As I’ve been driving around the state for the last few weeks, I’ve been noticing a number of jarring pronunciation errors (generally with names of Spanish origin, but not exclusively so), and was wondering how these might be corrected, and whether I can do anything to help correct them. It’s particularly puzzling that at times the pronunciations are both erroneous and inconsistent.
For example:
- Junipero Serra Blvd (San Francisco) is pronounced with a hard ‘J’ and ought to be an ‘H’ sound.
- The city of Vallejo is pronounced “Va-YEH-ho” and ought to be “Va-LEH-ho”
- The cities of Modesto and Fresno are pronounced with a strangely heavily stressed final ‘o’
- The town of Salida is pronounced “SA-lih-duh” and ought to be “Sa-LYE-duh”
- Kearney Ave in Modesto is pronounced “KAR-nee” and ought to be “KUR-nee”
While “Kearney” and “Vallejo” might originally have been pronounced the way Waze interprets them, they are not pronounced that way by the residents of the area.
“Junipero Serra” and “Salida” are not pronounced correctly for either their origins or their current usage.
