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How To Pronounce All Those Tongue-Twisting Traffic Names
By
Jamie Feldmar
Published Jul 1, 2011
Modified Jul 1, 2011
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By
Jamie Feldmar
Published Jul 1, 2011
Modified Jul 1, 2011
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Remember back in May, when a heated debate erupted over the correct pronunciation of the Van Wyck Expressway? Well, the fires have been further fueled today by the Gray Lady, who has a full rundown of tongue-twisting New York streets and their supposedly accurate pronunciations.
They went to their own experts, "native speakers of the mother tongue in question," to learn how to say Kosciuszko, Spuyten Duyvil and Goethals. A Polish consulate worker "blurted out something that sounded to [them] like “kash-CHOOV-ska;" a Dutch consul says "SPY-ten DYE-vil,” and the director of the Flemish Flanders House pronounced Goethals with a soft "g," in what almost sounded like "HOOT-huls."
Intrigued, we reached out to our own traffic expert, NY1's Jamie Shupak, to get her take on the whole thing: "I learned all of my pronunciation when I was hired right out of college at News 12 Traffic and Weather on Long Island," she said. "I was told that these were the correct pronunciations based on who or what they were named for. There's definitely a commonality amongst traffic reporters, at least that I've heard... it's the regular New Yorker that pronounces these differently (and from what I'm told, incorrectly).
So here goes:
1. Spuyten Duyvil: SPY-ten DYE-vil
2. Kosciuszko: Kah-She-Yoo-Sko
3. Goethals: Gah-thuls
There you have it, folks. We plan to tackle Van Siclen Ave, Zerega Ave and Dieterle Crescent at a later date.
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