[TMP] "How Do You Pronounce Wilkes-Barre?" Topic

And is there a gaming community there, or nearby?

Whats Wilkes-Barre?

wilks-bar?

Is it like Frost-Nixon, but about two people we never heard of?

I will assume, for now anyway, that the poster is referring to the town in Pa. wilkes-barre.pa.us Ah the Woodlands. :-)

Grimm

I think its pronouced "WILKS-BERRY". Is that up in The OFM's neck of the woods?

Yes, Oppiedog, that's right. Are you trying to bait OFM to turn this into a vast thread beyond any sense of reason or utility?

beetlejuice ?

Wilkes-berry?????

And Americans take the out of British pronounciation….

Throat warbler mangrove.

I've always thought it was "wilks-bear"

What you call it and what the locals call it are always different.

I thought it was always "wilks barr" (that's how it was always pronounced in western PA) until we moved to central PA, where they called it "wilks berry". So, if you want to sound like a native, go with the "berry".

Yes, the OFM lives fairly close to Wilkes-Barre.

Most of the people who live there pronounce it "wilks-BERR", with two syllables, the second syllable sounding like "bear" as in the big furry mammal.

Most of the people in the surrounding areas pronounce it "wilks-BERR-ie" with three syllables, the second and third sounding just like the word "berry".

The local gaming community, PaWM, covers the Wilkes-Barre and Scranton areas and environs. My house is an hour's drive from Wilkes-Barre or Scranton, sadly.

There's a Yahoogroup for PaWM, and photo galleries on my web site:

link

I live 6 miles from WB, went to college there (Go King's!) and in 20 minutes will be leaving for a Meeting there.

You can ALWAYS tell when some Johnnie Foreigner reords a commercial for a company in Da Boo. The "L" in Wilkes is always very clearly pronounced, and the Barre is pronounced "BAR". Ignore all such silliness.Take it from someone who has pronounced it all his life, and has conversed with the natives.Slur the "L". Lose the "A".

Closest that a keyboard can come up with are some of the following:

wilks barrywilks berry

*I* pronounce it "Wiwks Berry". "Wooks Berry" also works for me.

Oddly enough, Wilkes College (now University) gets the full "L" treatment.

Barr-AY is the town in Vermont, and they are every bit as correct for THEIR town as we are for ours."Barr" is just plain ignorant and to be laughed at.

No gaming convention, unless you count the 2 and a half hour drive to Historicon in a few weeks.We do have a local gaming club, though.link

Contact me off list at john_the_OFM at msn dot com

The OFM (as a native should) scores it on keyboard as I have heard it. When my sister worked for Wilkes U. I was told that was the "correct" enunciation.

Mark

I pronounce it correctly, like it's spelled.

The locals pronounce it much like "wilkesborough".-Kle.

OFM reigns on this one.

In Utah we have some doozies: Tooele = Two-ILL-uh; Oquirrh = OH-cur; Mantua = MAN-too-way, or MAN-ta-way; Duchesne = Doo-SHAYNE (unless you're an English emigré, then it's Doo-CHEZ-nee: the same woman pronounced Albuquerque = Al-buh-QUEER-quoo :) )

Yep, I always pronounced as Wilks-Berry, and I am from the area…nobody has ever thrown rocks at me when I say it that way.

"Send me to Siberia! Send me to Wilkes-Barre! But I beg of you PLEASE do not be sending me to Moosylvania!" – Boris Badanov

The crew of the fleet fueler USS Wilkes Barre pronounced it Wilksbury, but I'm not sure if any of them had been to the town.

Hmm. Folks I know pronounce the L but I grew up way south of WB in Berks county.

In west central PA, I've heard it pronounced both ways.

Back to the original poster, idontbelieveit: why do you ask? Are you currently in the Wilkes-Barre area, or will you be moving there soon?

If so, what sort of gaming do you do?

This reminds me of my French experience: I asked a Rouen denizen how he pronounced the name of his city, and he said "Raw" (with a throaty, nasal hint of something "G-ish" on the end. But a woman I met in Ponthieu insisted that Rouen was pronounced "Roo-aw" (also with the "G-thing" at the back of the throat): here we have not only radically different pronounciations, but one and two syllables?

There was also a light cruiser, the CL Wilkes Barre in WWII, the Big One.Its anchor sits proudly on the lawn of the courthouse.

Towns in Pennsylvania were always good for laughs on the Vaudeville circuit. Just mentioning Altoona, Scranton or wilkes Barre was always good for yuks.

There have been some "The Office" conventions locally, for fans of the show. The writers and cast love to throe in some local flavor. All the bumper stickers and so on you see in the office of "The Office" are real, as are the local references. After some "difficult" first season efforts, they have the pronunciation of "Scranton" down. the "T" is NOT pronounced locally. SCRAN-TON is another Johnnie Foreigner pronunciation. The "correct" pronunciation is difficult to render on a keyboard, but try "Scraaaaa-unh".

Here is a local conversation:"Jeechet?" (Did you eat yet?)"No, Jew?" (No, did you?)"Wajjave?" (What did you have?)"Haddags, 'n' caffee!" (Hot dogs and coffee.)

here we have not only radically different pronounciations, but one and two syllables?

In the town of Berwick, perhaps 45 minutes from Wilkes-Barre, there are one-, two-, and even three-syllable variants, each of course insisting that theirs is the "correct" pronunciation.

Berwick is the only place I've been where the inhabitants insist a "mango" is a type of pepper and not a type of fruit.

BTW, the town is named after John Wilkes, and Colonel Isaac Barre, one of whom is as disreputable a character as you could wish for.And the other is not much better!

LONG LIVE FORTY FORT!

I pronounce it "that goddammed stretch of I-84"

Rich

I-81, Rich. I-81.

Previously Wyoming, before Butler burned it to the ground.

I knew a woman from Wilkes-Barre who was descended from Rufus Bennett. She was absolutely amazed when I showed her a section from one of Eckert's books about ol' Rufus.

Isn't Wilkes-Barre a medical syndrome affecting muscles?

Thanks very much for the response. Actually I don't really care about gaming in the area, I just wanted to know how it is pronounced. But I figured that if I didn't put some gaming content it would be deleted as not wargaming related.

Yes, we Pennamites kicked the Connecticut Yankee scum out of proper Pennsylvania territory! With a little help from Butler and his Iroquois allies.

The Battle of Wyoming is one of those strange battles where the leaders on both sides had the same surname, "Butler".

My ex lived on Bennett street…

Dunno if how local I would be (approx 70mi south of WB), but We round here always pronounced it like "Wilks-Bar".

Find out what the proper pronunciation of Colonel Isaac Barre's name, and there's your answer. Luckily all the towns in my area have nice easy pronunciations (Easton. Bethlehem. Allentown). I have been schooled on the proper pronunciation of Lancaster. So any guesses on "proper" pronunciation?

Damon.

Find out what the proper pronunciation of Colonel Isaac Barre's name, and there's your answer.

"Locals", meaning those who live there…I live 6 miles away, went to College there, and have worked there. I am now doing Census address canvassing there, too!

The "proper" pronunciation is what the locals use.

I'd have thought being a census taker would've destroyed any lingering respect for humanity you might have had…-Kle.

Yeah, pretty much…

The first time I visited my future wife's hometown,we drove by an exit that read "Boliver". Any historical notions that the town was named after a liberator of South American countries were dashed when she told me that its called"BALL-uh-ver".

But I figured that if I didn't put some gaming content it would be deleted as not wargaming related.

OK, I think i could put a little nonsense into this as well. I was born in W-B, went to school from Kindergarten to University in Wilkes-Barre. i stayed up until my 39th birthday.

through that time i have heard all three pronunciations from natives: WilxBar, WilxBearEE, WilxBear, as well as some of the slurs previously attempted. As i have found, the 'correct' way to say it depends on the rest of the sentence and the lyric quality you are going for, or the level of education you are attempting to fake. assonance and alliteration!

in university, we went to Wilkes (pronounced Wilx), lived in Wilkes-Barre (pick one above, but NEVER forget the hyphen!) and called our selves the Wilkes-BARbarians

if one if familiar with the city, any pronunciation is recognizable as the place referred to; if one is not, right or wrong is equally a mystery.

currently, i live in the UK, Dorset for closer estimates. Now THEY talk funny! sometimes funny: HA HA; sometimes funny: WHAT?

Potato, Patato! Tomato, Tomatoe lets call the whole thing off. I myself like Norfolk, VA and Suffolk, VA as the natives pronounce it.

I grew up in Philly and it depended on the day what Wilkes Barre was called but mostly it was Scranton.

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