Mispronouncing some Texas place names is a common occurrence, even among Texans.

So, what does a linguist say about why people botch the pronunciation of these names?

“Texas has a rich multicultural history. In addition to English, its place names have influences from German and Spanish and other cultures. When a word is borrowed into a language, sometimes it gets ‘regularized’ to be pronounced more in line with the other sound patterns of that language,” said Kyle Mahowald, assistant professor of linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin.

For instance, in American English we typically pronounce the word “filet” (as in “filet of fish”) in the French way: fill-AY. In British English, it’s often pronounced more like FILL-et, which is less similar to the French and follows an older English sound pattern. It’s not really that one is more correct than the other, Mahowald said, it’s just a matter of how the pronunciation developed over time in each place.

How to pronounce Texas places correctly

Here’s how to correctly say these 11 hard-to-pronounce Texas towns, according to Only In Your State:

1. Boerne: burn-ee

2. Waxahachie: walks-uh-hatch-ee

3. New Braunfels: New BRAWN-fulls

4. Burnet: bur-knit

5. Llano: lan-oh

6. Humble: uhm-bull

7. Bexar County: bear

8. Gruene: green

9. Amarillo: am-uh-ree-lo

10. Study Butte: study byoot

11. Marathon: mara-thin

Why we mispronounce Texas towns

There are more faithful Spanish pronunciations for cities like Llano and Amarillo that differ from the ones used by historically English speakers in those places, in which the “ll” makes an “l” sound. Without knowing in advance, it’s not easy to guess which one will be used for a given town’s name, Mahowald explained. Speakers who grew up hearing Amarillo pronounced to rhyme with pillow are more likely to say it than speakers who grew up familiar with Spanish and know the Spanish word rhymes more with rio.

Gruene being pronounced as green is likely the product of a long linguistic history, Mahowald said, involving its German settlers and English speakers they came into contact with. It’s not that it has to be pronounced this way: it is just because of historical happenstance and the way things developed. So, unless you have heard it pronounced, there’s no way to know in advance.

“These conventions can also change. If enough people pronounced Gruene more like it is spelled, then over time the fact that it was once pronounced green could be lost to history,” Mahowald says. “That wouldn’t mean that everyone was now pronouncing it wrong: it would mean the pronunciation of the word had changed and had become different than it once was.”

This story was originally published August 8, 2023, 1:23 PM.