a native Socal-er the rest are easy to pronounce because they are all more or less of Spanish origin.

What makes names tricky is that many are Native American, but are spelt using Spanish orthography. Had English speakers got here first their spelling would be easy for English speakers to interpret.

It's why eastern US Native American names aren't as hard to pronounce for us.

Interesting in this regard is Manx. Though related to Irish and Scottish Gaelic it's written using English orthography, thus looking "phonetic" to us.

[Canadian Vet]

Britons cannot pronounce Newfoundland the way that the inhabitants of that place do despite that island being the last British possession in northern North America.
In the UK that say: new-FOUND-land and the Newfies say the exact opposite : NEW-fund-LAND

[Jock Scot]

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In the UK that say: new-FOUND-land-------

This Brit. certainly does.

[OC Richard]

In the UK they say new-FOUND-land and the Newfies say the exact opposite, NEW-fund-LAND

Interesting!

I've always said it NEW-fund-lund, stressing only the first syllable, probably because of things like "overland trail" (OH-vur-lund) and "Sugarland Express" (SURE-gur-lund).

As opposed to putting stress on "land" as in "over land, over sea" (OH-vur-LAND, OH-vur-SEE).