How do you say Greenville?

[gs3]

The whole Clemp-sun thing really annoys me when people truely say it that way. When I first moved here I thought people were being humorous when they said "vuhl" or "clemp". I quickly learned. We will do what we call "country talk" when we are being goofy and say Clemp-sun, but to hear it from someone actually pronounce it that way in conversation sort of gives me the hives. There is a whole string of them when being goofy.....Clemp-sun (Clemson), Stimpsonville (Simpsonville), Hash-ville (Asheville), MAC-Bee (McBee), Mall-doon (Mauldin).

[crescentmoon]

Wow! this thread just touched on my pet peeve. Why anyone, anyone would pronounce it Green-Vuhl is beyond me. Do those same people when saying the word ville say vuhl? My other "southernism" is the word "program". I would venture that a majority of natives pronounce it "pro-grum" which is just silly. Gram is gram not grum. Okay, rant over. Yes, I'm anal.

[GVLbikeNboard]

I'm not going to argue anymore, but I will say this...My grammar is fine and I'm not lazy, and neither of you (Greenville or Sonrise) have any right to say otherwise based only on how I pronounce a word. And I'm a little pissed right now that my family is being considered lazy as well, because that is simply not true.

[RestedTraveler]

OK...here's where I'm going to become somewhat fastedious. Although it is a common misconception that it does, grammar has nothing to do with pronunciation. That'd be linguistics. Grammar deals with the syntactical structure and punctuation of language in sentences, paragraphs, etc.

[Greenville]

The whole Clemp-sun thing really annoys me when people truely say it that way. When I first moved here I thought people were being humorous when they said "vuhl" or "clemp". I quickly learned. We will do what we call "country talk" when we are being goofy and say Clemp-sun, but to hear it from someone actually pronounce it that way in conversation sort of gives me the hives. There is a whole string of them when being goofy.....Clemp-sun (Clemson), Stimpsonville (Simpsonville), Hash-ville (Asheville), MAC-Bee (McBee), Mall-doon (Mauldin).

[RestedTraveler]

In all seriousness, I heard recently (perhaps on here) that the McBees actually pronounced their name "MAC-Bee." Otherwise, I have always heard people refer to the street as "Mc-Bee."

[Greenville]

OK...here's where I'm going to become somewhat fastedious. Although it is a common misconception that it does, grammar has nothing to do with pronunciation. That'd be linguistics. Grammar deals with the syntactical structure and punctuation of language in sentences, paragraphs, etc.

[Greenville]

I'm not going to argue anymore, but I will say this...My grammar is fine and I'm not lazy, and neither of you (Greenville or Sonrise) have any right to say otherwise based only on how I pronounce a word. And I'm a little pissed right now that my family is being considered lazy as well, because that is simply not true.

[RestedTraveler]

By the way, you misspelled "fastidious."

[RestedTraveler]

I did not say that "vuhl" was lazy. I said that it is an incorrect pronunciation. How did this turn into people supposedly making value judgments about you and your family?!?

[GVLbikeNboard]

Bingo...

[linkerjpatrick]

Don't forget "Grr" and "Gree-ahh" for Greer!

[Greenville]

This debate over Sonrise's "lazy" comment reminds me of the scene in "Animal House" where the fraternity is on trial for breaking some rules. Otter's argument was:

"But you can't hold a whole fraternity responsible for the behavior of a few, sick twisted individuals. For if you do, then shouldn't we blame the whole fraternity system? And if the whole fraternity system is guilty, then isn't this an indictment of our educational institutions in general? I put it to you, Greg - isn't this an indictment of our entire American society? Well, you can do whatever you want to us, but we're not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America."

Sorry to delve even further off-topic. I'm curious to hear how others pronounce "Greenville."

[RestedTraveler]

I don't honestly feel that the pronunciation is a southern thing or a regional thing at all. It has more to do with who the original settlers were and from where they predominatntly came. For our area, the predominant original "new world" settlers were from Scotland. Have you ever asked a Scott to pronounce "Greenville?" If so, then I'm sure you're aware that they would pronounce it more like "Grlinvhul" than "Greenville."

As for "Nashville," I do not have any idea where the original settlers there were from; however, it's a completely different dialect in that area than it is here, so I would presume the original settlers were from somewhere other than Scotland...if I had to go by the current dialect of the region today, I'd suspect the first settlers there were perhaps French, who would put heavy emphasis on how they say "ville."

[linkerjpatrick]

This debate over Sonrise's "lazy" comment reminds me of the scene in "Animal House" where the fraternity is on trial for breaking some rules. Otter's argument was:

"But you can't hold a whole fraternity responsible for the behavior of a few, sick twisted individuals. For if you do, then shouldn't we blame the whole fraternity system? And if the whole fraternity system is guilty, then isn't this an indictment of our educational institutions in general? I put it to you, Greg - isn't this an indictment of our entire American society? Well, you can do whatever you want to us, but we're not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America."

Sorry to delve even further off-topic. I'm curious to hear how others pronounce "Greenville."

[Sonrise]

This is how...

[Galley]

Wow! this thread just touched on my pet peeve. Why anyone, anyone would pronounce it Green-Vuhl is beyond me. Do those same people when saying the word ville say vuhl?

[RestedTraveler]

Uh, RT, we're two different people. I said that intentionally mispronouncing a word was linguistically lazy, Greenville didn't. Do you guys say, Simpsonvuhl? Please answer this honestly.

[GvilleSC]

I only learned recently that those from Clinton, SC pronounce their city "clin-nin' without a T. Now that would drive me crazy.

[Sonrise]

What about Louisville, KY? I pronounce all "ville" cities properly, with the exception of Louisville. "Lew-a-vuhl" sounds better.

[RestedTraveler]

It's not me, it's the english language. There's a proper way to pronounce words and an improper way. Believe me, I've been working on my own mispronunciations for years. People, this isn't isolated to the south, it's nationwide,...worldwide. As I've stated previously, Boston, England and Australia have this God awful habit of putting an "er" on the end of almost all words that end in an "a". My sister inlaw, Mona, had a college professor from Boston who always referrd to her as Moner.

[GVLbikeNboard]

Ok, I honestly pronounce Simpsonville like it "should" be. I can't explain why I say Green-vuhl over Greenville (although as was mentioned farther back it comes out Green-vuhl when talking faster usually), but I do and that is that. So enough with the arguing, yeah? Handshakes all around?

[RestedTraveler]

Forget the handshakes. I vote for hugs.

[goodbye]

...It's not me, it's the english language. There's a proper way to pronounce words and an improper way...

[gs3]

It's not me, it's the english language. There's a proper way to pronounce words and an improper way. Believe me, I've been working on my own mispronunciations for years. People, this isn't isolated to the south, it's nationwide,...worldwide. As I've stated previously, Boston, England and Australia have this God awful habit of putting an "er" on the end of almost all words that end in an "a". My sister inlaw, Mona, had a college professor from Boston who always referrd to her as Moner.