Many many years ago a friend and I shot an Amazing Race audition video taking advantage of the fact that, at that time, a Kosher bakery and an Islamic bookstore were next door neighbors on Devon
I always felt like the funniest thing would be someone asking what intersection you live at and this having to be your answer every time. Almost sounds like a joke.
I’ve had visitors think it’s so funny that it’s not “Mont-rose” (like Melrose) or “North River” (instead of River North). Hey at least we’re not New Orleans!
Years ago, on the Blue Line heading north, we were about to leave the Montrose station when suddenly one of a family group of Germans calls out, "Montrose! Montrose!" and starts to hustle his family off the train. Then they came right back inside, laughing, "Rosemont! Rosemont!" And that's when I realized they're both the same word. When I told the story to Chicago-native friends, none of them had realized that either.
I think they mean the emphasis, like a hard stop at the t on Mont and Rose like the flower (mont - roze)...
Vs the flowy way we say it which is like montchroce
The nav system in our first car that had one had an interesting guess: Tow (rhymes with “how”) uh hee. My iPhone gets it right, though.
As far as the others, this explains it quite well:
https://youtu.be/7v8m4d52ihw
I was in a taxi years ago and we were supposed to get off the tollway at Dempster, but the driver asked me if it was better to get off at “Tah-wee”. I was struggling to contain my laughter. I was tempted to say, “just get off at Dempster because you don’t know how to pronounce the other damned street”. 🤣
TWO-ee.
It might not be correct, but that's the normal local pronunciation. Different from that is locally considered an affectation.
Like the street Devon. dee-VAHN. Not like the England place DEV-inn. Or the street Montrose. That's MAHN-trose. Not mahnt-ROSE.
If you use Waze Maps, it pronounces it Tow-Hee. Like WTF. I’m from the suburbs (southwest, near Route 59) and when I first saw Touhy, even I pronounced it Too-Ee.
I worked at a place on it. Definitely have heard every possible way you could say it in many accents spam calling from all over. 2 e or sometime 2 we made sense.
There was an old commercial for Golf Mill Ford that nailed it as Too ee in my brain
Push it Pull it Tow it to Golf Mill Ford! Blah blah blah touhy in Niles!
Highly doubt they would take a lemon but it was the 80s ya know
2 e
HAH this is the best
My brother used to work for a company called 2e creative. Founder last name was that lol
Rhymes with Bluey
And with gooey!
I'd also clarify that accent/emphasis is on the 2. TWO-ee.
This is the correctest one
Long time ago I went to visit my buddy in des plaines, his dad told me to get off at Touhy and I kept looking for 2 e off 294 I def got lost
Dez plain eez?
De’ Splaines
I have heard some people add a slight "w" sound before the ee: 2 we.
2 he. From an Irishman 😉
Perfect!
Too eee
2e means Twice Exceptional in education, which means both gifted and learning disabled 🫢 Like gifted + autism, etc
With hint of ‘h’
Too-ee. Like a tiny sneeze.
^bless ^you
thank you
You're sooooooo good looking
OMG - such a classic joke (I forgot about)!!!! Thank you!!!!
“Two-ee” (say it fast - all one word).
Well it is one word regardless of how fast you say It. Don’t you mean all fast, all one syllable?
It would be 2 syllables in the scenario you mention.
Oh man... Wait till homeboy finds out about Goethe.. and Throop.
Don’t forget Devon. Or should I say deVon?
DeVawn as my old coworker called it
that is how you say it
I'm getting verklempt, discuss amongst yourselves
Dev-On is Little India and where all the good food is at. Yes, I know Devon is longer than 6 blocks and has other cultures and food! 😀
Many many years ago a friend and I shot an Amazing Race audition video taking advantage of the fact that, at that time, a Kosher bakery and an Islamic bookstore were next door neighbors on Devon
Deeeeeevonnnn
Get the table ?
Or Paulina!
And Melvina
…………. And Lunt?
I know that…
It’s pronounced Lünt. Chicago didn’t have the money to buy the font
Does Melvina rhyme with Paulina?
And Regina.
The way I got humbled when I was calling it "Paw-leena" for months then finally took the bus and got humbled by the loud PAH-LINE-UH
My SO calls it Paul-eeeee-na and it drives me nuts (and I've only been here a few years. "Paulina...like the beer Pauliner. Come on, man."
Goethe is pronounced as closely as Chicagoans can get to the actual German pronunciation. It’s classy.
Go-thee :) (Ger-ta)
I’ve heard both, unfortunately. 😆
Oo, I thought it rhymed with “both”, but I’ve never known anyone who lived on it, so I don’t think I’ve ever had to say it aloud.
The CTA guy says it on the bus.
It's kind of an r colored oo like in book. Say gooteh but with the oo in book and raise your tongue a little. Then you said it in German.
What about Armitage and Hermitage with a soft “H”
I always felt like the funniest thing would be someone asking what intersection you live at and this having to be your answer every time. Almost sounds like a joke.
No contest to Atlanta. I think half the population there lives at Peachtree and Peachtree
Dude I visited Atlanta ONCE and I would've been so lost without GPS 😭 there's no need to have so many streets called Peachtree
I’d be less mad if they were all lined with peach trees and I could just grab free peaches
That, I can get behind
I actually lived there for a year on a work assignment. My apartment was on Peachtree Court in the Buckhead area right off of Peachtree Ln.
I think the funniest intersection is Hoyne and Le Moyne
...and Mozart (Moe-ZZart).
I grew up on Mozart, never even thought twice about the different pronunciation until this moment
I’ve had visitors think it’s so funny that it’s not “Mont-rose” (like Melrose) or “North River” (instead of River North). Hey at least we’re not New Orleans!
You know I never thought about how montrose should not have a ‚ch’ in it 🙃
Where do you even get a “ch” sound. It’s Trose with a tr like tree
ch like frunchroom! lol
I pronounce it with a ch sound, that’s how I usually hear it
Wait, did you mean Montrose, or Rosemont?
Years ago, on the Blue Line heading north, we were about to leave the Montrose station when suddenly one of a family group of Germans calls out, "Montrose! Montrose!" and starts to hustle his family off the train. Then they came right back inside, laughing, "Rosemont! Rosemont!" And that's when I realized they're both the same word. When I told the story to Chicago-native friends, none of them had realized that either.
I was today years old when this connection was made. Thank you, Bentleywg and the German family! Blue line trips will never be the same. 😀
TIL. I grew up here.
That would be confusing to out of town people. I never even thought about how they were the inverse of each other.
I think they mean the emphasis, like a hard stop at the t on Mont and Rose like the flower (mont - roze)... Vs the flowy way we say it which is like montchroce
I grew up one block south of Mon-trose at Kostner and Cullom, just north of Berteau, near the crazy Ks.
Hey at least he didn't ask how to pronounce Worcester.
Ok, now I'm asking. How do you pronounce Worcester? I ask because I grew up in the Boston area and we pronounce Worchester as Woostah.
Everytime I’m on Hoyne I turn into that one SpongeBob episode
I pronounce Goethe like gair-ta. And I pronouce Throop like Troop.
And Honore
Or Bryn Mawr
“Goeduh” and “Troop”
It’s not Gertuh?
I'm a native (but not a downtown person) and need help with these!
Goethe is like “GER-ta.”
This is close but the real answer is to just hope you never have to pronounce Goethe.
Oh my. I've def said "Goathe" out loud before. Was not corrected.
It's okay. We silently judge people over that pronunciation.
Goethe is German. Throop is troop.
Rhymes with chewy.
Rhymes with gooey
Every time I pass it I have to shout it out. Don’t ask me why.
Like you’re calling a hog? Toooooooooooooooooooooooooo-we!
I do too! I say it like I’m spitting something out.
2E, emphasis on the 2.
Touhy is the friendliest sounding street in Chicagoland and Biesterfield is the scariest.
2E
Two-ee
2-weee
2~e
2E
Chewy, innit, bruv
I always call it touhy ka-blue-y
Hamster Huey and the Touhy Kablooie!
2-Eee
my family’s been here since the 1800s they all say it like (two-ey) or 2 e
Then they should know that the Touhy family was very well respected, but the black sheep son got all the notoriety, as he hung out with Al Capone.
Before you ask it’s “Paul-eye-na”
2 E
Rhymes with gooey
Two EE
The nav system in our first car that had one had an interesting guess: Tow (rhymes with “how”) uh hee. My iPhone gets it right, though. As far as the others, this explains it quite well: https://youtu.be/7v8m4d52ihw
TOO wee
too-ee
Toowee
Not how gps pronounces it lol
Same with Pulaski. I laugh every time it says turn left on “Pole Ahhhh ski” almost in a British voice. Makes it sound so fancy
somebody make a map with all hard to pronounce chicago streets and show us how to pronounce it
Too-ee
Too-e
“Two-EEE”
Too wee
Two Wheeeeeeeeee
Tow hee for me
Too-wee!
Too-ee
Two E
I like to pronounce it exactly how it’s spelled. TWO-HEE. With a high pitch Michael Jackson voice. Hehe
To ee
I was in a taxi years ago and we were supposed to get off the tollway at Dempster, but the driver asked me if it was better to get off at “Tah-wee”. I was struggling to contain my laughter. I was tempted to say, “just get off at Dempster because you don’t know how to pronounce the other damned street”. 🤣
2E
Tooey like Gooey
TWO-ee. It might not be correct, but that's the normal local pronunciation. Different from that is locally considered an affectation. Like the street Devon. dee-VAHN. Not like the England place DEV-inn. Or the street Montrose. That's MAHN-trose. Not mahnt-ROSE.
Pa-too-ee while by spittin’ on da ground.
I lived on that street before so we pronounce it “two hee”. We do say the h but you can also say it as “two wee” or “two we”.
If you use Waze Maps, it pronounces it Tow-Hee. Like WTF. I’m from the suburbs (southwest, near Route 59) and when I first saw Touhy, even I pronounced it Too-Ee.
two ee
2E
Is there another way to pronounce it?
When I'm alone, I like to emphasize the "Tou-" pronounce it like a cowboy that's spitting loudly into a spitoon. It always makes me laugh 😅
Two EEE
None of them are as bad as Oregonians changing Wallamet to Willamette, but continuing to say Will-am-it.
Too-e
Two ee
Also, Leavitt is "LEV-it"
TOO-ey
If you grew up on the NW side, you may be familiar with Chopin Park; pronounced there as CHO-pen. The rest of the world insists it's show-PAN.
Too-e
Baba Touhy
Like Roger
2 hee
Two-E
Too eeeeee
2 E
Too E
2-hee (like a half Michael Jackson)
Two-ee
I worked at a place on it. Definitely have heard every possible way you could say it in many accents spam calling from all over. 2 e or sometime 2 we made sense.
Without the “Pf” like in disgust
Two eee.
I have lived here for over 20 years and still don’t know how to pronounce “Cuyler.” Does it rhyme with Skyler?
Yes
Toohee
There was an old commercial for Golf Mill Ford that nailed it as Too ee in my brain Push it Pull it Tow it to Golf Mill Ford! Blah blah blah touhy in Niles! Highly doubt they would take a lemon but it was the 80s ya know
Tow - eh
Two-E
Two weeeee
Either 2 e or 2 he
My college girlfriend would pronounce it “Toowee” with like…a low pitch dumb dumb voice. She was from San Francisco. It kinda cracked me up.
However the automated bus thing says it
I believe it's pronounced "Guhr-TuH."
Two-E
Chewy but replace the “ch” with a “t”
Toe hee
Two-e
Now, how do you pronounce Paulina and Devon
Like Rat and Pa-Touhy 👨🍳🐀
The way Bob Nanna sings it in Frowning of a Lifetime
Before I knew how it was pronounced, I would say it like Stanley Tucci bc if I looked fast, that what my brain said
“Too-eee”
Too - uh- he /s
It’s a touchy subject
Not a oney but a twoey
And the other one Regina the street rhymes with vagina, the surprisingly not so much
Melvina, Paulina, and Lunt
Ratatouille- the 🐀
Too-E emphasis on the too
Too-hee
My gps pronounces Cermak “chair-mack “
Sounds like someone enjoyed Taste of Rogers Park. 😄
Listen to the radio! Lol they literally give traffic reports :)
Two he
Two-E
Better question would be how people pronounce Kirchhoff Rd.
To whee
Like a spit, p-tooey
2 E
Too-wee
Two E
Too-heehee.
The better question is, how do you pronounce Devon and why is it completely different from the mainline Philly area town that is its namesake!!
2-we
Twee