Houston Pronunciation Guide

[ChuckTiller]

> As a side note, Elgin, the small town east of Austin is
> pronounced with a hard 'g'.
>
> HR

You are correct. When I was at KRBE in 1982, George Lester told me about that pronunciation. He had worked many years on the radio in the San Antonio area, before coming to Houston. We had quite a discussion about that one. Ultimately he agreed with me. When in Houston, do as the Houstonians do.

 

[oltheimmer]

> > > > Oh - and Umble - not "H"umble
> > > >
> > >
> > > I think the H was lost in a tragic accident.
> > >
> > Wasn't Humble named after the Humble Oil Co (which later
> > became Exxon, now ExxonMobil). Someone correct me if I'm
> > wrong.
> >
>
> You are correct.
>
> HR
>
The town was named for Pleasant S. Humble in 1870, years before oil was discovered. The nearby oil field was named for the town but the oil company pronounciation did not drop the 'h.' I grew up hearing ads on the radio for Humble Oil and Refining Co. and never having heard of the town of Umble and thought someone was pulling my leg when they told me the correct pronunciation of the name.

 

[oltheimmer]

> Tuam “Too Am”
>
Too AM or TOO Um? I've heard that one debated (on the air) several times over the years, going back to the 50s but I don't know the answer. Most people probably say Too AM.

 

[oltheimmer]

>
> So what's the most favored pronuciation of these???
>
> San Felipe .. I say "San Fuh LEEP eh" but I know many say
> "san PHIL uh pee"
>
> (I had a firefighter as a guest on the KLDE morning show
> once...and he said if you called his fire station and said
> your house was on fire on "san PHIL uh pee" you would see it
> burn to the ground because he did not know a street by that
> name.)
>
>
> Kevin Charles
In the early days, say the 50s and 60s when Paul Taft's KODA-AM and KHGM-FM were located just past what is now the Loop, the pronunciation you heard was San Phillipee; San Fuh LEEP a is a more recent pronunciation. We are a multicultural city and more aware of it and sensitive to it than then. Lot's of Hispanic place names have anglicized pronunciations as in San Jacinto instead of sahn ha CEEN toe.

I think either is correct and any firefighter, police officer or EMT who failed to respond to a call on san PHIL uh pee would undoubtedly be reprimanded, cause the Department he or she worked for a lot of bad publicity and get fired.

 

[ChuckTiller]

> Too AM or TOO Um? I've heard that one debated (on the air)
> several times over the years, going back to the 50s but I
> don't know the answer. Most people probably say Too AM.
>

I got that one from my father. He was born in Houston in 1919. I asked him while I was young. At the time he was working for UtoteM. We were cutting through that area on our way to UtoteM #63, which was on Westheimer. It's now an adult video store next to Numbers 2.

 

[houseeker]

> AND the name of the city Houston, when a local sahys it it
> is U STON.
>

or "Hooston" or even "Hoooo-ston". It's "Hyewww-ston".

 

[JarodF]

There's a Hooters spot running on 610 and probably 650 right now that mentions a Playboy centerfold or someone will be at a few different Hooters around town...one being the one in Humble. With the H being pronounced at least twice. It's driving me crazy!

> > > > > Oh - and Umble - not "H"umble
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > I think the H was lost in a tragic accident.
> > > >
> > > Wasn't Humble named after the Humble Oil Co (which later
>
> > > became Exxon, now ExxonMobil). Someone correct me if I'm
>
> > > wrong.
> > >
> >
> > You are correct.
> >
> > HR
> >
> The town was named for Pleasant S. Humble in 1870, years
> before oil was discovered. The nearby oil field was named
> for the town but the oil company pronounciation did not drop
> the 'h.' I grew up hearing ads on the radio for Humble Oil
> and Refining Co. and never having heard of the town of Umble
> and thought someone was pulling my leg when they told me the
> correct pronunciation of the name.
>

 

[oltheimmer]

> > it's one of
> those
> > words that's not pronounced like it sounds,

How's that?

>
> We DO need to compile it and distribute it.
>

Let me know as soon as it rolls off the presses and I'll hand deliver a copy to Marvin . (By the time you get all the Vietnamese and Mexican restaurant names in it, it'll run to several hundred pages).

The NBC Handbook of Pronunciation used to be a staple of radio station newsrooms back when I got into the business, when virtually every radio station on the air had a newsroom. It ran to several hundred pages of phonetic pronouncers of common and obscure words (because even Presidents can mispronounce words; see this site: http://www.pbs.org/speak/speech/beastly/).

AP and UPI and the networks used to send down daily pronouncers too, called 'Names in the News' or something like that.

They weren't always correct. Erroneous pronunciations were given for Bexar, Mexia and Refugio, for instance, and I think also Sabine.

In the back of the NBC book was an announcer's audition, a one page script of big words and long sentences that was supposed to test an announcer's ability to sound authoritative, even when he had no idea what he was talking about! In the days when it was difficult for a newbie to find a place to make an audition, your try-out at a station might be to go into a studio and read this script, with only a few seconds to look it over.

I find references to the book on the web, but not the script. If I ever find it, I'll have to post it here.