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I’ve only lived here two months, but settling in and getting around with no issues.
However, I’m slowly realizing I’m mispronouncing streets/places. Example: I thought Ballentine was “teen” at the end, not “tine” (so rhymes with valentine). Thought you pronounced the “s” in Gervais, not realizing it was the French pronunciation. Then last night was gently corrected that Huger isn’t “hu-grr” but “hu-gee” or “u-gee” (which doesn’t seem to be a French pronunciation?).
Any other streets or places in the Columbia area that may have different pronunciations I should be aware about? Trying to avoid appearing as a clueless outsider!
I’ve only lived here two months, but settling in and getting around with no issues.
However, I’m slowly realizing I’m mispronouncing streets/places. Example: I thought Ballentine was “teen” at the end, not “tine” (so rhymes with valentine). Thought you pronounced the “s” in Gervais, not realizing it was the French pronunciation. Then last night was gently corrected that Huger isn’t “hu-grr” but “hu-gee” or “u-gee” (which doesn’t seem to be a French pronunciation?).
Any other streets or places in the Columbia area that may have different pronunciations I should be aware about? Trying to avoid appearing as a clueless outsider!
Trenholm Road = “Treh-num”
Sesquicentennial Park = “Sess-kwi-centennial”
I’ve only lived here two months, but settling in and getting around with no issues.
However, I’m slowly realizing I’m mispronouncing streets/places. Example: I thought Ballentine was “teen” at the end, not “tine” (so rhymes with valentine). Thought you pronounced the “s” in Gervais, not realizing it was the French pronunciation. Then last night was gently corrected that Huger isn’t “hu-grr” but “hu-gee” or “u-gee” (which doesn’t seem to be a French pronunciation?).
Any other streets or places in the Columbia area that may have different pronunciations I should be aware about? Trying to avoid appearing as a clueless outsider!
Can't think of any right off hand, but "Trenholm" is simply pronounced "tren-um", which may or may not be obvious.
"Hu-gee" was probably just the way 18th-century French got pronounced by people unfamiliar with the language. The proper modern French pronunciation would be "hyoo-zhair". Similarly, the French name "Manigault" somehow got corrupted to "Menegay" --- you will still hear both in the Lowcountry, and "Manigault" gets pronounced both "man-a-go" and "man-a-galt". There is also "Mungo" (as in Mungo Homes), and I suspect that this, too, may be a form of Manigault.
Keep in mind, too, that many of the people of this time were illiterate, and might not have had a clear idea of how such names would be spelled. French names sometimes got spelled just the way they sounded in English. "Tebow" (as in Tim) was originally spelled "Thibault", which is pronounced... "Tebow". I once heard the name "Tyo" (tie-oh), which is a phonetic spelling of "Taillon". And let's not forget Celine Dion, but the Dionne quintuplets.
If you ever find yourself up in Kershaw County, Elgin is pronounced "El-jin" (I always think of this because when I moved to Texas, I was the one being corrected as the town with the same name here is pronounced "El-gin" with a hard "g").
If you ever find yourself up in Kershaw County, Elgin is pronounced "El-jin" (I always think of this because when I moved to Texas, I was the one being corrected as the town with the same name here is pronounced "El-gin" with a hard "g").
Also up that way, Lugoff is "lew-goff".
Your bit of South Carolina trivia for today --- "Lugoff" is actually a Russian name, there was a Count Lugoff who brought Russian workers for the railroad they were building out there, and they named the town after him. You'd never think it.
So we were corrected last night... we had been pronouncing Columbiana (the mall and the road next to it) as “column-bay-nee-ah.” Our friends were like “where?” And realized we should be pronouncing it “columbi-anna” I think is what they said. Been here 9 months and still learning!
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