I recall Mayor Coleman Young pronouncing it as dee-TROY-it.
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This is basically true, but what does it have to do with how we pronounce words?
While the Wisconsin Border is technically at the same latitude, it is not the same line. Both use different meridians so if you extend the imaginary lines, they will cross.
Now back to the subject, learn some french diction and you will have an easy time saying the names of Detroit streets and places.
I grew up near Warren and Livernois.....I remember asking one of the older neighbors how she pronounced LIVERNOIS......her answer "Mother makes the LIVER...children make the NOISE." That was probably in 1960....don't know why something like that sticks ion my old brain....
Speaking of Houston-Whittier that street has always confused me. Why does Whittier suddenly become Houston-Whittier when you get to what I consider one of the most confusing intersections in the City of Detroit. That would be the Houston-Whittier, Hayes and Kelly meet-up. Growing up I never went over in that part of Detroit nor did I know anything about it until 1963 when I took driver's ed at Denby.
Here's an interesting one: "M-10" is pronounced "The Lodge".
on a side note i'v also knowtesed that Michiganites don't pronounce the letter t if it is at the end of the word
That's funny. I was in Ypsilanti a while back and I asked someone where the Ford was they said the plant is about 1/2 mile away. I said not the plant I meant the Ford expressway. They said what's that. I said it's the expressway that goes to Detroit. They said oh you mean I94. I said yes. They said why do you call it that.
Let's see, the mile roads run north from Warren, I think. Warren would be One, Joy Two, Plymouth Three, Schoolcraft Four, Fenkell Five, McNichols Six, then Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, then Fifteen Maple, Sixteen Quarton and Big Beaver, Seventeen Lone Pine, Wattles is in there somewhere, either 17 or 18, Eighteen Long Lake, Nineteen Square Lake, Twenty South, Twenty One is 59 and from there I believe we lose the grid.
Houston-Whittier is Taylor Road on 1893 through 1915 maps. It's Houston Ave. on some plats I've seen starting from about 1919 and on a 1930 map. I don't know when Whittier was added to Houston. The road that will be Whittier is on the 1876 map intersecting only with the road that will be Kelly, but the first instance I find it named is on the 1930 map where it appears to connect with the street paralell with and north of Houston, which is Alma.
So is Greiner GRAIN-er or GRINE-er?Quote:
http://atdetroit.net/forum/messages/...tml?1185499758
This is from the January 16, 1964 edition of The Northeast Detroiter...
"At one time, Houston-Whittier, or the Hessian road, was called Taylor because it led to a tailor shop on the corner of Gratiot. George H. Diegel knew the street well. Over eighty years ago he was passing Johannes Groll's tailor shop just as the angry tailor was chasing out a bunch of squealing pigs.
That I-94/Ford Freeway problem in Ypsi has been around at least since I went to EMU [[BBA 71). To complicate matters, you'd find some old head who would call it the Detroit Industrial Expressway.
And Windsor - some french is butchered, some isn't. Depends on our mood...
Ouellette - oh-LET
Pierre - PEER-y
Machette - MAT-chet
Langlois - LANG-loyz
Pelissier - pu-LIS-ear
Baby - BAH-bee
Drouillard - DROO-lard
And some of you might not realize that according to my 95 year old aunts, you live not in DEE-troit or de-TROIT, but in de-TROY-eht. That one seems to be disappearing.
Detroit - bro-ke :rolleyes: