News

Jun 14, 2023

Do you talk like a native? How to pronounce Raleigh NC’s trickiest place names

If you’re going to live in North Carolina, you can learn to speak the language,

If you’re going to live in North Carolina, you can learn to speak the language, no matter how nonsensical it sometimes seems.

It's one thing for your GPS voice to stumble around Raleigh — pronounced RAH-lee, without the Durham (DURM) appendage — mispronouncing streets and place names. It's just a dumb machine.

Humans are different; we can mimic regional idiosyncrasies so well that natives won't guess we’re not from around here.

Here are local pronunciations of some tricky names you’ll likely encounter around the capital city, especially if you attend downtown festivals and events. We’re not including the common mispronunciations, to avoid getting those stuck in your head.

▪ Avent Ferry Road: AY-vent (looks French, but pronounced like part of an HVAC system)

▪ Blount Street: BLUNT (like the proverbial instrument)

▪ Cabarrus Street: kuh-BEAR-us

▪ Carya Drive: CAR-ee-uh

▪ Dorothea Dix Park: door-uh-THEE-uh

▪ Duraleigh Road: DUR-uh-lee (just go with it)

▪ Falls of Neuse: NOOSE

▪ Fayetteville Street: FAY-et-vul (sometimes shortened to FED-vul)

▪ Hargett Street: HAR-get (with a hard "g")

▪ Lead Mine Road: LED (like pencil lead; there was once a graphite mine in the area)

▪ Lenoir Street: luh-NOR (GPS goes full Clouseau on this one)

▪ Mordecai Historic Park: MOR-duh-kee (like what you use to unlock a door)

▪ Person Street: PER-son (some are oddly tempted to invoke the name of a fruit)

▪ St. Augustine's University: saint uh-GUS-tins

▪ Salisbury Street: SAWLS-berry