Are there any words that you pronounce in a way that seems weird to most people?
I've always pronounced the word "Southern" to rhyme with howthurn. I know most people say it like "suthurn" instead. I didn't realize that the way I pronounce it is considered weird until recently!
Living in Los Angeles as a white person, I refuse to pronounce street and city names that are Spanish the English-speaking way. Knowing Spanish since I was a kid from school and using it on a daily basis, my brain simply doesn’t butcher the pronunciation by default.
It’s caused confusion though for sure. I used to live near a street called La Tijera, but Americans pronounced it almost like Spanish “la tierra” which is a completely different word, and I couldn’t figure out where this street was that everyone was talking about.
There was a street in the town I grew up in that everyone called "Awkwee-estahh" . It was Aqui Esta, which is a cute street name, but if you pronounced it correctly no one knew what you were talking about lol
Maybe there's some vestige there but I asked upwards of 20 people and no one could explain it. Texas did historically have german-speaking communities and even cities, but I wasn't aware of any Dutch nor had I heard anyone mention it. It's interesting?