You say Colo-RADD-oh, I say Colo-RAH-doh. OOO-ray. YOU-ray. PWEB-lo. PEE-eb-lo. Which way do you pronounce Colorado’s tongue-twisting place names? We put the question to folks all over the state.
Coloradans say their place names just so, and get whipped up by linguistic interlopers and people who flat-out refuse to get on the word wagon train.
They’re irked by folks who say things like Ar-EE-ba instead of AIR-a-buh for the little town on the plains, or call the stream near Durango the FLOR-i-duh River instead of Flor-EE-da.
They’re annoyed when Denver street names are said ZOON-ee instead of zoon-EYE, ACK-oma instead of UH-coma and WINE-koop instead of WIN-koop. They flinch to hear the a-RARE-ee-ah campus name butchered as AH-ROR-ee-ah.
Some of the pronunciation problem lies in attempting to articulate place names that they’ve only seen written or that they know from other applications – think Zuni, Acoma, Arriba and Florida. But even excusing a good grasp of phonics, and acknowledging that people who live in the steel town to the south are prone to say their city’s name PEE-eb-lo, not PWEB-lo, the mispronunciations get some people’s goats.
“It’s kind of territorial in a way,” says Denver attorney and letter writer Tom Hill, 41, who grew up in south Denver. “The open space is gone, the clean, fresh not-too- smoggy air is gone, the cheap lift tickets are gone. You want something to hold on to.”
Let it be the tried-and-true pronunciations of Colorado’s place names, then.
Aaron D’Albey, a 30-year-old architect from Ar-VAH-da (not Ar-VAY-da, thank you very much), says it’s the newcomer’s obligation to learn the the local tongue. And that means saying things like West-MIN-ster, not West-MIN-i-ster, and YOU-ray, not OOO-ray.
“If you go and move somewhere, you accept the culture that you move into. You go and try and pronounce things the way they are pronounced wherever you go.”
Proof of his point: D’Albey salted his speech with phrases like “you betcha” and “oh yah” when he lived in Minnesota.
Cathy Trippett, who moved here from eastern Ohio 14 months ago, is trying hard, but there are a few linguistic landmines in her new home town of Greeley. “What about the word H-O-U-S-T-O-N? I say that HEW-ston, like the city in Texas,” she says. “But here it’s a garden and a family name and it’s pronounced HOUSE-ton.”
D’Albey and Hill both say they get a read on whether a person is a local from speech, even if the yakker talks without an accent. “The governor used to say Colo-RAH-doh and that was a pretty big giveaway,” says Hill of our bred-in-Texas Gov. Bill Owens.
When D’Albey was a student at the University of Colo-RAD- oh, he would respond to his left-coast classmates’ question of “What’s it like to live in Colo-RAH-do?” with a question of his own: “What is it like to live in Los OHN-geles?”
But shaking lifelong language habits can be tough. Janice Northrup, 67, says her father lived in Stoneham far longer than he lived in Missouri, but the old guy called the show-me state “Miz-UR-uh” until the day he died. “Of course, we say MIZ-uri,” Northrup says. “It’s the things you grow up with.”
Boulder folksinger Caitlin Shanahan, 21, who immigrated from Madison, Wis., a year ago, pronounces most Colorado place names like a local but can’t convince her folks back at home that she knows what she’s talking about. “I told people back home that I was thinking of moving to LEWIS-ville and they said: Don’t you mean LOUIE-ville?”
Still, Ron Kinnes, a 74-year- old native who was influenced by a teacher at Columbine Elementary School in Denver who thought Colo-RAD-oh sounded like someone pinching their nose closed, acknowledges that a lot of this debate is really tomatoh/tomay-to talk.
“Many locals will pronounce it BWEN-a Vista and technically, it’s correct. But most pronounce it BEU-na,” Kinnes says. “It all depends on what hat you’re wearing.”
Denver Post staff writer Dana Coffield is a Colo-RAD-oh native.
HEAR HERE
To get a taste of how Coloradans say their place names, we dispatched reporters all across the state.
FOUR CORNERS
KAREN KNOLL and CASEY EBERLE, stylists at Sahaira’s Salon, are La Plata County residents with the female, 30-something perspective on Colorado places names. Compare with pronunciations by 76-year-old MICKEY HOGAN, Durango native and proprietor of a Main Avenue fixture, Hogan’s Store, and his longtime employee JERRY POER. For the most part the four were in agreement. And while they acknowledge the local pronunciations of Puebloans and Buena Vistans, they don’t really approve. They say it this way:
Colorado: It is unanimous among the four: It’s Colo-RAD-oh, not Colo-RAH-do, unless you’re a rich, recently relocated Californian who also says Ne-VAH-da.
Pueblo: Durangoans have heard that locals there say Poo-ebb-low, or some three-syllable variation of which they’re unsure, but they prefer the Spanish PWEB-lo.
Buena Vista: Hogan says it’s Boo-na Vista, or Booney, for the locals. But Poer and the ladies think that’s just strange. They like the Spanish BWENA Vista or even BYANA Vista. Anything but BOOna.
Florida River: It’s Flor-EE-da. Not like the state. Unanimous.
Montrose: Mon-TROSE, not Mont-rose (which stirs some disgust).
Saguache: The ladies hadn’t heard of it. The men say Sa-WATCH.
Ouray: This one stirs emotions. It’s YOU-ray. Not OOO-ray. All four are adamant: OOO-ray is just wrong.
– Electa Draper
WESTERN SLOPE
Folks on the Western Slope tend to say their place names using proper Spanish language pronunciations.
NICK MASSARO, former 21st Judicial District judge:
Buena Vista: BWEH-nah VEE-sta (he gave it the correct Spanish pronunciation)
Arriba: Ah-RRREEEE-bah (he rolled his Rs)
Naturita: Nat-er-EE-ta
Pueblo: Poo-EB-lo
KENT FOSTER, bike salesman and outdoorsman, says one of his favorite phonetic flubs is hearing the town of DeBeque – we say it Dee-BEK- pronounced DEH-beh-QUE by traveling bike salesmen
Florida River: Flor-EE-dah River
Montrose: MONT-rose
Kebler Pass: KEB-lur Pass
Arriba: Arr-EE-ba
Cochetopa: COCH-ee-tope
LYNETTE JENNINGS, author and star of “Straight Talk on Decorating” TV show, resident of Mesa County, has her place names in good order.
Montrose: MONT-rose
Kebler Pass: KEB-lur Pass
DeBeque: Dee-BEK
Huerfano: HOOF-an-o
KRISTEN WINN, spokeswoman for Grand Junction, knows what she’s talking about including the correct way to say Berthoud (BER-thud) which is sometimes mangled as Ber-TOAD.
Florida River: Flor-EE-dah
Cahone: Kah-HO-nay (She knows
that’s not the politically correct pronunciation, but that it is the correct Spanish pronunciation)
Louisville: LOO-uh-vil
– Nancy Lofholm
HIGH COUNTRY
EDNA DERCUM, a ski pioneer who along with her husband, Max, cut the trails and built the lifts for both Arapahoe Basin and Keystone ski areas. She hails from Minnesota but is Colorado through and through since moving to Summit County in 1945.
Colorado: CALL-uh-RAD-o
Pueblo: PWEB-lo
Buena Vista: BWAY-nah VIST-ah
Saguache: Suh-WAHTCH
Huerfano: “I don’t know how to pronounce that.”
JEFFREY BERGERON is a Breckenridge town council member whose alter-ego, Biff America, is a wildly popular cable- TV host, emcee and award-winning columnist. But somehow, he has never figured out a way to bury his thick-as-clam-chowdah Massachusetts accent since arriving in Colorado in 1974.
Pueblo: PWEB-loh
Buena Vista: BYOO-nee VIS-tah
Florida River: FLOR-I-dah RIV-ah
Arriba: ah-RRRREEE-ba
Louisville: LOO-is-vil
Naturita: NAT-ah-REE-tah
Ouray: YOU-ray
Unaweep: YOO-na-weep
Salida: Sa-LIE-dah
Cahone: Ca-HO-nay
– Steve Lipsher
IN THE SPRINGS
GARY MOCALKINS, 43, a sales and marketing manager for a Fortune 500 company in Colorado Springs has never heard of the town of Saguache, but he does watch the way he says things.
Colorado: Col-or-RAH-do
Pueblo: PWEB-lo
Buena Vista: Bweno VIS-ta (not Veesta)
Montrose: Mon-TROSE
Ouray: YER-ray
Huerfano: WHARF-a-no
– Erin Emery
CITY SLICKERS
CHRIS ARNOLD, 39, is the corporate mouthpiece for Chipotle Mexican Grill, perhaps the most mispronounced restaurant name in the nation. Follow his lead: Chi-POTE-lay. “Not Chi-pol-TAY, CHIPOL-tees or the close, but no cigar, SHI-pote-lay.”
Colorado: Colo-RAD-oh
Pueblo: PWEB-lo
Buena Vista: BWENA Vista
Salida: sal-EYE-da
Ouray: YOU-ray
Paonia: Pay-OWN-ya
Naturita: Na-CHER-ita
Zuni: Zoon-EYE
Acoma: AK-oma
Gallapago: Gal-uh-PAY-go
Wynkoop: WINE-koop
ALICIA RODRIGUEZ, who grew up in Fort Morgan and has lived in Denver for a decade, is the Spanish-speaking receptionist at Chipotle Mexican Grill. Here’s how she says other Colorado place names:
Colorado: Colo-RAD-oh
Pueblo: PWEB-lo
Salida: Sal-ee-da
Ouray: OOO-ray
Boulder folksinger CAITLIN SHANAHAN has a heavy Wisconsin accent, but she can sound like a local when she talks Colorado.
Colorado: Colo-RAD-oh
Pueblo: PWEB-lo
Buena Vista: BWENA Vista
Ouray: YOU-ray
Montrose: MON-trose
Florida River: Flor-i-duh
Lafayette doctor HEATHER FLEIGE grew up in Los Angeles but her pronunciation is more influenced by her ability to speak Spanish.
Colorado: Colo-RAD-oh
Pueblo: PWEB-lo
Buena Vista: BWENA Vista
Florida River: Flor-i-duh
Arriba: Ar-EEE-ba, rolling the tongue
Mesa Verde: Mesa Ver-DAY
Huerfano: WHER-fano
SANDRA BARKHAUSEN is a Virginian of Cherokee heritage. Now she lives in Denver and says place names mostly like a native.
Colorado: Colo-RAD-oh
Pueblo: PWEB-lo
Buena Vista: BWENA Vista
Montrose: MON-trose
Del Norte: Del NORTY
Arvada: Ar-VAD-a
HARRY BARKHAUSEN’s family helped settle Denver, and his uncles a few generations back applied the gold leaf to the state Capitol dome. He works as an artist.
Colorado: Colo-RAD-oh
Pueblo: PWEB-lo
Buena Vista: BEU-na Vista
Montrose: MON-trose
– Dana Coffield
HIGH PLAINS
CATHY TRIPPETT moved to Greeley from the border of Ohio and West Virginia 14 months ago. She’s slowly learning her way around the Colorado lexicon.
Colorado: Colo-RAD-doh
Pueblo: PWEB-lo
Buena Vista: BONA Vista (“That’s the name of a town in Virginia!”)
Montrose: MON-trose
Louisville: LOUIE-ville
Ouray: OOO-ray
Arvada: Ar-VAY-da
Cahone: Ca-HONE
LINDA WIENKE (say it WINK-y) tends the stove at The Plains Cafe in Stoneham, but she’s lived on both sides of the Continental Divide in her more than 30 years in Colorado.
Colorado: Colo-RAD-oh
Pueblo: PWEB-lo
Montrose: MON-trose
Arriba: Ar-EEE-ba
DeBeque: Dee-BEK
Kebler Pass: KEEB-ler Pass
Huerfano: HER-fano
JANICE NORTHRUP runs an antique store in Stoneham and has lived 48 of her 67 years in the little town west of Sterling.
Colorado: Colo-RAD-oh
Pueblo: PWEB-lo
Buena Vista: BEUN-a Vista
Montrose: MON-trose
Saguache: Sa-WATCH (“But I don’t think we think about it being spelled like that.)
Louisville: LEWIS-ville
Ouray: YOU-ray
RYAN DOLLERSHELL, 11, was eating lunch in The Plains Cafe. He stopped to pronounce Colorado’s toughest place names – like the native he is.
Colorado: Colo-RAD-oh
Pueblo: PWEB-lo
Arriba: Ar-EEE-ba
Huerfano: HER-fano
– Dana Coffield
