54 replies to this topic

[BrooklynIRT]

Yes, Spuyten Duyvil means spitting devil.

How do most people, especially Canarsie folk, pronounce "Breukelen"? This word is still pretty prevalent, at least among Canarsie folk, since it is the name of one of the housing projects back there. And is the correct Dutch pronunciation (which may not necessarily be the same as the Canarsie folk's) BRUKE-len (BRUKE rhyming with "rebuke") or just BRUCK-len like everybody says "Brooklyn" in English?

[B35 via Church]

Yes, Spuyten Duyvil means spitting devil.

How do most people, especially Canarsie folk, pronounce "Breukelen"? This word is still pretty prevalent, at least among Canarsie folk, since it is the name of one of the housing projects back there. And is the correct Dutch pronunciation (which may not necessarily be the same as the Canarsie folk's) BRUKE-len (BRUKE rhyming with "rebuke") or just BRUCK-len like everybody says "Brooklyn" in English?

a female friend of mine moved into that dump a couple weeks ago....

it's one of three things you'll hear.... it's either Brooklyn (most common, 2 syllables, like how you say the borough name) or "brook-AH-lyn" (3 syllables)... you might hear brook-ah-lyne, but that's not common.... most hood cats will do anything to relieve themselves of having to say extra syllables....

^^ case in point, there's this one YT-er I listen to that's from bed stuy.... this is the only nzzzz I know that knocks off a 5 syllable term ("you know what I mean") to a 2 syllable word ("yah mean")....

yah mean?

Edited by B35 via Church, 09 May 2012 - 06:58 PM.

[Trainmaster5]

To all of the transit linguists out here I'll give you two subway stations in Brooklyn and leave it up to you to give the correct pronuciations. Schermerhorn and Kosciusko. I'll just say that different ethnic backgrounds and neighborhoods have put their own spin on these names in my 60+ years as a Brooklynite. Sort of a " Houston" Street thing or how a "real" New Yorker never calls Sixth Avenue the" Avenue of the Americas".I await your responses as I think VG8 probably knows the "correctt" pronunciations vs the Brooklyn ones. Dutch and Polish visitors to Brooklyn probably shake their heads when we Brooklynites speak these names.

[B35 via Church]

To all of the transit linguists out here I'll give you two subway stations in Brooklyn and leave it up to you to give the correct pronuciations. Schermerhorn and Kosciusko. I'll just say that different ethnic backgrounds and neighborhoods have put their own spin on these names in my 60+ years as a Brooklynite. Sort of a " Houston" Street thing or how a "real" New Yorker never calls Sixth Avenue the" Avenue of the Americas".I await your responses as I think VG8 probably knows the "correctt" pronunciations vs the Brooklyn ones. Dutch and Polish visitors to Brooklyn probably shake their heads when we Brooklynites speak these names.

Not saying these are correct, but this how I say those two: "skem-mer-horn", kah-see-you-(ska/sko)....
Nostrand is another one I've heard a million & one pronunciations of; the worst has got to be "no strand" (like, no strand... of hair)

lol @ Avenue of the Americas.... I'm not sayin all that isht....

Also, I don't know of one person that calls pennsylvania av, "Granville Payne av"

[checkmatechamp13]

RE: Todt Hill LOL... Yeah that's exactly why... No, with Mariner's Harbor it was the way the person said it. When said quickly it can sound like Manors Harbor. Westerleigh is another one... Some of the Latinos have a hard time saying it. Another Dutch word that is mispronounced Van Wyck... Most folks like to say "Van Wick" but it's "Van Whike".

Yeah, I know it was the way she said it. The funny thing is, I've actually seen some people write it like that online (but they obviously weren't familiar with Staten Island, and definitely weren't familiar with Mariners' Harbor itself). As for that woman, I still remember her speech ("They had to call the fiiiiiyah department to get me off the bus"). And then she started complaining about how it costs $20 to get from Mariners' Harbor to the ferry when there are 3 bus routes and none of them were getting cut. SMH. She actually said it pretty slow, so it's probably just a speech impediment or something. I would hope somebody knows the name of their own neighborhood.

But back to the topic, yeah, I could never see why people mispronounce Van Wyck. I mean, when in doubt, I just pronounce it the way it's spelled.

[B35 via Church]

But back to the topic, yeah, I could never see why people mispronounce Van Wyck. I mean, when in doubt, I just pronounce it the way it's spelled.

Can't speak for others, but I tend to say the two interchangably myself (van "wick" vs van "wike")....

Same deal with "wythe av" in Williamsburg, although I tend to stress the 'y' more, most times I say it....

Edited by B35 via Church, 09 May 2012 - 07:25 PM.

[Joe]

Paerdegat Ave

[checkmatechamp13]

Paerdegat Ave

I know some people who pronouce it "Patergat", but I'd pronounce it "Per-de-gat"

[Trainmaster5]

Not saying these are correct, but this how I say those two: "skem-mer-horn", kah-see-you-(ska/sko)....
Nostrand is another one I've heard a million & one pronunciations of; the worst has got to be "no strand" (like, no strand... of hair)

lol @ Avenue of the Americas.... I'm not sayin all that isht....

Also, I don't know of one person that calls pennsylvania av, "Granville Payne av"

It's funny you brought up "Granville Payne ave". I had a conversation with some of my elders last week and we all still say Pennsylvania Ave, Stone Ave, Sumner and Reid Avenues. Except for me they all lived on Kosciusko St back in the '30's and '40's and they all say " Kos-key-os-ko" Street, although mom says her teachers said it's " Kus-shoe-sko" although even her teachers never said it that way either. By the time I went to school in Brownsville and East Flatbush nobody I knew pronounced it the way her teachers said was right. I remember one of MY teachers lessons about Brooklyn and the gist of it was that everything from Fulton St to Broadway in Stuyvesant was named after a military person, place, or a patriot from the American Revolution 'til the pre-Civil War era. BTW in C/r schoolcar we had a motor instructor who told us about the pronunciation problems we would encounter out there on our own. NOR-Strand was the first one I heard back then, LOL, but Van Wyck, Ten Eyck and, for some reason, "Kennel" St for Canal St were considered troublesome back then. I wonder how some of these immigrant cabbies make it through the day if they and their riders can't pronounce" De Kalb" or" Canal", let alone "Todt Hill"

[Orion VII 4 Life]

The two I love to hear in Riverdale is "Kappock St" and "Spuyten Duvyil". So far all of the B/Os say "Kay-pock" st which is how it is pronounced. The "pock" part rhymes with "rock". For Spuyten Duyvil, I've heard the actual Dutch pronunciation which is... http://www.merriam-w...en+Duyvil+Creek. I've also heard "Spoytin" "Doy-vul". Depends on the person, but both are acceptable.

I learned how to pronounce Spuyten Duyvil from the announcements on an M7. Probably never would have figured it out otherwise lol.