How do you pronounce "Charlottesville"?

[spiderpig]

I've heard a lot of people say "Sharlvull" (not Cville), kind of like how Kentuckians say "Luhville".

[CurtEastPoint]

1. I have never heard anything other than the entire word pronounced: 'shar-luts-vil'

[Warpy]

29. That's the correct one

The people who say "sharlaville" are mush mouthed or lazy or both.

[Blue_Tires]

57. +1

I have a bunch of family there and have never in my life heard anything different

[Goodheart]

2. Like the city in North Carolina with a -sville added.

Nobody around here in Virginia I've run into has ever pronounced it the way you're suggesting.

[CurtEastPoint]

39. I grew up in Charlotte and people often confuse it with Char'ville and Charleston. FFS.

[WinkyDink]

3. Where are these "lot of people"? Never heard anything other than "Charlottesville," like it looks.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

4. reminds me...did you hear Dump last night? He said "formenting" instead of

the correct "fomenting"

[cwydro]

48. I heard that too.

He's illiterate, and the media lets it pass.

[NutmegYankee]

5. Shar - Lots -vill

Lived in that region of VA, though in the far more awesome in every way Blacksburg.

[LexVegas]

10. They are not in the same region of VA. nt

[NutmegYankee]

12. People in state considered them to be the same region (Blueridge mountain and valley).

It was sometimes called the "I-81" corridor for obvious reasons. UVA, VT, and JMU are located in this region. The Virginia Young Democrats used to hold meetings up and down this corridor.

This is as opposed to Northern VA, Hampton Roads, Central (Richmond), the poor as all hell Southside.

[LexVegas]

17. Cville is Piedmont. Its 45 minutes from I81. nt

[NutmegYankee]

27. I'm aware. Just East of Afton Mountain.

Which I once had a unpleasant ride on in fog. I eventually started taking 460 east west to avoid the I-64 grind down by the Peninsula.

Years ago I used to make hops to places all over the state for VYD functions. I kind of miss it these days. New England is so small and quick to get to places.

[obamanut2012]

19. No, they do not consider them the same area at all

Cville is 230-245 hours away, and is in SW VA, and Cville is in Central VA, the same as Richmond, which is less than an hour away on 64. To get to Blacksburg, you drive 45 minutes (on a good day) west over teh mountains to 81, then a looooong 2-215 hours drive dead SW. Cville is nlt at all on the 81 corridor.

[NutmegYankee]

20. Whatever.

The fucking VYD considered them the same region. And I'm well aware of the distances. I drove them all of the time. I lived in VA for 25 years.

[obamanut2012]

23. Not "whatever" -- I went to UVA, undergrad and grad, and don't care what the VYD say

They are wrong. You can't just say something is true when it is wrong.

I have many friends who still live in Cville and the surrounding area, and LexVegas, who does live on the I-81 corridor, agrees with me.

[NutmegYankee]

31. I lived in VA too. See post 30.

[LexVegas]

26. I doubt they consider it the same region. Its closer to Richmond than it is to Tech.

But what do I know. I was just born here and live on the actual I-81 corridor.

[NutmegYankee]

30. They broke the state into 4 major regions for organization.

There had to be meetings held in each region, so we in the "west" had to get used to driving up and down I-81 a lot. I mentioned the same region with this usage on my brain. I wasn't thinking region like a "general area". Old habit, My mistake.

[Alpeduez21]

11. Hokies suck. WAHOOWA!!!

[NutmegYankee]

13. I figured someone would get it.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

6. Family who live there all pronounce it Charlottes-ville.

[crazycatlady]

41. "ville' or 'vul'

Does it rhyme with will or full?


(I worked in SWVA in 2012 and they corrected this northerner with the vul vs ville pronunciation.) My dad went to UVA and he's pronounced it both ways.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

42. Will.

[crazycatlady]

44. Northern pronunciation :-)

[50 Shades Of Blue]

47. I don't know but I do know it's the home town of some of them.

[linuxman]

7. Lived right next to it for years.

Literally never heard it pronounced any way other than SHAR-LUTS-VIL

[LexVegas]

8. I live in VA and have never heard it pronounced that way. nt

[OldHippieChick]

9. 20 years in Georgia and

now in NC. Never heard anything other than the full Charlottesville. "Looavull" is a different story.

[Nitram]

14. I'm from Charlottesville, and it is pronounced Shar-lots-ville

[Alpeduez21]

15. There is a C'ville

and Albemarle county accent. It is becoming less and less pronounced. So, Charlottesville would be akin to the OP with some subtle differences. "Chahrlitsvil" all kind of soft and mumbly kind of. It's very hard to spell. Suffice to say I have heard plenty of people speak closely to what the OP is addressing. Like they don't say Larry. The r's are much softer. 'Lahhry.' Monticello has a soft c. So not cello like Yo Yo Ma plays but sello.

[spiderpig]

16. Thank you to everybody

I'm a news junkie and heard many reporters talking about "Sharlvull" like they had a mouthful of taffy.

But then I've had 30 years of Mr. pig who's from MA, and has fits when people mispronounce Lemminster, Peebdy, and Wooburn.

[FSogol]

18. For advanced Virginian, pronounce Staunton, Swoope, & Fries

[LexVegas]

21. Try Buchanan and Wytheville. nt

[FSogol]

24. Or Crozet, Weyers Cave, and Purcellville

[LexVegas]

28. Botetourt, Buena Vista and Grottoes.

[Alpeduez21]

36. My favorite is Roanoke

[LexVegas]

37. I live there.

[Alpeduez21]

38. I've only ever seen the

Grateful Dead in Ra'noke.
25 years in C'ville, now in Staunton. God I miss living in a blue territory.
Staunton is technically blue but Augusta county? OMG. The battle over changing Robert E. Lee high school's name is gonna be brutal.

[dgibby]

43. I'm in Clifton Forge.

Small world!

[NutmegYankee]

35. Galax

[obamanut2012]

22. easy peasy stanton

[NutmegYankee]

34. Let's see

Stan -ton

Swope like rope

Frees like Dumfries

[Tanuki]

45. And Taliaferro!

[L. Coyote]

25. What could be easier? Just like it reads.

Link to tweet

[NutmegYankee]

32. ...

[nocoincidences]

33. Henrico County

is the one that makes me nuts.

[CurtEastPoint]

40. But the REAL question is... how does one properly pronounce NORFOLK?

[Buns_of_Fire]

59. Easy -- about the same way you pronounce "Suffolk"

Just do it real fast and get it over with. Me, I'm still wrapping my head around "Buck-cannon" county, even after bring raised near Newpertnews.

[GulfCoast66]

46. As to your reference to Louisville...

Give the people in Kentucky some credit. At least they pronounce it somewhat close to the French pronunciation of that kings name. Of course back in the day Kentucky did have some pretty fine politicians such as Henry Clay who actually understood the French pronunciation.

Unlike the rubes in Missouri who totally Anglicized it.

[pnwmom]

49. I've lived there and heard it pronounced both ways. It's not like in Illinois,

where you cringe if you hear someone pronounce the final S.

[beveeheart]

50. When I moved to C'ville in the '60's from Maryland, the Realtor

kept talking about how great Shotsvul was. I asked my husband why we were looking in Shotsvul instead of Char-lottes-ville where we would be working. The realtor was an older gentleman born and raised in the area. In the 20-some years I lived there, many of the natives I knew pronounced it the same way.

(And don't ask me how I pronounce Maryland. lol)

[dchill]

51. "Nuremberg"

[GeoWilliam750]

52. I have heard "Louisville" reduced to one syllable

[torius]

53. just call it Trump's Waterloo

[Spider Jerusalem]

54. like it's written

but "Louisville" is "Lou-uh-ville" (that's how my Louisville-native grandfather said it, anyway).

[Abu Pepe]

55. Does that part of VA drop their Rs?

Shaaaahlutsville? Like in Georgia? Think Scarlet O'Hare/Jimmy Carter.

[Spider Jerusalem]

56. People in Georgia don't do that, actually

the only part of Georgia you're likely to hear that kind of accent from anyone under, say, 70 or so is in Savannah, and even there it's mostly among older people.

[Abu Pepe]

58. interesting

was it always a class thing in that part of the south or did everyone drop their Rs "back in the day? I live in East Texas and its a Gulf Coast/Mississippi Valley southern dialect (Bill Clinton, Elvis, Reese Witherspoon.)

[Spider Jerusalem]

61. More of an age and geography thing

the non-rhotic Southern accents are heard among older speakers and in coastal areas (Virginia Tidewater, Savannah, Charleston, etc).

And Bill Clinton doesn't have a non-rhotic accent either; his accent is what's generally called "Inland Southern" (see here).

[muriel_volestrangler]

60. Throat-Wobbler Mangrove

[HAB911]

62. shar-luts-ville

I graduated HS there, actually was once assistant manager of that ABC Paramount theater in 1967, seen in the memorial service.

[HughBeaumont]

63. Shallow V

[Demsrule86]

64. My Mom grew up there and I lived in Virginia as a child...we and all my relatives said

Charlottesville. My mom would call "Shrlvull" country.