Have you ever wondered how to pronounce the name of a North Carolina county? Is Duplin County pronounced DUH-plen or DOO-plen? Beaufort? Carteret?
Never fear, because the UNC Library System has your fix. On their online guide, Talk Like a Tar Heel, visitors can listen to local authors Bland Simpson and Michael McFee pronounce the names of each county by clicking on a map of the Tar Heel State. Nothing could be finer!
There is also a handy phonetic guide prepared by John L. Sanders to accompany the audio recordings. Apparently, Duplin County is pronounced like DOO-plen. Also, it’s BO-furt and KAR-ter-et.
As someone who grew up in Mecklenburg (that’s MECK-len-burg) County, I consider myself fairly lucky: I don’t hear mispronunciations of my county name too often. But a little bit of me cringes every time I hear someone pronounce Buncombe County as Bun-COMB rather than BUNK-um.
So please, do residents of that fine western North Carolina county—and me—a favor: If you’re not familiar with North Carolina counties, go check out this online resource. Even in-state students can benefit from a refresher!
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