Correct Pronunciation of 'Louisville'

[KMK]

In light of the NCAA Tourney, I thought it might be wise to consult the PB Southrons on how to correctly pronounce the city of 'Louisville'.

 

[Knoxienne]

I'm only a Copperhead, but I believe it's Louie-ville.

 

[QueenEsther]

Looo-i- (as in icky) vl (don't pronounce the vowels in the last part)

 

[LawrenceU]

Lew-u-vul where I grew up.

 

[AThornquist]

Why put all those letters if you refuse to pronounce them, Lawrence?

 

[VictorBravo]

Nah, it's not "Looo", but more like "Loy-vl." The "oy" is understated, not emphasized, if you can imagine the first half of the "Loy" syllable accented and the second half less stressed, you about have it. . .

Yes, I know, I'm a Westerner, but my Grandma was a native, and I have cousins. . . .

 

[QueenEsther]

Lew-u-vul where I grew up.

That would be a better/easier way to spell the pronunciation than what I did

 

[LawrenceU]

Well, on second thought let me try to write it out a bit more accurately:

Loo-uh-vul

That is unless we were talking about bats in my at the time baseball centric town, then it was Loovul; as in, 'He swings a 34-32 Loovul Slugger.'

 

[NDHSR]

depends......if you are in Louisville, MS, it is pronounced lewisville. Which I never understood.

 

[Glenn Ferrell]

Native Kentuckian here. It's

Lu-vull

 

[LawrenceU]

I really don't know why Ken is asking Southrons. Louisville is not really in the South. I know they want to be, but it isn't really. Of course down here folks get suspicious of anything north of Birmingham.

-----Added 3/18/2009 at 05:52:01 EST-----

Native Kentuckian here. It's

Lu-vull

What do you know? We had it right.

 

[VictorBravo]

I really don't know why Ken is asking Southrons. Louisville is not really in the South. I know they want to be, but it isn't really. Of course down here folks get suspicious of anything north of Birmingham.

-----Added 3/18/2009 at 05:52:01 EST-----

Native Kentuckian here. It's

Lu-vull

What do you know? We had it right.

Now we can argue about the proper pronunciation of "Lu" and "vull."

 

[QueenEsther]

So, just make sure you don't pronounce it like Lewis Ville or Loo-eee-ville.

 

[AThornquist]

Of course down here folks get suspicious of anything north of Birmingham.

Well now that's just silly. Come up, you all, the latitude feels fine!

 

[ZackF]

Lew-u-vul where I grew up.

I've heard it without the middle 'U' part.

 

[Curt]

Why put all those letters if you refuse to pronounce them, Lawrence?

Ever heard of Billerica, MA (pronounced "baricca") or perhaps Chelmsford, MA (pronounced "chemsfud").

-----Added 3/18/2009 at 06:04:33 EST-----

I really don't know why Ken is asking Southrons. Louisville is not really in the South. I know they want to be, but it isn't really. Of course down here folks get suspicious of anything north of Birmingham.

I had a fella from Mississippi come visit me one time. I picked him up at Logan airport in Boston and asked if he'd ever been up north before. he answered, "yes, suh. I was in Vagineeah once."

 

[Glenn Ferrell]

Two more Kentucky towns:

Versailles

Athens

How pronounced?

-----Added 3/18/2009 at 06:09:52 EST-----

We Kentuckians were considered defenders of the frontier on the remote northern fringes of Southern civilization.

 

[KMK]

I really don't know why Ken is asking Southrons. Louisville is not really in the South. I know they want to be, but it isn't really. Of course down here folks get suspicious of anything north of Birmingham.

According to the Civil War Page: http://www.civil-war.net/pages/troops_furnished_losses.html

Total Civil War deaths by state

Alabama 345

Kentucky 10774


Which side was Kentucky on?

 

[LawrenceU]

I was just joshing a bit re: Kentucky being in the South. That has been a debated issue for generations, even before the War. I gladly accept Kentucky.

Which side? both in reality. It was a border state and views ranged on both sides. Officially it was neutral. But, that didn't last long. One of the reasons that the fatalities were so high is that it sent a lot of men to both armies. If you check closely I think you will find that a great many of those deaths from Kentucky were 'irregulars'. There was a lot of partisan activity in both directions in Kentucky.

Alabama's records are incomplete. Many if not most of them were destroyed. There were, taken from field reports, a great many more deaths on the field than the official numbers compiled by Federal research after the war. You will find the death totals vary wildly in researching the War, for every state. But, especially the Confederate states. I was just looking at this for Alabama the other day. Numbers I found were 345, 746, 1,359, and 4,326. Those are the ones I can recall sitting here at work.

Remember too, Kentucky had almost twice the population that Alabama had in 1860.

New England
State Free Population Slave Population
Connecticut 460, 147 ---
Maine 628,279 ---
Massachusetts 1,231,066 ---
New Hampshire 326,073 ---
Rhode Island 174,620 ---
Vermont 315,098 ---


Middle States State
Free Population Slave Population
New Jersey 672,017 ---
New York 3,880,735 ---
Pennsylvania 2,906,215 ---

Note: In New Jersey there remained, in addition to the 672,017 free, 18 colored apprentices for life by the act to abolish slavery, passed April 18, 1846.

Middle West
State Free Population Slave Population
Dakota 4,837 ---
Illinois 1,711,951 ---
Indiana 1,350,428 ---
Iowa 674,913 ---
Kansas 107,204 2
Michigan 749,113 ---
Minnesota 172,023 ---
Nebraska 28,826 15
Ohio 2,339,511 ---
Wisconsin 775,881 ---


Far West
States Free Population Slave Population
California 379,994 ---
Colorado 34,277 ---
New Mexico 95,516 ---
Nevada 6,857 ---
Oregon 52,465 ---
Utah 40,244 29
Washington 11,594 ---


Border States
State Free Population Slave Population
Delaware 110,418 1,798
Dist. Columbia 71,895 3,185
Kentucky 930,201 225,483
Maryland 599,860 87,189
Missouri 1,067,081 114,931


Upper South
State Free Population Slave Population
Arkansas 324,335 111,115
North Carolina 661,563 331,099
Tennessee 834,082 275,719
Virginia 1,105,453 490,865


Lower South
State Free Population Slave Population
Alabama 519,121 435,080
Florida 78,679 61,745
Georgia 505,088 462,198
Louisiana 376,276 331,726
Mississippi 354,674 436,631
South Carolina 301,302 402,406
Texas 421,649 182,566

 

[Glenn Ferrell]

Which side was Kentucky on?

One of those 13 stars in the battle flag was for Kentucky.

When Kentucky's government would not secede, Confederates called a convention, declared the government in power abolished, seceded, petitioned to join the confederacy. They were admitted and had a government in exile for most of the war.

Kentuckians did not like the way families of Confederate sympathizers were treated and tended to be Democrats, electing former Confederates to state government and congress for the 50 years after the war.

Even today, conservatives in Kentucky are likely to be Democrats; not because they like Obama, they just didn't think too much of Lincoln, even though he was born in the state, and grandpa told them, “Never vote for a Republican,” but forgot to tell them why.

-----Added 3/18/2009 at 08:02:14 EST-----

Two more Kentucky towns:

Versailles

Athens

How pronounced?

Versailles = Ver-Sales

Athens = A-Thens

 

[Scottish Lass]

Yep, Glenn has it right. We moved here just under two years ago, and we saw shirts listing seven different pronunciations! But what you hear mostly from those of us who live here is lu-vull or lu-a-vull. Swallow as much of the middle letters as possible, and you'll be in the ball park.
We have church members from Versailles/ver-sales.

 

[Edward]

Georgia pronunciations:

Louisville - Lewisville
Cairo - KARO (long a, long o)
LaFayette - pronounced like it is spelled - La FAy ette (first a short, second a long)
Albany - Al Benny is close enough to get you safely out of town.

 

[TheocraticMonarchist]

The French named the city, so the answer is obvious. One must pronounce the name Louisville with a girly French accent.

 

[Rangerus]

Two Aggies are arguing in the car as they drive through Mexia, Texas, about how to pronounce "Mexia."

Ma-HEY-ah? Ma-HEE-ah? MEK-see-ah? One of them says, "Let's stop at this drive in restaurant and ask." So they walk up to the counter and one of them says to the lady at the counter, "Can you settle our argument? How do you pronounce the name of this place?" "And say it real slow, so my friend can understand."

The girl behind the counter looks at them, and then say's:

"Dairrrrrrry Queeeeeen."

 

[Whitefield]

I think Louisville should be pronounced ....

finnnnnnnal fooooooour.

 

[SolaScriptura]

When we lived in Louisville there was a t-shirt going round - you can probably still find it online - that had Louisville spelled out the 5 or 6 different ways it is pronounced. Everything from Lewisville to Looeyville to Luvul to Loouhvul. Fun!

 

[Backwoods Presbyterian]

No place has Pittsburgh beat when it comes to silly French names pronounced incorrectly. Baffingly however they get Duquesne right...

 

[Herald]

Everyone knows you pronounce Louisville as "loser" - as in, not going to win the NCAA tourney!

 

[KMK]

I was just joshing a bit re: Kentucky being in the South. That has been a debated issue for generations, even before the War. I gladly accept Kentucky.

Which side? both in reality. It was a border state and views ranged on both sides. Officially it was neutral. But, that didn't last long. One of the reasons that the fatalities were so high is that it sent a lot of men to both armies. If you check closely I think you will find that a great many of those deaths from Kentucky were 'irregulars'. There was a lot of partisan activity in both directions in Kentucky.

Would that be the same reason that Missouri's fatalities were so high?

 

[Whitefield]

Everyone knows you pronounce Louisville as "loser" - as in, not going to win the NCAA tourney!

hmmmmm "Loserville, Kentucky"? (adds that one to lullvull, etc.)