What's with the pronunciation of Louisville by Louisville local media? (lawyers, live)

[lvmensch]

I grew up in Louisville though I left over 60 years ago and have been back only once. My mother who was a straight A English major explained it this way. There were the Louisville of class (or snobs if you like) The Baptists (or hillbillies if you like) and the Blacks...and all had their versions. And those had minor variants.

We went with the snobs and the Blacks depending.

And we had a good friend from New Orleans who could turn Louisville into a sentence.

[EddieOlSkool]

Originally Posted by tuckessee

I pronounce it lul-vul, as do the majority of locals here in southern Kentucky. Some will add a syllable and say loo-uh-vul, but no self respecting Kentuckian pronounces it Looey-vill. That's nails on a chalk board, and for all those arguing the correct pronunciation is that, history says the correct pronunciation is by the locals, not what General language declares. Those who think they separate themselves from the ignorant by staunchly refusing to acknowledge the mass pronunciation only further the argument that they are hoighty, probably annoying individuals. In Kentucky, -ville becomes -vul in the typical drawl, and the prefix gets blended into the suffix (Russellville becomes Russa-vul, Louisville to Lul-vul, Brownsville to Brownsvul). Even the most educated doctors that are native to the area still use these pronunciations. If lazy talk annoys you that much, and you are too dense to infer intelligence from somebody's nonverbal cues as much as their grasp of linguistic intricacies, then brother ya ought to head on up to some place like Wisconsin or Canada where you can bust a blood vessel making sure ea-ch sy-lla-ble gets com-plete con-cen-tra-tion or otherwise be misunderstood. As much as yall try to separate yourselves from the rest of the Commonwealth (save Derby weekend of course, when y'all try to do your best Foghorn Leghorn) you're still a part of Kentucky, and should try to take in a little of the culture rather than try to blindly steer a state's image in fear of being embarrassed in front of the rest of the country.

My friend you are the type of person I liked meeting in the metro. Most were like you, not the ridiculous pseudo intellectuals that make up the most annoying aspect of Louisville society. Keep on being you.

These same people will try and sound like they're not even from Kentucky when they speak. Their whole family talks like natives but magically they have some attempt at a generic Middle American brogue. Kind of sad honestly.

[lvmensch]

Originally Posted by EddieOlSkool

My friend you are the type of person I liked meeting in the metro. Most were like you, not the ridiculous pseudo intellectuals that make up the most annoying aspect of Louisville society. Keep on being you.

These same people will try and sound like they're not even from Kentucky when they speak. Their whole family talks like natives but magically they have some attempt at a generic Middle American brogue. Kind of sad honestly.

Actually the educated Louisvillian could do at least 3 and as many as 5 dialect presentations of Louisville. I certainly could. And so could my brothers and sisters. When I went to my last year of high school on Long Island NY I was swiftly dubbed "Rebel" for my accent. Though I could actually turn it off if I wished not to be a southerner.

So the variant you used was situation specific.

OH and my Papa was a Kentucky Colonel. Complete with the Governor's proclamation of his stature.

[flashfearless]

It's pronounced 'luavul' and that's the end of that story. If someone pronounces else wise, then they're not a native KYian in my book.

[slowlane3]

Those who don't like the city, say Lousy - ville.

[Ivory Lee Spurlock]

Originally Posted by Guineas

I grew up in Lexington and have always pronounced Louisville as "Lou-uh-vul" and always thought that's the correct local pronunciation.

But why do Louisville TV anchors and radio stations pronounce it as "Lou-ee-ville"? It sounds disturbingly weird, like an occupation regime mispronouncing local names. But then local ads come up, and they pronounce it as I do.

I think Lou-uh-vul might be a Southern pronounciation rather than local pronounciation. My family from KY and Middle TN pronouce Nashville as Nash-vul, Knoxville is pronounced Knox-vul, and they pronounce the community of Bradyville in Cannon County, TN, as Brady-vul and McMinville, TN is pronounced McMin-vul .

I think most any town that ends with the suffix "ville" is pronounced as "vul" , especially in the Upper South, or at least in the middle parts of KY and TN, it is.

[EddieOlSkool]

Originally Posted by Peter1948

Thank you for this. I watched an interview of her from 2011 on WHAS11 with Terry Meiners. Boy is she....weird and a remnant of Louisville's steep decline and brain drain from the 1970s and 80s. . A true southern bible belt type of lady. She is not in line with the Louisville of the 21st century. I guess she is a church minister in Evansville IN. That seems a fitting locale and role for her now.

Louisville should never be called Luhvul or Louavul. Its Louieville..named for King Louie. I would say the metro area has about a 50/50 split on this now, with many long time old timers, especially in the south side and south suburbs, calling it Luhvul and many others east, NE and in Indiana calling it by the historically correct pronunciation.

You're also the same one who claims the Northeast side people are mostly transplants. So why should the way they pronounce it be considered the norm? That makes no sense. And Indiana people all of a sudden have the correct way of pronouncing a city that isn't in their state?

All natives say Luahvul or Luahville or Luahvuh. "Louie" in a French accent isn't a native way of saying it. And "ville" isn't a French accent either bruh

[rmm0484]

Originally Posted by celtblood

Since Louisville is named for King Louis (Loo-ee) IV of France, there is only one correct pronunciation, and that is "Loo-ee-ville". Anything else is simply wrong.

Of course, one could argue that "Lewis-ville" might be correct phonetically, same as the local mispronunciations of Versailles and Paris. I have never understood how folks came to say "Loo-uh-vuhl". It isn't even close, and it sounds incredibly stupid, especially when television broadcasters and news people follow suit and butcher the name. These are supposed to be educated professionals, so we know they're one of two things... stupid or willfully ignorant. Either way, it sort of undermines any faith we're expected to place in their capabilities.

It hasn't always been this way. I know for a fact as recently as the 1960's (back when people took enough pride in themselves to at least try to speak properly), the correct pronunciation was heard far more frequently. I recall that in the '70's, local TV personality Ange Humphrey mounted a sort of campaign to encourage the incorrect pronunciation, and perhaps that caused it to spread. The bottom line is, while certain locals may think it's cute, cool, or some sort of "click" thing, to those who appreciate proper enunciation, and to outsiders who aren't impressed with locals who can't pronounce the name of their own city correctly, it really makes Louisville look bad.

Since city politicians are always eager to waste more taxpayer money on various projects, perhaps they should mount a new campaign to teach the general population (and most local TV personalities) how to say "Louisville" correctly. At least that portion of funds would go to a good cause.

I went to College in Kentucky in the 60's (near Lexington), and "Louisville" was always "Loo-uhvl" at that time, with the emphasis on the first syllable. There was no " ville," either, it was "vl." If you pronounced it any other way, you were an outlander.

"Versailles" was also "ver-sales," and "Paris" was always called "pear-is," never "Paree." Strangely, "Frankfort" was never corrupted into something else..

[hhwdavid]

Click on the loudspeaker

https://de.pons.com/%C3%BCbersetzung...deutsch/ville#

[EddieOlSkool]

Originally Posted by lvmensch

Actually the educated Louisvillian could do at least 3 and as many as 5 dialect presentations of Louisville. I certainly could. And so could my brothers and sisters. When I went to my last year of high school on Long Island NY I was swiftly dubbed "Rebel" for my accent. Though I could actually turn it off if I wished not to be a southerner.

So the variant you used was situation specific.

OH and my Papa was a Kentucky Colonel. Complete with the Governor's proclamation of his stature.

They can have a cookie, pat on the back, and still take this L because I too can pronounce it 5 ways. Doesn't change the pronounced name of the city whatsoever.