Comments on: Answers to “Are You A Native?” Quiz

By: Jen

Jen — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:19:00 +0000

I am not so sure about the explanation of Throop being pronounced “troop.” In Dutch, there is no “th” sound as there is in English and two “o”s in a row are pronounced as a long o, like the o in “open”. So if you were to pronounce Throop using Dutch pronunciation rules, it would be something like “t’rope”. I dunno…

By: Alexa11221

Alexa11221 — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 14:54:13 +0000

@Newbie2: I have that book. Somewhere. I’ll try to find it.

By: BedStuyNative

BedStuyNative — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 05:00:28 +0000

Yeah, it’s May-Con, Noh-strund and definitely Hahlzee. I’m a native, see, ny name says so and everything.

By: Newbie2

Newbie2 — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 17:34:27 +0000

Babs: I thought macon rhymed with bacon, but my neighbors say MAY-CON (stressing both syllables equally)

Ed: I’ll find out about Stuyvesant. Where did you hear that it ran north?

Alexa: I know there is a book out there that woudl tell us, but I bet Putnam Ave. was named for that war hero. As for Nostrand, I say and hear NOH-strund.

I wanna play again, Alexa!

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 16:59:35 +0000

How about Halsey-
People from around there say: Haalzee instead of Hall-see, right?

By: Alexa11221

Alexa11221 — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 15:25:26 +0000

@babs – you’re right, it does rhyme with puut not poot, I need to be more careful with my phonetic spelling.

As for why–I don’t know. I grew up saying “Puhtnam” because I lived near Putnam State Park, named after Isaac Putnam, a Revolutionary War general, which had a cool statue of him on a rearing horse at the entrance (must take my son there some day).

Maybe it’s the Dutch influence again, like saying “Troop” and “Claw-son” instead of “Throop” and “Class-in.”

And I don’t know how to say Nostrand–GNAW-strand? NOH-strund? I’ve heard lots of variations.

Thanks everyone for participating!

By: Ed

Ed — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 00:51:45 +0000

Reid Avenue is Malcolm X Blvd. Does anyone remember when Stuyvesant Ave ran North?

By: babs

babs — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 22:28:29 +0000

I hear a lot of MahCON — as opposed to Macon, Georgia. Maybe it’s like Berlin, Connecticut — supposedly during WWI the pronounciation was officially changed to BerLIN to differentiate it from BERlin, Germany…

By: Newbie2

Newbie2 — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 22:05:03 +0000

I am surprised by “put”nam. Does anyone know how that pronunciation came about?

I have one for you, Jay ….. Macon Street. How do/would you say it?

By: JAY

JAY — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 19:36:35 +0000

WELL I GOT SOME RIGHT WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO DO ANOTHER ONE