Every state has its own lingo, but none is as interesting as Pennsylvania. Ask someone if they’re going to outten the lights before they go dahntahn, and they might look at you as if you’ve sprouted a second head. We can usually spot if the other person is a tried and true Pennsylvanian by the way they speak and, in particular, how they pronounce some of those hard-to-pronounce Pennsylvania destinations.
- DuBois
Flickr/Jon Dawson A charming town in Western PA, Dubois can be a tough one to pronounce if you’re not from PA. We Pennsylvanians are known for pronouncing its “doo boys,” rather than the French version of du-bwa.
- Punxsutawney
Flickr/Doug Kerr Okay, this one doesn’t really count as much as the others, because just about everyone in the U.S. knows about Punxsutawney because of Phil. Still, if you weren’t from PA and haven’t heard of Groundhog Day, you might struggle to say Punks-uh-taw-nee.
- Duquesne
Flickr/hounddiggity Here’s another one plenty of non-natives struggle with. They might be tempted, in fact, to pronounce the “s” in Duquesne. Yet, those in Pittsburgh say it the way the French might – doo cane.
- Schuylkill
Flickr/J. Nathan Matias If you don’t live in Eastern Pennsylvania, you might also have difficulty saying or even spelling the name of the town of nearly 150,000. It’s actually quite easy to pronounce – SKOO-kill.
- Knoebels
Flickr/Jeremy Thompson Pennsylvania has its fair share of amusement parks. Most are easy to pronounce – Hersheypark and Kennywood Park, for example. Knoebels, however, can go one of two ways. How do you pronounce it? Kuh-no-bells or kuh-no-bulls?
- Wilkes-Barre
Flickr/John Morgan There’s also some debate as to how you’re supposed to properly pronounce Wilkes-Barre, so we should probably leave it up to those who live there. However, most would likely agree that it’s either Wilkes-Barr-A or Wilkes-Berry.
- Monongahela
Flickr/Rick Reiring Unlike most rivers, the Monongahela River flows from south to north. In addition to that interesting tidbit, it’s also a bit difficult to pronounce for those who haven’t heard of it before. Do you say it muh-nong-guh-hey-luh, too?
- Bala Cynwyd
Flickr/Montgomery County Planning Commission You’ll find a lot of French and Welsh-inspired named towns in PA like Bala Cynwyd, which sits just five miles from Philadelphia. To pronounce it – bah-lah kin-wood.
- Manayunk
Flickr/Michael Stokes A popular Philadelphia neighborhood, Manayunk can be quite the tongue twister if you don’t know how to pronounce it. We pronounce it man-ay-yunk.
- North Versailles
Flickr/Jon Dawson While we may keep the double l silent when we talk about the Palace of Versailles in Paris, we don’t say it that way if we’re talking about North Versailles in Western PA. We say it North Ver-sales.
Are you a true Pennsylvanian? Can you pronounce all of these words? What others would you add to the list? Let us know in the comments! You might also get a laugh out of this video of a few Californians trying to pronounce those-hard-to-pronounce Pennsylvania names.
Flickr/Jon Dawson
A charming town in Western PA, Dubois can be a tough one to pronounce if you’re not from PA. We Pennsylvanians are known for pronouncing its “doo boys,” rather than the French version of du-bwa.
Flickr/Doug Kerr
Okay, this one doesn’t really count as much as the others, because just about everyone in the U.S. knows about Punxsutawney because of Phil. Still, if you weren’t from PA and haven’t heard of Groundhog Day, you might struggle to say Punks-uh-taw-nee.
Flickr/hounddiggity
Here’s another one plenty of non-natives struggle with. They might be tempted, in fact, to pronounce the “s” in Duquesne. Yet, those in Pittsburgh say it the way the French might – doo cane.
Flickr/J. Nathan Matias
If you don’t live in Eastern Pennsylvania, you might also have difficulty saying or even spelling the name of the town of nearly 150,000. It’s actually quite easy to pronounce – SKOO-kill.
Flickr/Jeremy Thompson
Pennsylvania has its fair share of amusement parks. Most are easy to pronounce – Hersheypark and Kennywood Park, for example. Knoebels, however, can go one of two ways. How do you pronounce it? Kuh-no-bells or kuh-no-bulls?
Flickr/John Morgan
There’s also some debate as to how you’re supposed to properly pronounce Wilkes-Barre, so we should probably leave it up to those who live there. However, most would likely agree that it’s either Wilkes-Barr-A or Wilkes-Berry.
Flickr/Rick Reiring
Unlike most rivers, the Monongahela River flows from south to north. In addition to that interesting tidbit, it’s also a bit difficult to pronounce for those who haven’t heard of it before. Do you say it muh-nong-guh-hey-luh, too?
Flickr/Montgomery County Planning Commission
You’ll find a lot of French and Welsh-inspired named towns in PA like Bala Cynwyd, which sits just five miles from Philadelphia. To pronounce it – bah-lah kin-wood.
Flickr/Michael Stokes
A popular Philadelphia neighborhood, Manayunk can be quite the tongue twister if you don’t know how to pronounce it. We pronounce it man-ay-yunk.
While we may keep the double l silent when we talk about the Palace of Versailles in Paris, we don’t say it that way if we’re talking about North Versailles in Western PA. We say it North Ver-sales.
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