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lagoongassoon t1_j1anx7m wrote

Eww

114

dunkaross t1_j1d4dhw wrote

Yet would it be classy to pronounce it CAHHHmbridge all fancy like, as in I went to Hahvard in cahhhmbridge?

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justforthehellofit t1_j1ap68p wrote

I do. Then they moved to Arizona so problem fixed itself..?

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officepolicy OP t1_j1apb2t wrote

Did you try to pronounce it like everyone else and found it hard to do?

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justforthehellofit t1_j1apqw9 wrote

Nah I kept pronouncing it came-bridge. If I quote them, it just feels wrong to say CAM-bridge but its also a running joke between my and my SO at this point.

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officepolicy OP t1_j1ar1j3 wrote

Oh I misread your comment, I thought you said you pronounce it that way and then moved to arizona lol, nm

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frausting t1_j1an1zs wrote

When I moved to Cambridge from Florida, I was unsure how to pronounce it. My first guess was “cam-bridge”, but when I got here quickly switched to “came-bridge”

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officepolicy OP t1_j1ani2t wrote

Once you heard other people saying "came" then I assume you switched. This person hears other people pronouncing it different yet hasn't changed, I'm baffled

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becausefrog t1_j1apt7e wrote

Where are they from? What is their accent?

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officepolicy OP t1_j1aqpva wrote

No accent, I wouldn't let it bother me if someone with an accent pronounced local words wrong

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becausefrog t1_j1ar0s0 wrote

I wonder if there's a Cam-bridge where they are from? I always get Reading and Read-ing mixed up because it's pronounced one way where I grew up and another way here and I can never keep track of which is which anymore.

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mmmsoap t1_j1d6w8k wrote

I went to college with a girl who insisted that it made sense to call it Pea-Body (“because you find a body in the woods, not a buhDEE in the woods”) and absolutely refused to change because the entire state is Massachusetts was wrong.

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SkinnyJoshPeck t1_j1dg91w wrote

Utah says “hur-ih-ken” for a town spelled Hurricane.

i’m convinced everyone says these cities wrong just for posterity’s sake. They are wrong, like how volvo has that color “swedish racing green” which is clearly blue. But that doesn’t mean it’s not how everyone says it. 🤷🏻‍♂️

I guess to avoid an existential crisis folks just can’t accept people can do whatever they want lol.

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acelana t1_j1dn6ov wrote

To me the most cursed place in Utah is Coeur d’Alene. I tried pronouncing it with what I thought was a pretty Anglicized pronunciation (kerr deh lehn). Nope. It’s fucking Core Duh Lane.

May God have mercy on us all

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namaste_you_guys t1_j1bmky1 wrote

Did you grow up in Cincinnati where it’s pronounced “RED-ing”?! Because same 😂

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PM_ME_ROCK t1_j1c3f6d wrote

MA (Reading & North Reading) are pronounced like “Redding”

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Otterfan t1_j1cgamo wrote

Yeah, is it pronounced anything other than "RED-ing" anywhere? Other than when you talk about what you do with books of course.

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ftmthrow t1_j1augfu wrote

Interesting, I’ve never heard them described as “soft/hard” vowel sounds, just short/long.

Anyway, it’s hard/long (nice).

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Kingpine42069 t1_j1bsw20 wrote

I've usually heard hard/soft for consonants like G... Greg vs. Gym

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officepolicy OP t1_j1av7x3 wrote

I find long and short confusing because you can say a soft vowel slowly or a hard vowel quickly

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ftmthrow t1_j1b48w8 wrote

I think the “a” in jam is harsher (“harder”) sounding than the “a” in Cambridge, so I find that confusing.

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officepolicy OP t1_j1b4nxg wrote

Yeah I guess it’s all subjective whichever words you use, better to compare to other words

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shanghaidry t1_j1c5pbo wrote

Vowel length is a real thing.

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officepolicy OP t1_j1d9czz wrote

You can say a short vowel slowly though right?

0

[deleted] t1_j1dxbiz wrote

[deleted]

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officepolicy OP t1_j1dy5d3 wrote

I can say both of those slowly. I honestly don’t see how saying those two vowels slowly shows which is long or short. Also a speech pathologist in the comments told me jam is not a short vowel (like hat, which I can say slowly just fine too.) Jam is a nasalize vowel influenced by an n or m after it

0

UpsNoDowns t1_j1c17e3 wrote

A bit hypocritical to nitpick at someone's mispronunciation of Cambridge when you won't accept long/short and are defending your usage of hard/soft because you find it confusing.

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officepolicy OP t1_j1d8rwn wrote

What? I accept long and short vowels as a concept, I just find them confusing

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angelabroc t1_j1dad1a wrote

I’m in the field of speech pathology so I’m just gonna jump in here, the a in “jam” is not 100% a short vowel (like in “hat”) or a long vowel (where the vowel says its name, like in “same”). It’s actually a nasalized vowel (influenced by an n or m after it, like “ran/man” as opposed to “rat/mat”.) So that might be why it’s a little hard to identify the sound in “jam” 🙃

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officepolicy OP t1_j1daxyb wrote

That’s really interesting, makes sense that it’s not just a binary between long/short. Do you prefer using long/short or hard/soft? Or do you just compare to other words to disambiguate? Thanks so much for the expert opinion, häts off to you 😉

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angelabroc t1_j1dblgp wrote

Haha i have to agree with other posters that its definitely typically long/short for vowels, and then hard/soft for consonants (hard g in gate vs soft g in giraffe, same goes for the letter c in cage vs. cent). There are a ton of technical terms/specifics for each sound that can be made/used in a language, but if you aren’t a speech pathologist or a linguist it really doesn’t matter too much! Rule of thumb for vowels though is if the vowel “says its name” in the word, it’s a long vowel.

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officepolicy OP t1_j1dc2rp wrote

Ah gotcha, thanks! When I originally wrote the post I had just quickly googled “hard and soft vowels” and some results came up so I used that, didn’t realize it wasn’t the typical terms

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ButterAndPaint t1_j1c03tf wrote

An Irish friend of mine had a friend visiting from Ireland, and they lost track of each other while out drinking one night. The next morning his friend showed up and told him he had ended up in “Quinky.”

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RogueInteger t1_j1b7xn3 wrote

I believe you get your ass kicked saying something like that.

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89DEALS t1_j1arejk wrote

Cam-bridge, Came-bridge, Cum-bridge…all are considered acceptable pronunciations

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ppomeroy t1_j1b4h5r wrote

Lots of transplants tend to mispronounce local street names or town names.

In Roslindale there is an Albano Street. It is "al-BAY-no" but those not born there say "al-BAN-no." As I tell them, it is not named after a former wrestling star (Lou Albano).

Some years ago my neighbor was stopped by a lost motorist and asked for directions to "muh-TAP-un." No one seemed to know where that was. After a little thought process he told the driver that he can't get there, because it is pronounced "MAT-uh-PAN" (Mattapan).

Directions were issued to the poor lost soul.

Boston and vicinity has a decent mix of English and Wampanoag (Native American) names.

The thing that can be frosting is when said people refuse to accept correction by the Native Bostonians on pronunciation.

We will not speak of Worcester, Gloucester, or Scituate. :-)

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dyqik t1_j1buuv6 wrote

As an English transplant, I'm pleased that MA gets Worcester and Gloucester right. But I do wish MA had a Bicester ("Bister") and Towcester ("Toaster").

But as for RI, with its War-wick...

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ppomeroy t1_j1ek2lk wrote

No help here but maybe some faith? We have a Leicester (Les-Ter), not far from Worcester. :-)

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alde-baran t1_j1azvj7 wrote

Even in the UK they pronounce it as "Came-bridge", so if we're going by their example... but then again, do we Americans really want to?

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lotusblossom60 t1_j1awl78 wrote

Met a girl from another state. She pronounced Billerica like Bill-air-eh-cah. I laughed so hard. Worcester was Warchester.

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officepolicy OP t1_j1aydey wrote

Well we live in Am air eh cah so it makes sense

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Otterfan t1_j1cgiaj wrote

In the TV show Fringe—which was set in Boston—they said "Bill-air-eh-cah".

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_violetlightning_ t1_j1cu2ik wrote

Oof, that’s terrible. My cousin was a producer on that show. He knows better.

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dyqik t1_j1btnh3 wrote

Whereas it should be pronounced bill-a-rickey, after the original place. ;)

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Cormyll666 t1_j1ccj1t wrote

Legit though everything here is pronounced incorrectly. How anyone gets “Wuhsta” from “Worcester” I will never know. Ditto for so many others. Lemonster from Leominster? Come on.

It’s all just an elaborate gatekeeping mechanism to tell who has lived here long enough and who hasn’t.

−1

AJSopranosEyebrows t1_j1dl42l wrote

My doctor's secretary is an old lady with a Brahmin accent. I once asked her if she had any appointments available on a Friday and she responded "Ah, ya cunt, he's not in that day" and it took me a minute to realize she said "you can't" and didn't call me the C word lol

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QueenOfBrews t1_j1aww9m wrote

No, but I knew someone that refused to say Tremont correctly in reference to the street. Drove me irrationally crazy. Same person that called Copley “Cope-ly”

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charons-voyage t1_j1bb0e6 wrote

Ok is it Trey-mont or Truh-mont? I’ve lived here a decade and still don’t know lol. I say the former.

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tiniestturtles t1_j1c6uyt wrote

I’ve always called it trem-mont

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charons-voyage t1_j1davfk wrote

Interesting. Getting a couple different responses here haha! Trem-mont vs Tray-mont…I guess I’ll never know :-)

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tiniestturtles t1_j1fv6dc wrote

Traymont st is acceptable too. TREEmont st on the other hand…. Lol

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mclovin1236 t1_j1gqrii wrote

Feeling like a fraud as someone who's lived in mass all my life calling it cam-bridge and cope-ly

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coldsnap123 t1_j1b4byu wrote

Indians say cahmbridge

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hihik t1_j1bocrb wrote

In Russian Cambridge is pronounced with “jam” as OP describes, so any Russian-speaking person who has learned English without exposure to the English/American pronunciation would say it that way.

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riski_click t1_j1axvgb wrote

It might be bookish? Cambridge's namesake in the U.K. got it's name from the river Cam that runs through it. I'm not sure, but I doubt the river is pronounced "Came"

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drowsylacuna t1_j1b0hby wrote

The UK Cambridge is pronounced the same as Cambridge MA though. According to wikipedia the river is actually back-named after the town and it was originally called the Granta.

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dyqik t1_j1bvswr wrote

This shows up in the village of Grantchester ("Grant(a)-encampment") a bit upstream (south) from Cambridge.

Some maps still say "River Cam (or Granta)". A similar thing goes on in Oxford with the Isis (or Thames), upstream of the confluence with the Cherwell. Below Oxford, it's the Thames.

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Darklighter10 t1_j1b13yn wrote

In regards to the UK university, I have never heard anyone say they were “Cah-mbridge educated”, so I think they say it the same way we do.

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dyqik t1_j1bu4cm wrote

It's the river Cam, in Came-bridge.

Source, me, who is English and went to college there.

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SteamingHotChocolate t1_j1asp45 wrote

I have a friend from Lowell who says “Cam”bridge. Born and raised

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Suspicious-Cycle5967 t1_j1ev8l0 wrote

Low-ell, Low-ell, Low-ell, Lo- oh - weh -hel, Stuck in this traf-fic, On a bridge from hell.

I-ah left my house at noon, Class no longer on zoom, But when I graduate, I will still push a broom.

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rainniier2 t1_j1ddt52 wrote

Everyone here is probably talking about the same guy and no one has confronted him yet.

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officepolicy OP t1_j1deivt wrote

psst don't tell anyone, I've been going around say caaambridge for the past few years in preparation for this post

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bananarama9 t1_j1e411f wrote

When I first moved here I said it with a soft a and got corrected. Been saying it with a hard a ever since. I say go ahead and correct them, might be the only way they will take notice

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osksm t1_j1aock7 wrote

No

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Russiasucks_6969 t1_j1axyw6 wrote

Yes. It drove me nuts for so long. They moved away thankfully.

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-CalicoKitty- t1_j1b6yfl wrote

That's wrong and they should be ashamed, but I just realized that I pronounce it Cam-berville instead of Came-berville. Is this wrong?

1

dyqik t1_j1bueun wrote

No, it's fine to change the pronunciation when you mess with completely separate syllables in English.

It's the River Cam, in Came-bridge, in the UK.

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AstroBuck t1_j1b9cne wrote

I know one family who does it. It's fucking weird.

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camlaw63 t1_j1bm2gm wrote

You gently tell the person that they are mispronouncing it.

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cowheadcow t1_j1bszzs wrote

My fiancee does, but whatever.

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andr_wr t1_j1c3td8 wrote

Yes a few folks. They all were Harvard-affilated from other parts of the US. It was an intereting moment.

Some other unexpected pronunciations: Al-wife, Tray-munt, Leek-mere, and Putt-nam (like, old-school folks call Vietnam as "'nam")

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tiniestturtles t1_j1c6pbf wrote

Yes it drives me nuts. He’s lived here for 7 years now, in Somerville, and still calls it Cammbridge.

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Cormyll666 t1_j1cc9qp wrote

Okay, truth time: I did this the first week I lived here. I am originally from a metro area that notoriously says “soft A’s”, which is my excuse. I came correct as soon as I realized “wait no one else says this the wrong way I am saying it”.

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Alaharon123 t1_j1ccke3 wrote

I said it that way for a while before I was corrected. Now I pronounce it Cumbridge, like a normal person

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dahc573 t1_j1cwfdl wrote

Coombridge

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hamakabi t1_j1dfbm9 wrote

No, but I pronounce Bangor as "banger" and that really, really upsets Mainers.

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Cashcash1998 t1_j1dfo0w wrote

I’m not from here so I always did. Soft A makes more sense without any context

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geminimad4 t1_j1dhin9 wrote

I knew some students from France who pronounced it this way.

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FlorenceandtheGhost t1_j1dhpi0 wrote

No, but I have heard people call themselves “Canterbridgians.”

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Financial_Cancel1577 t1_j1dk0a8 wrote

You don't pronounce "jam" like "same"? This is gonna change my life.

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murdocke t1_j1e5njs wrote

I work in Cambridge and everyone I work with pronounces it cam-bridge. Is that not correct?

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officepolicy OP t1_j1e6fvg wrote

they pronounce it cambridge like jam or lamb? It is much more widely pronounced cambridge like lame or same

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Old-Spend-8218 t1_j1ekyvc wrote

Ya only complete loosers.. it’s Came & bridge bro

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Macbookaroniandchez t1_j1xluon wrote

i'm intrigued as to how your friend came (no pun intended) to the conclusion it is pronounced that way. Are they French or French Canadian, per chance?

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officepolicy OP t1_j1xm4jr wrote

Their last name is French but they have no accent whatsoever

1