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Pronouncing the unpronounceable

Hmm. I have a vintage Pete Barbutti comedy album (is there any other kind?) in which one of the jokes involved fishing rights in the Puyallup River, and Petey got it right.

And more than a decade before that, I read a whole exchange of dialogue involving the proper pronunciation of Puyallup in, of all things, a Bobbsey Twins novel (I think it was Forest Adventure, the very first one I read, in [I think] first or second grade.)

Alan Dean Foster has answered questions on the pronunciation of Thranx and AAnn names on his web site (Thranx names aren't that difficult to figure out; as to AAnn names, if memory serves correctly, the string of capital letters following the name is to be pronounced as a string of individual letters, not a word.)
 
Hmm. I have a vintage Pete Barbutti comedy album (is there any other kind?) in which one of the jokes involved fishing rights in the Puyallup River, and Petey got it right.

And more than a decade before that, I read a whole exchange of dialogue involving the proper pronunciation of Puyallup in, of all things, a Bobbsey Twins novel (I think it was Forest Adventure, the very first one I read, in [I think] first or second grade.)

Fascinating. I had no idea!
 
^It's "Pew-Al-up," basically, isn't it?

Yep. Alas, poor Anthony Steward Head utterly mangles it in the EW audiobook.

On the other hand, Darrin McGavin got it right in the THE NIGHT STRANGLER, when Kolchak is assigned to cover the Daffodil Festival in Puyallup (which is a real thing, btw).

"Puyallup?" he exclaims in disbelief?

I keep waiting for somebody to try to say it on iZOMBIE. :)

I grew up in Puyallup. It was years and years before I understood that some people just can't manage the word.
 
It's not 'Spoke-Cane' Washington, it's 'Spoke-Can', Washington.
I've heard that pronunciation several times on TV and radio over the years.
 
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I grew up in Puyallup. It was years and years before I understood that some people just can't manage the word.

I was born there, as were both my parents. As I like to joke, I grew up with sensible names like Puyallup and Duwamish and Snoqualmie, as opposed to those weird East Coast names like Schenectady and Poughkeepsie . . ..:)

Getting back on topic, for a while there I was sneaking Pacific Northwest names into all my Trek books. (I think there's a "U.S.S. Puyallup" in my DS9 book.)
 
I was born there, as were both my parents. As I like to joke, I grew up with sensible names like Puyallup and Duwamish and Snoqualmie, as opposed to those weird East Coast names like Schenectady and Poughkeepsie . . ..:)

Getting back on topic, for a while there I was sneaking Pacific Northwest names into all my Trek books. (I think there's a "U.S.S. Puyallup" in my DS9 book.)
Now I'll have to read it.

How long did you live there? My history there is only from 1978 to 1991, but maybe we know some of the same people.
 
I actually grew up around Sea-Tac, but both sets of grandparents lived in Puyallup back in the day, so there were frequent visits and, yes, I have many fond memories of the Fair and the Daffodil Parade. I moved East back around 1987 . . .
 
Ha, so did I-- when I joined the Army. But I came back. Most of my family is still living between Tacoma and North Bend (and Snoqualmie!).

Anyway, I don't read too many current Trek books, but I am really gonna have to see the reference to "USS Puyallup".
 
Love this thread! I just re-read something I posted back in 2013:
The worst thing about dialogue is when the author attempts to convey a thick accent. Too often it ends up with whole sentences made up of words spelled "wrong" or clipped with apostrophes all over the place. It's supposed to "read like it sounds", but I'm reminded of the screen in the movie BRAVE where the big guy talks, and everyone looks at each other like "WTF did he just say?" Just toss in a few simple words with the accent and leave the rest spelled correctly, please. We'll get the gist that Scotty has a brogue accent.

Oh, and I have the same issue with foreign / alien character names. If they're too weird, it makes my brain stumble every time I see it. I have a character in a story named Sarisha Sahani. She is of Indian decent (Hindu, not Native American), so she has a unique name, but it's not unpronounceable. I cringe when I see characters named something like Ps'K'houewe'T'sca'woo. Seriously, why do that to your readers?
 
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