thephartmacist t1_iselmho wrote
At work, a customer from of town complained to our manager that another coworker pronounced her name incorrectly (to which she proceeded to call him his name incorrectly on rebuttal, as if he did it on purpose).
Her name: Parham.
She’s gonna get upset with quite a few people if she stays in our area, I think.
fusion260 OP t1_iseltcw wrote
It would be even more unfortunate if her name was Parham Powhite. Might even need to take a billboard out to help folk pronounce it.
eziam t1_isem6dk wrote
Forget this casino vote. We need a pronunciation vote. Po-white or pow-hite
My wife who lived here for 35 years calls it pow-hite. I'm here because she moved back home and call it po-white only because I get to say...po-white.
Diet_Coke t1_isfqshp wrote
Pow-hite is the right way, it's like if someone says Nor-folk instead of Nor-fuk or the even more legit Naw-fuk
Charlesinrichmond t1_isf4wk3 wrote
moved here. Looks like po=white, so that's what I say. Going to stick with it
big-heck-nah t1_isfhrtj wrote
Your wife is wrong
bettygreatwhite t1_iseper4 wrote
When I first moved here, I pronounced “Henrico” as “en-REE-co” for an embarrassingly long time. I assume no one corrected me because it was more entertaining that way. Virginia pronunciations are wild.
Nothing2SeeHere4U t1_isevnpc wrote
My personal favorite is "Buena Vista" (Byouna Visstah), if only because you can see the light die behind people's eyes when you tell them how locals pronounce it
Special shout out to Rio (Rye-oh) Rd in Charlottesville for a similar effect
PercyDovetonsils t1_isg24pj wrote
My fave is either Botetourt (BOT-a-tot) or Totopotomoy (To-POT-omy). Here’s a fun page with lots of examples:
Accomplished-Pen-394 t1_isi15l0 wrote
I see your complains and raise you Scituate (in RI.) (I grew up in New England so I can say that place and Worcestershire)
Trouble__Bound t1_iseoyhr wrote
Did your coworker pronounce it Parham or Parham?
thephartmacist t1_isepv19 wrote
They pronounced it Paer-um or Pear-m. She wanted it said par(like golf)-hem
manyamile t1_isf2c19 wrote
She and google maps are both wrong.
___zero__cool___ t1_isf2msi wrote
I also pronounce it “pear-m”, but I still don’t understand this customers preferred pronunciation. If you’re going to use a long ‘a’ in the first half, why do you get to clip it to a short ‘a’ on the back end? I feel like they should be pronouncing their name par(like golf)-ham(like bacon).
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