In New York City, there is a street named "Houston st.". People here pronounce it as "house-ton". Whereas the city down in Texas, I believe people pronounce the city as "hyus-ton". I am confused
Streets and towns are like that. You have to go with the natives.
Albany, the capital of NY, is pronounced double-l. The town in northern California is pronounced single-l, as in Al Gore.
In CA the "natives" don't always agree. Many streets and towns were named by the Spanish, but the gringos have anglicized some of them.
As Avangi has indicated, sometimes not even the natives agree 100%. When I was preparing for a trip New Orleans, I practices say 'nwahl'nz'; once there, however, I found nearly as many pronunciations as I did natives. The only one I didn't hear was 'NewOrleeenz'.
Back in the day, you could tell what part of town someone was from by the way they pronounced "New Orleans." My grandmother, may her soul rest, used to give it the full Uptown four syllables (New WAHL-yee-uns). And yes, NO ONE says New Orleenz, but it's acceptable in song form, mostly because it's an easy rhyme.
---Delmobile, nee Delneworleans
Del, do you cringe when TV announcers call it "New Or-lee-unz"?
And then there's New Madrid, Illinois. (MAD - rid, not muh-DRID)
Houston Street in New York City was named for William Houstoun , a delegate to the Continental Congress . It was still spelled "Houstoun Street" on maps of the area into the early 1800s. The spelling of the street changed (undoubtedly by mistake of some city cartographer and/or other officials), but New Yorkers continued pronouncing it the original way.
I love these kinds of little local-history oddities, but they can definitely be confusing.
Albany, the capital of NY, is pronounced double-l. The town in northern California is pronounced single-l, as in Al Gore.
In CA the "natives" don't always agree. Many streets and towns were named by the Spanish, but the gringos have anglicized some of them.
When I was preparing for a trip New Orleans, I practices say 'nwahl'nz'; once there, however, I found nearly as many pronunciations as I did natives. The only one I didn't hear was 'NewOrleeenz'.
---Delmobile, nee Delneworleans
hew-stun
I love these kinds of little local-history oddities, but they can definitely be confusing.